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Bosses.
Most
of us have them. Some of us are them. Some are at the same time both bosses to
their subordinates (read underlings) and are subordinates themselves
(read middle management) to their bosses. Some (read the poorest
damned bastards of all) reports to more than one boss at any given time.
They
come with different names. CEOs, CFOs, Directors, Partners, Senior Managers,
Head of Departments, Supervisors; but whatever their title may be, one thing is
for sure: This is a select group of people who can make your life at work
either a living hell hole, the paradise of Adam and Eve or anywhere in between.
The
general belief is that only people of certain leadership caliber will be gain
promotion to a position which puts them in charge of other people in an office,
and to certain but progressively diminishing degree, this remains true.
However, somewhere along the line, when people started rewarding borderline
unethical behavior, passive aggressiveness, and Machiavellian office politic maneuvering
to forward their own agenda, those with basic human decency started dropping
out or was forced out of the corporate rat race, and those who have no qualms
about asking about your pet dog Fifi, while concurrently plotting your downfall
in his mind, ascended to positions of leadership.
The
strange thing is, most of the bosses who are feared and loathed in office due
to some flaws in their personalities, are actually quite nice, or at least
normal, people out of the office. Men and women who are loved by their family
and friends and are held in high regard among their community, suddenly mutates
without reason into the worst versions of themselves when they step on the dull
stained carpets of their offices.
The
simplest example of bosses who could do with a little introspection, are those
who sees expressions of gratitude or appreciation for their subordinates'
effort as some deformed interpretation of weakness. Why teach pre-school
children manners such as saying "please" and "thank you"
when their parents are not doing the same in the office? The epidemic of this
reluctance to say a simple "thank you" at the end of a meeting or
discussion has reach such worrying levels that a boss who does utter these two
words are often cited (albeit in hushed tones) as exemplary, when instead this
should be the sort of normal behavior one would expect from a leader of an organization.
Rare
also is the boss who maintains eye contacts with their employees while in a
conversation with the latter. Some bosses attempts to intimidate their staff by
not acknowledging the presence of a staff sitting in front of them, all the
while giving instructions and not tearing his or her eyes away from the
computer monitor.
Ajahn
Brahm, a Buddhist monk, said in his book that "the person who is most important
to you is the person who is in front of you right now". No matter who the
person is, or what station in life is he is compared to you, if you give them
the attention and attentiveness that is required, you will gain the respect and
admiration of the person that you are currently engaged in. If you allow
yourself to be constantly distracted, you will convey the message that he or
she is not worth the time spent talking to them.
Which
brings us to my next point.
Respect Other People's Time
You
make an appointment with them. You wait outside their offices patiently waiting
for your allotted time with them. Yet, when the time comes, suddenly something
more important than you crops up and you are forced to reschedule.
Another
example. You want to make an appointment. He makes you wait. And you wait till
midnight, and that's when he says he will see you, and you know you aren't
going to leave the office till the first break of dawn.
One
more. You are having dinner with your family or friends. Suddenly, your
Blackberry vibrates and you can see the dreaded red light blinking. You take
your phone out of the casing and read an email from your boss asking you to
call him right at this very moment for a very "important" discussion.
A boss
may be gracious and humble to the core, but if he does not understand that his
subordinates have a life beyond the office walls, and he expects that everyone
under his line of management is to be beholden to his Outlook calendar, he has
failed as a leader.
While
having a good work ethic is instrumental in leading any organization, working
late into the night or early mornings is usually an indication of poor time
management skills.
Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say
Lying
and hypocrisy used to be vices which are frowned upon by society. In the modern
workplace environment, however, one can observe the rise of such traits amongst
those who shove and elbows their way up the corporate ladder.
When
one has been reached the pinnacle of their careers by such means, they will
resort to such behaviors to remain there. Integrity is just a management
buzzword that is spoken but not demonstrated through action. Such a pity. When
the subordinates see the upsides such behaviors have on their bosses career,
even the most idealistic of employees will raise their hands in defeat, and
succumb to either the same behavioral trend, or as mentioned earlier, leave the
organization. In the end, a company will be left with a culture not based on
integrity, honesty and trust, but one which is toxic and will ultimately harm
company a great deal in the long run.
Undiagnosed Bipolar Disorder
People
who have bosses who are perpetually in a grumpy or foul mood is actually
luckier than those who work for a boss with extreme mood swings. Unpredictable
with how they might response to any given situation, employees often face
extreme stress in having to interact with such bosses.
When
a boss can buy donuts for everyone in the office in the morning, and yet scream
at half the workforce just because his coffee was weak, right before lunch, you
can be certain that there aren't many people who would be queuing up to work
for him.
Such
a situation will inevitably lead to the staff preferring to avoid the boss, to
the detriment of teamwork and collaboration in an organization.
No Matter How Unlikely It May Seem, Bosses Are Human Beings Too,
Like Us
In
spite of the above, it will also serve us well if we remember that our bosses
are nonetheless sentient beings with emotions and feelings - and although I
have met my fair share of the boss from the deepest pits of Satan's dungeons -
not all are hell bent on bringing misery and anguish to our working life.
Sometimes
we afford our bosses too much leeway in the way they treat us. We put them on a
pedestal surrounded by crocodile infested moats, and we fear them more they
deserve to be feared.
Bosses.
Most of us have them. Some of us are them. Whichever side of the wall you sit
in the office, and whatever title may be engraved on your desk (or pasted on a
piece of paper on your cubicle partition), we all end up on the same side of
the ground in the end, with the same carvings on a tombstone. So why not be
nicer to each other while we still can?
