Just got my butt chewed!

[sbkline]

Two or three weeks ago, I had a little down time at the office in the last half hour or so before lunch, so I sat at my desk and was doodling a list of things to remember to bring on vacation to WDW in April. I come back from lunch and see several things piled on my desk with little sticky notes saying "please do". I asked my co-worker, just out of curiosity, if it was she or Sue (the boss) who put that stuff on my desk. She said it was Sue, because Sue came by and saw my list and started asking my co-worker if there are things that they could have me do, if I have such time on my hands. So I was kind of irked that I can't even have a few minutes of dead time to doodle without the boss freaking out that I need more work to keep me busy. So a day or two later, I see her over there shooting the breeze with the ladies in the office. Not that I care, and I ordinarily would think nothing of it. But it kind of rubbed me the wrong way that it seems okay for her to have downtime to sit and visit, but if I have time to doodle a "to bring" list for vacation, she piles crap on my desk to do. It seemed like a double standard to me, so I mentioned it in the break room on lunch. Well today, two or three weeks later, she comes up to me telling me she wants to see me in the office and chewed my butt off because she just heard accross the hall that I said in the breakroom that she just stands around and talks. She was so upset she didn't even want to hear my side of the story and just told me to get my coat and go home for the day because she needs some cooling off time. She told me to come back tommorrow and we'll talk about it then.

Okay, sure, I shouldn't have said what I said, I suppose. But I do feel like I have a point. Why should she (and the ladies she was talking to) get to have downtime to do personal things (in this case, sit around and visit), but if I sit there and jot down a list of things to bring on vacation, she digs up all kinds of work for me to do? Anyway, I guess it's a good sign that she told me to come back tommorrow, and I can then explain what I REALLY said...because I think I was taken out of context. I never said she just sits around and visits. But I hope we can get this straightened out.

 

[maggiegrace1]

Well She is the boss....so you really have no right to question her...and maybe she was talking to them about work stuff..regardless or not...she is the boss and should not be questioned on what she does.

You work for her..

That is just my opinion..

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Sounds like your boss was more interested in venting than having a real discussion today. Hopefully tomorrow will be different. If you explain it in the context you did here, I don't think there's anything wrong with what you said.

And maybe you'll learn there was more to your boss's side of the story originally than just trying to find busy work for you. It sounds like both of you have been communicating second hand, which is never the best way to get the true intent of the other person. Maybe you can have a productive conversation tomorrow.

 

[sbkline]

Well She is the boss....so you really have no right to question her...and maybe she was talking to them about work stuff..regardless or not...she is the boss and should not be questioned on what she does.

You work for her..

That is just my opinion..

Well, I know they weren't talking about work, because the office isn't very big and I could hear the discussion. They were sitting around laughing and talking about things in their personal lives. Don't get me wrong, there's not a thing wrong with that and I ordinarily wouldn't care. And, I realize that she's the boss, but that notwithstanding, I don't think it's right to have one standard for yourself and everyone else (because she apparently thought it was okay that the other workers were laughing with her instead of working) and another standard for another guy who just takes a few minutes to doodle when the office is slow.

 

[tigsmom]

Learn from your mistakes.

Never leave your private stuff out in the open because you never know who will wander by and if you ever have anything to say (complaint wise or observation) do it in person, in private to the person involved.

 

[sbkline]

Sounds like your boss was more interested in venting than having a real discussion today. Hopefully tomorrow will be different. If you explain it in the context you did here, I don't think there's anything wrong with what you said.

And maybe you'll learn there was more to your boss's side of the story originally than just trying to find busy work for you. It sounds like both of you have been communicating second hand, which is never the best way to get the true intent of the other person. Maybe you can have a productive conversation tomorrow.

Hopefully. Maybe the co-worker who told me what the boss did/said, got something wrong in the translation as well. Like you said, we're both hearing things second hand and, as we can all probably testify, things tend to get "lost in the translation" so to speak when it goes through one or more people instead of straight from person A to person B.

 

[maggiegrace1]

Well, I know they weren't talking about work, because the office isn't very big and I could hear the discussion. They were sitting around laughing and talking about things in their personal lives. Don't get me wrong, there's not a thing wrong with that and I ordinarily wouldn't care. And, I realize that she's the boss, but that notwithstanding, I don't think it's right to have one standard for yourself and everyone else (because she apparently thought it was okay that the other workers were laughing with her instead of working) and another standard for another guy who just takes a few minutes to doodle when the office is slow.

Okay..I understand what you mean..
Just explain to her and hopefully it will all blow over.....
Good Luck...

 

[sbkline]

Learn from your mistakes.

Never leave your private stuff out in the open because you never know who will wander by and if you ever have anything to say (complaint wise or observation) do it in person, in private to the person involved.

Very true. You would think that the breakroom would be a place where you can express yourself privately to others, rather than making a scene in the office, but the lesson to be learned is that those people will go upstairs and share what they heard and there is a good chance that some blabbermouth will pass it back to the person being talked about. I should be better about talking bad about people anyway, and this is the reason why...it just might get back to the person and end up with hurt feelings.

