Who’s the Boss?
April 7, 2005
No matter what your position at work, you always have a boss. Corporate CEOs have to answer to stockholders… private business owners have to answer to laws, regulations, and the IRS. Most business in general are supposed to answer to their customers, but not all of them do (read: waiting for 2 hours at Wal-Mart for an oil change because everyone decided to go on break despite the fact that there were 20 people in line… only at Wal-Mart).
There is a hierarchy at my employer. A very intricate one if you go all the way up to the top. Even at my location, 5 of the 20 or so employees are considered management. About half of those 20 or so employees are within their first six months of employment and, of that half, five or so are within their first two weeks (massive hiring spree… it’s always a bitch).
I was talking to one of those “in the first six months of employment” people last night when two of the “in the first two weeks of employment” people came up to us. The six-monther proceeded to begin dishing out orders and directions to the two-weekers, who eagerly listened and began to comply. I had heard rumors that this particular six-monther was a bit on the bossy side, but this was the first time I’d seen it in person. I turned to her and said, and I quote: “ya know… some people don’t really like being bossed around like that”… to which she replied: “I know… but I told them if I ever get too bossy to just tell me”.
For starters, all of these people hold the same position. Granted, the one has been around a tiny bit longer… but other than that, they are technically equals at work. Some of the people who’ve told me about this particular bossy-butt are not new hires either… some of them have been around for years… one of them was actually Ms. Bossy-butt’s boss.
It got me thinking: Who has power over us? Why do some people allow others to dominate them? Who’s the boss?
It’s difficult to escape having someone above you when it comes to work. That’s just the way corporate America works. But when someone who isn’t actually above you at work is allowed to dictate your actions to you, there’s something else at play. It’s not just a work-related thing. It’s a personality characteristic… or a behavioral flaw… something…
I think we choose who to grant control of our lives to. Bits and pieces of what we do are given to other people to decide for us. Ideally, we should control our own lives. But many people apparently don’t have the confidence or the ability to do so. They allow other people to push their faces down in the mud and crawl up on top (how’s the mud taste today?). As they choke and gag on the decisions they’ve left to others, the person doing the crawling gains confidence in their ability to feed ground-slop to others.
One person’s confidence wanes as other person’s bloats. It’s a vicious cycle.
Having made his or her way on top of yet another weakling, our dominator seeks out the next target with renewed confidence and vigor. Each new victim represents another challenge… and so stronger and stronger targets are chosen until one day we awake to find a monster with a super ego and the balls to back it up.
I say we kick the monster in those balls now… while they’re still small enough to be affected by our tiny mortal feet…
Posted in Advice, Human Nature
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April 8th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Hmmm…I have to think about this one. Wait a minute, did I just see you talking about me in your 3rd paragraph???!!!
I can say that I am in a very similar position as this bossy-butt. I’m pretty much expected by my boss to handout work to the newbies equal to me. At times I even handout work to people above me when the workload is high. Why me? I asked my boss this question. The reply from my boss was because of the responsibility and the organizational skills that is required. Have you ever noticed that some people will not automatically pick up work or help others even when they know help is needed and they have nothing to do? Luckily I work with a few of the best co-workers in the world. They know when help is needed and they just give me tap on the shoulders and ask, “Need any help?”
April 10th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
There’s a difference between this person I was talking about and your situation, though. We didn’t expect, ask, or even hint that she should be managing her co-workers. We had it under control. Haha. She just took it upon herself to start dolling out orders w/o even checking to make sure she wasn’t over-stepping her bounds.
If your boss expects or suggests that you take a supervisory role, then by all means go for it. That’s not a bossy-butt. That’s someone who’s shown they possess something that the boss thinks is needed.
Right?
April 15th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
Haha!!! I’ve never wanted a supervisory role and I still don’t. I’ve said to my co-workers many times: “You don’t want me as your boss.” And I mean it because I wouldn’t want myself as a boss. When it comes down to work, I have high expectations of others and I’m a perfectionist. Yup, that’s right. Hard to handle, huh? Well since I only play the temporary supervisory role but not actually have the role, I think I’m going to shuffle the responsibility over to others, a process which is called “letting go”. :)
April 16th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Haha. 2/3 of supervision is delegation ;)