Are you driving your boss crazy?
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My milk crate overflows
I’ve covered the workplace from all its angles and bends. After all, I’m an employee myself. I work for a living, and have since I was fifteen. I’ve even been an employer, subcontracting out work for various projects. As a business journalist, I’ve interviewed hundreds of top managers and workplace experts. I’ve heard from readers of my syndicated newspaper column on workplace issues over the years who ask me everything from how they can get along better with co-workers to what color they should paint the spare bedroom in their house.
When I was mulling over the writing of this book, I put a plastic milk crate under my desk. I thought I would place in it anything I found that showed me folks in the workplace just weren’t getting it and were making some real career blunders over and over. In a couple of months that milk crate was overflowing. Surveys, news clippings, and research reports were piled to the top.
One of the reports showed that the CEO of Boeing Co., Harry C. Stonecipher, was forced to resign after his romantic affair with a female executive was discovered. Stonecipher, who was married, was brought on board to help re-establish the global reputation of the company. Written communications at work from Stonecipher to the woman confirmed that an affair was ongoing.
Another newspaper clipping showed that Jeremy Wright, who sold the first blog, the Google IPO, and Lemmings Online, was fired for blogging on the job. When I consulted his blog I found that he had written that he was fired for “divulging company secrets in a private space.”
OK, so it became pretty darn clear to me that if some of the most highly trained, experienced employees were still screwing up, then there had to be plenty of others. I started to think about why mistakes were being made, and began to see a picture emerge: employees and their bosses simply were not on the same page — and some didn’t even appear to be in the same book.
Based on interviews with hundreds of people in the workplace over the years, I believe part of the problem is that employees often have the mindset that since “everyone” spends time goofing off at work, or that “everyone” gossips or that “everyone” is rude these days — so it’s really OK to do those things. The boss doesn’t really care since “everyone” does it, the thinking seems to be.
But the truth is, the boss does care, and he believes employees should too. He further believes that correct behavior should be a given in the workplace. He doesn’t believe he should have to lecture or cajole employees into behaving properly — he’s not your teacher or your friend or your family. He is your boss, and, you are the employee. When your behavior shows that you don’t get that — well, it drives him crazy.
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