'Please, don't boss me around'
“My boss persistently persuaded me to join a bicycle club. I even had to buy a new bicycle and I hate myself for being a single and free on weekends.
What juniors won’t tell you but want you to know
By Chung Hyun-chae
How many of us are carrying a letter of resignation in our pockets or in our mind? Many workers think about leaving their jobs after having survived cut-throat competitions in today’s ever harsher job market and landed their initial dream jobs. The main reason is often their bosses.
According to a survey of 499 workers conducted two weeks ago by job portal site Career, some 80 percent of them said that they have complaints against their bosses. The average score of the respondents’ level of satisfaction about their bosses was only 2.2 out of five. What they disliked the most about their managers was the lack of consideration toward them.
The dissatisfaction with bosses is apparently common across the world. “Horrible Bosses,” a black comedy film directed by Seth Gordon and released in 2011, showed three exaggerated types of bad bosses — a “psycho,” a “man-eater” and a “tool.” Moviegoers would have laughed at those blown-up characters, but unfortunately, horrible bosses do exist in real life, which isn’t a comedy. They would influence their junior staff not just at work but outside as well.
Through a string of interview with office workers, Business Focus found patterns in bad bosses. They are all real.
Entertainment show producer
A lot of new recruits are required to prepare a talent show. Typically, they have to sing and dance to the latest K-pop songs at a year-end party.
Some oppressive supervisors force them to do so because they already went through the same things at the early stage of their career.
“It would be easy, even fun for people with talents, but for people who are shy like me, it is a drag,” said an employee with a surname of Lee at telecommunication firm.
Do-gooder
The long-time bachelor surprised his colleagues by announcing that he is getting married. Everyone heartily congratulated him, and then the boss suddenly gathered employees and suggested holding an event for the broom.
“I am happy for my colleague and deeply congratulated him. But speaking as just a co-worker, I feel like holding a party is overdoing it,” Lee said.
Scrooge
Responding to the government’s initiative to save electricity, state-owned entities had to keep the temperature at 28 degrees Celsius or above last summer while any privately-held large buildings weren’t allowed to be cooler than 26 degrees. That was bearable for the most, but one boss found the office too hot. He proposed to his colleagues to make a group purchase of mini electric fans.
“No one had the guts to say, ‘No.’ Plenty of mini electric fans were shipped to our office. They had childish cartoon characters printed on them, and definitely did not fit into my desk. I had to bite the bullet and pay for it,” said a worker at an insurance company.
Now winter is near, and people are already worried about a suggestion to make a group purchase of mini heaters.
Athlete — professional golfer, mountaineer, swimmer
Bosses in this category lead or join sports clubs in their companies such as hiking, swimming and bicycling clubs.
The healthy lifestyle is something that the junior staff can emulate, but they do not want to be forced by their bosses to participate in those clubs after work or on the weekends. They are already fed up with working with their bosses in weekdays.
“My boss persistently persuaded me to join a bicycle club. I even had to buy a new bicycle and I hate myself for being a single and free on weekends,” Lee complained.
For women, playing sports together may be a sensitive issue. Another Lee, who works for a small-size company here, recalled her personal experience, “My boss once told us to go swimming together. We were all women, but it was somehow embarrassing. I would like to protect my own privacy.”
For men, however, different kind of difficulty comes along. “When my boss suggests doing sports together, I didn’t know how to play. What if I’m really good at it?” Lee said.
Scheduler
Many bosses seem to forget that their subordinates also have their own lives. This type of bosses tends to arrange company dinners fit to their own schedule. Workers are often informed on the day of the event.
“Even though they have a previous engagement, they hardly can say that they cannot make it,” all the interviewees said.
Not only for company dinners, but also for short trips, workers have to be ready to adapt their schedule to their bosses’.
“Last winter, my boss notified me a fishing trip abruptly. I was of little mind to go due to my physical condition, but I had to go. We nine people just sat close together in a small boat about three hours catching only one fish in total. I was almost frozen to death,” said Park, an employee at a construction material distributor.
How to deal with them
Commonly bosses who aren’t married yet suggest doing something together with employees on weekends. If there’s a heavy workload, one surely cannot be available. But when employees reject their bosses’ suggestions too often, they are afraid of being put into disadvantageous position by their bosses in the future.
In this case, Yeon Jung-hum, a section chief at employment website Saramin, says employees should intimate their schedule to their bosses in both indirect and direct ways.
● Place a calendar with red circles on the dates on your desk in ways that they can be clearly shown to the boss.
● Keep a diary or a personal scheduler and put it on your desk for everyone passing by your desk to see.
● Make a phone call in a loud voice that shows you have plans on certain dates.
● In a daily or weekly report, write down your personal schedule. Be careful because depending on the personality of your boss, you might come across as a person who drags on every small detail.
Yeon adds that you should sometimes force yourself to join unappealing events as missing all of them may cause troubles between you and your boss.
He said that you should first ask yourself, “Why does my boss suggest these things to me?” When they offer something, there must be a reason. Try not to grumble all the time and control your mind by understanding the situation.