I can just bet how it happened also. I work for an elected official, the County Clerk. I was expressing those thoughts in the breakroom at lunch, to another worker in my office as well as people from the Circuit Clerk and Treasurer's Office. I just bet that the ladies went back upstairs and were discussing what they heard and their boss (the county Treasurer) heard what I said and blabbed it to Sue when she came into the Treasurer's office this morning. She came storming back in and let me have it.

Like I said, I think I had a valid point, but I also freely admit that there is a valid lesson for me to learn from this as well, regarding "bridling the tongue" as the Bible says.

 

[ErickainPA]

I'velearned it's best to not talk about anyone or anything personal at work. Things get twisted so easily, especially when women (sorry ladies, it's usually true of us more then men) like to gossip.

I made a mistake of telling a coworker that I was offered a different job for someone that this particular place knew. (was a daycare center and I was going to take a nanny job for one of the daycares best clients) Well the head director got word and called me in. She said I would have preferred to hear from you directly than through the grapevine. They ended up having me float since I was leaving in 3 weeks. I left them after 2 weeks, because I was tired of the cra.

I was a manager for another company and if I doodled, would put my stuff in my locked drawer when I went to lunch or whatever. When the big boss would come in, he couldn't catch me doing anything I shouldn't.

 

[JustPlainBill]

Commenting as a supervisor it seems to me your boss handled the situation unprofessionally, no matter what you said or did. I'm not a hard or strict boss. If I observe a worker taking a little downtime i.e. talking to a co-worker or doing something personal, I won't say anything the first time, I'll check in about 10 minutes later, if the worker isn't back on the job, I'll do a fly by, walk past them to show I'm watching and that's only if I believe they're ' it. Usually they get the message. If I want my workers to respect me, I have to respect them as people, who are not machines. Certainly I have to lead by example, I can not discipline someone for something that I'll get caught doing as well. Boss or not, it's not right. As a supervisor, I know that I can't make everyone happy, and I expect that if I discipline someone that word will get around what a jerk I am, it comes with the job.
If I had been your boss and saw the scribbling and doodling about your vacation, I would have struck up a conversation with you and let you talk about it, I would have listened with interest, probably would take up about 15 minutes of my time. I certainly wouldn't have dropped a stack of work on your desk while you were away. My advice is to keep your head down till things quiet down, let your boss find someone else to focus her attention on, with your vacation coming up the last thing to do is to make waves. I've had bad bosses before myself, I sympathise with you.

 

[sbkline]

I certainly wouldn't have dropped a stack of work on your desk while you were away. My advice is to keep your head down till things quiet down, let your boss find someone else to focus her attention on, with your vacation coming up the last thing to do is to make waves. I've had bad bosses before myself, I sympathise with you.

Thanks. :wave:

And just to clarify a little, it wasn't even the fact that she put work on my desk, in and of itself, that irritated me from the get go. My particular job can get pretty slow and boring sometimes, and I don't mind being given work to do to keep me busy. I used to play on the internet all the time at work (on this site and another site) before this boss took office, because I was so bored. I don't want to do that anymore; I want to be more productive and feel like I am earning a paycheck and not just sitting around bored to death all day, playing on the computer. So I welcome projects that she might have for me to keep me busy. That wasn't the issue. It was what my co-worker told me was the reason for her dumping that stuff on my desk: the attitude that I must not have enough to do, so she will find me a bunch of stuff to do. If she genuinely needed it done (which, granted, it did need done) and merely wanted to delegate it to me, then that's fine. But like I said, I don't like feeling like I'm being singled out for being a slacker, only to see her sitting there visiting the next day.

Oh well, hopefully we'll both have a day to think about it and discuss it maturely tommorrow. She's really not a bad boss. Naturally, I don't see eye to eye with her on everything, but that will be the case with any boss. I think there's just been a sad misunderstanding here that needs to be talked out tommorrow.

 

[ErickainPA]

Your co-worker may have made it up too. Don't ever trust co-workers to tell the truth, just happens.

Since it's not really an issue that you got the work and want to keep busy, I would just let it go. I think I would just have asked who gave the work, so you know who to return it to when done or to let know its done. Finding out it was the boss I would have just gone up and said thank you for the work, I was going to come and ask for some when I came back from lunch.

Sorry you got stuck in this situation, but try to not it get to you, after all you still have a job and have to still work with these people.

Feel free to vent here when someone tiks you off there, its better than doing it at work.

 

[Disnut]

Good luck tomorrow.

 

[Tramp]

If you go in to the office with the attitude that "if she could do it, why can't I," you'll lose and you'll lose big time.

