Things you wish you could say to your boss, but never would

[Anonymous]

Stop taking credit for my work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Half of us are going through major life stress (including me) and are struggling to achieve 1/3 of what we could be in our job.

If you don't notice that fact, well, just forget I said anything. If you did notice, thank you for letting things slide, since I know you are traveling to Children's Hospital at least twice a month for your daughter.

Maybe we're all just trying to keep it together.

That’s something you should say. Maybe not that you’re doing 1/3 what you could in those exact words, but the appreciation itself and the empathy.

[Anonymous]

Learn to organize your thoughts and communicate effectively. Half the time, nobody has any idea what you’re talking about or what you want us to do.

[Anonymous]

Learn how to write emails that are succinct and sound like you know what you are talking about. Actually listen to your employees instead of just saying you listen. And overall it’s time to retire.

[Anonymous]

I’m a nanny and your healthy weight older teen asked me to hide the well visit print out from the doctors office, which lists her weight.

I told her I can’t do that, and then the teen started to cry and said last year when we got home and her mom (with an eating disorder who only eats once a day) looked at the print out, she said “wow you weigh 25 pounds more than me!!!”.

I told the teen I couldn’t lie to her mom, and if she asked about the print out, I would have to give it to her, but otherwise it would stay in my purse.

The mom never asked for the print out and I didn’t say a word.

Also, because you don’t eat food, your breath stinks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:let's say them here. I'll start:
I don't understand what my job is, I don't think you understand what it is, I actually don't think you need me at all and i can't tell whether i am good at whatever it is I do, or terrible, which i think is a sign that something is very wrong.
Also i highly dislike many of the people here who are somehow empowered to be absolute a-holes and i am shocked, daily, that no one cares to do anything about that.

Wow, this is spot on OP. Except I did say it to my boss! I capped the conversation with, I don’t think this place is for me and we need need to discuss a severance package. All I can say is, Trust your gut. And trust your gut on your next actions, you deserve better than what you are getting and you do have a choice. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

I work harder than you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think you were ever given the opportunity to learn how to manage effectively. So a lot of this isn’t your fault.

1. It’s ok to say “thank you” and “good job” to your team. You don’t even need to do anything else to start; just “good job” and “thanks”.

2. Yelling at employees is inappropriate, and it would be more effective to have a 1:1 conversation with the person who isn’t performing than to call a staff meeting to yell at the whole team, or send an angry all-staff email with the exclamation point.

2B. The exclamation point feature should be used extremely sparingly. Like maybe once a quarter at most.

3. Normally I roll my eyes at team building, but I have never experienced such a low-energy, non-cohesive group of people until I started here. Everyone seems miserable, and scared, and while not unfriendly, no one is working towards a common goal because I don’t think there is a common goal.

+1

I think we work at the same place.

Not to mention, there are too many people "managing" people - who don't know the first thing about managing anything, at all. Why are you getting paid to manage when you don't manage??

So many people conveniently checked out and not doing their job, while other schmucks are made to do things they were not hired for (and definitely not told they were hired for) - and most of you pretend to be blissfully unaware, because it suits YOU. Most of those who WFH are laughable, while you use the ones who come into the office as mules. So many people in positions that they have no business being in (hence the pretend to be blissfully unaware).

So gross.

[Anonymous]

You should pay more attention to your family. It’s no wonder your kid didn’t turn out. It’s a direct reflection of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:let's say them here. I'll start:
I don't understand what my job is, I don't think you understand what it is, I actually don't think you need me at all and i can't tell whether i am good at whatever it is I do, or terrible, which i think is a sign that something is very wrong.
Also i highly dislike many of the people here who are somehow empowered to be absolute a-holes and i am shocked, daily, that no one cares to do anything about that.

Wow, this is spot on OP. Except I did say it to my boss! I capped the conversation with, I don’t think this place is for me and we need need to discuss a severance package. All I can say is, Trust your gut. And trust your gut on your next actions, you deserve better than what you are getting and you do have a choice. Good luck.

pp how did this end up for you?
I have wondered about this but I cannot afford to be laid off - and can't even really afford to say this to them, though i wish i could - I am the sole breadwinner and I am paid a LOT, so every month that I am able to remain at this job is equivalent to about 6 mos at another one.

[Anonymous]

You were hired for the role because of affirmative action. You are clueless at your job and rely on others in your small circle of friends to tell you what to do. You take credit for others' work and participate in nepotism by hiring your friends to work for you and play favorites. You are in a public facing role but can barely do any public speaking, you mumble and look at the floor. You do not know how to compromise and it is your way or the highway. You are not going to be able to hold onto your job much longer. You felt threatened by me because I was better than you at the job, but I moved on and I am way more successful now than you will ever be.

[Anonymous]

You know and I know that you don’t like me because of my gender and the fact that I have children.

[Anonymous]

I really love working for my boss. He trusts me to get the job done and only checks in every two weeks. Frankly I do an incredible job and I think he knows it.

I’d like to whine and whine to him about my job. How frustrating it is. How bad others are at their jobs (mostly his peers who are all senior executives). But I’m not a complainer. I take shit from my team and shit from above and I deal with it all - yay middle management. I have a feeling he knows how hard it is. My predecessor didn’t do a stellar job and whined a lot. The other day a peer of his video called me and screamed at me for 30 min. Turns out she had her facts wrong and did briefly apologize by a chat. I wanted to have a boss I could cry to about that.

[Anonymous]

You are horrible at explaining how the work and what work needs to be done. If someone isn’t doing their job correctly, it’s not them that’s the problem, but you and your lack of guidance and oversight.

Explaining things should only take a few sentences, not ten minutes. No one needs or wants to hear your schoolmarm routine. Most people start to tune you out after a while, bc you never stop talking.

Stop thinking everyone is indiscriminately out to undermine you. It’s not about you all the time.

[Anonymous]

Stop trying to do things at 110% when it’s at the expense of your free time (and your health a family time). Also because it means that we’re all on the line for doing it at 110% and I’m not giving up my personal time.
Realize that overextending yourself at work sets an expectation for the rest of the team even though the empty words say to have a good work life balance.
Step back sometimes to allow others space yo grow. Talk less during meetings to give space for others to speak up.