My boss moving my computer every night? Need privacy!

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Mr Empathy? Don't make me laugh!

Wolfpup isn't the one making an issue out of this - it's her boss by being unreasonable and petty-minded. All Wolfpup is asking is that her privacy be respected - it's not a big thing to ask for.

Bosses don't care about privacy - in face, they hate it. Privacy means an employee can be goofing off instead of working, and they need to SEE you working in order to believe you are.

It's stupid. It shows a total lack of maturity and intelligence. Unfortunately, It's life. Your boss is one of those, and the girl who complains about you is a socially-adept suck-up who's able to get on your boss' good side by being a snitch. She's blatantly rubbing that in your face by saying "hiding behind your computer again?"

But you've already agreed - you ARE hiding. Your workmate doesn't trust that kind of behaviour and neither does your boss. It's irrational and groundless, but they're acting on instinct.

You have only a few choices;

1) Do what they ask
2) Convince them you need the computer where it is (unlikely)
3) Quit or be fired
4) Start moving THEIR computers around (ha ha! Just kidding... mostly... I'd love to do it if #3 was happening anyway.)

...and you can;

1) Grumble and simmer with hatred for months or years
2) Forgive their ignorance and let go of the anger - and just get on with your life.



Hope things have improved over the last month.

ITA, BlueMax. Bosses think that if you are hiding, it's because you are
a) goofing off (not working) and/or
b) doing something bad
and they probably have reason to be suspicious of hiders, based not on you but on past employees or general human nature. It's also just human nature to think that if someone is hiding, they are hiding something. It's not right, it's just a fact of life.

wolfpup, I hope you don't think we are beating up on you. This is just one of the harsh realities of life that many of us have struggled with until we could function in those terms, and I'm posting again because I sincerely want you to be able to function in your job. For me personally, things that I feel really should be mine to control, but end up in actuality being in someone else's hands, I find that if I let go, and give up trying to wrestle control, that I find peace.

I'm not clear on this but if it's not part of your job duties to be visible to people walking by, it is remotely possible you can convince your boss that your efficiency and the quality of your work would be better if you could arrange your office the way you want. That tactic is more likely to work because it shows you are concerned with getting your work done and letting your boss get more out of you. But I don't know how you could convince your boss of that.

wolfpup, if you check this thread again, we'd like to know how you are doing.

Ok, you've got me on that one. I'm still right, though.

No you aren't. In fact, I seriously doubt you know a lot at all.

We're not asking for the world, just the same kind of consideration that any reasonably person would expect.

It isn't unreasonable to expect someone who has to occasionally handle clients at a window to be able to see the window in question, especially if by their own admission they can get absorbed in a task to the exclusion of everything else.

Bosses are primarily to ensure you make the maximum effort at the minimum cost. If being nice gets the job done, they might be nice. If not, you keep your head down and try to deal with the situation.

I'm in a field where the 'boss' is a thankless 'all responsibility/no authority' job, I'm on #27 after 20 years. no matter how bad they are, they won't be around that long...

I practice a sort of mental judo with bosses; try to figure out what they want, and give it to them before they ask (can be tricky to do, though). If they see you're working, and can work well on your own, they start backing off.

Hope it all works out.

Um, yes. But that should have been made clear at the beginning.

What do fairness and reason have to do with it? If Wolfpup's boss has chosen to play dominance games around this issue, Wolfpup had better knuckle under and quick, or start looking for a new job.

Yes, well if it is very intolerable, looking for another job might just be the best option. In the meantime, all she can do is keep on moving the computer back to a comfortable position.

Well I worked in an office environment where I shared a room with 4 people and we could all see each other. I was lucky in that I could fake getting along with them for the sake of keeping my job. I honestly believe bosses and employees should adapt to eachother but it does not work like that in today's office culture. That said maybe we aspies can start a business. I have always maintained that happy employees are productive employees. It is sad that in today's culture everyone believes in the law of the jungle and they even embrace it. I think that to change the system even a little we would need at least one majorly successful business that operated so well everyone would want to copy it. I sympathize with you wolfpup. The only way though that we will ever be able to get anywhere is to create a new system one business at a time. Other than that all we can do is try to adapt.