Don't underestimate the advice given by Tigsmom. You were wrong, plain and simple. Your boss could be the biggest SOB in the world but she has a right to question why you have so much time on your hands without ever offering to explain why she does. It's not up to you to supervise your supervisor. If HER boss saw that doodle crap on your desk, he would be within his rights to question your boss' management judgment for retaining such an unproductive employee. Never look like you have nothing to do or soon you'll be doing nothing.

I hope you learned a lesson about shooting off your mouth to co-workers who obviously weren't as trustworthy as you thought. Things have ways of getting back to the boss cuz there's always someone who wants to look like a hero to the boss by filling her/him in on all the office gossip, especially about them.

If I were you, I'd go into the office eating humble pie and find out why she decided that now was the time to act as she did. Something else may be up that you aren't aware of. Good luck.

 

[sbkline]

If you go in to the office with the attitude that "if she could do it, why can't I," you'll lose and you'll lose big time.

Don't underestimate the advice given by Tigsmom. You were wrong, plain and simple. Your boss could be the biggest SOB in the world but she has a right to question why you have so much time on your hands without ever offering to explain why she does. It's not up to you to supervise your supervisor. If HER boss saw that doodle crap on your desk, he would be within his rights to question your boss' management judgment for retaining such an unproductive employee. Never look like you have nothing to do or soon you'll be doing nothing.

In hindsight, I agree that I shouldn't have said what I said, if for no other reason than the fact that the Bible tells us about "bridling our tongue" and all.

But other than that, I disagree with your POV. IMO, you earn respect and you do so by walking by the same standard that you try to set for those under you. I don't care if she is the boss, if she's gonna get her feathers ruffled because I spend 45-60 seconds jotting down a list of things to bring on vacation, then I don't want to see her spending 15 minutes visiting and reading the paper. This "she's the boss" crap doesn't fly. It's a matter of setting an example and being a consistent leader who follows her own rules.

Again, it would have been better had I kept my mouth shut, as this is how feelings get hurt and rumors get started. You say one thing and by the time it gets back to the other person, they've heard something different. Nevertheless, I stand by my point: boss or not, don't get on my case for having too much time on my hands if you're not going to walk the talk yourself. Period.

 

[Main Street USA]

I have my own opinion about this situation, but I'd rather not get into it. However, I had to respond because I just happened to read this thread tonight, on the same night that I started reading a jokes thread in the Premo Lounge.......and found this.........ironic, huh?


Lesson One:

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw
the eagle and asked him, "Can I also sit on my a ss like you and do nothing?"

The eagle answered, "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below
the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit
and ate it.

Management Lesson: To be sitting on your a ss and doing nothing, you must be sitting very high up.

 

[scorp111]

Here's my .02 cents:

You are always going to work for somebody (unless you own your own business).

Whomever you work for has to think you are doing a good job and are a value for what they pay you.

The opposite is NOT TRUE. Meaning the people below you, don't have to see you as a valued employee nearly as much as they need you to see them as such.

Does that make sense?

Regardless, Good Luck tomorrow, as it is a rather petty thing it seems.

 

[ErickainPA]

Hope thing went well today.

Your boss didn't know you only spent like a min writing that quick list down, for all she knows you have been sitting there all day writing it.

I understand what you mean about thinking it was unfair for her to talk for 15 mins about nothing work related. At another job I worked at, I was sitting at my desk talking to one of the bosses as she sat in her office right in front of my desk. I got called into another bosses office and got yelled at for talking instead of working (I was working while I was talking with the boss, but they didn't want to hear it) This place was strict (only could talk to someone at your 2 15 min breaks, we all had to take our breaks at the same time) and I am grateful to be out of there. The other boss would stand around and talk for hours on end away from her desk, thus away from her work and it was about nothing.

 

[Tramp]

It's good to be the boss.

But other than that, I disagree with your POV. IMO, you earn respect and you do so by walking by the same standard that you try to set for those under you. I don't care if she is the boss, if she's gonna get her feathers ruffled because I spend 45-60 seconds jotting down a list of things to bring on vacation, then I don't want to see her spending 15 minutes visiting and reading the paper. This "she's the boss" crap doesn't fly. It's a matter of setting an example and being a consistent leader who follows her own rules.

I'm sure you've heard the old adage, 'rank has its privileges.'

From the military to the corporate boardroom, that happens to be the real world. You are going to be a very unhappy employee if you don't accept this premise. Everyone above you in the organizational chart has more privileges and more responsibility than you. Even the CEO answers to the stockholders yet he may play golf twice a week with business associates while you slave away 10 hours a day at your boring job. You are a smart, principled person but you are stubborn, much like a very young Tramp. If you don't like what you see, resolve to become the boss as soon as possible, either within your current company or another, so others can benefit from working for you.

Hope all worked out for you today. :wave:

 

[palmage]

Something tells me there's more to this.
I'm not being judgemental. I'm just saying that only hearing one side of any story does not make a full story.
Your boss blew a gasket for a reason (right or wrong).
Important lesson:
Don't diss the boss in front of anybody, office politics can be bloody.

Good luck with things.