15 Jul 2005, 2:10 pm
Malcolm_Scipo wrote:
Tell your boss to leave you alone. Threaten her with a cute little kitten that will make her cry at the sight of its cuteness.
Nice!
It has come to a head today. She decided we needed a locking cash-box for the petty cash and asked me if I wanted to go to the stationers to buy one.
My response was 'No'.
That was the answer to her question, I did not want to walk all the way down the road because I had back-ache and I was very busy trying to get another job for her finished by her deadline.
It caused some consternation, but I managed to resolve the situation by following up with an explanation of why I didn't want to go, but she was still cross with me because of my initial response.
Yesterday when I was trying to explain that I wouldn't be able to get all the work she had given me finished by the required deadlines, she used the phrase 'You can make time'. This is a phrase that always sets me off when used by managers trying to overwork me! I should have learned from past errors, but with pedantry mode in full operation (I was stressed and find it much more difficult to temper my responses) I explained to her that it was, in fact, scientifically impossible and unrealistic to ask me to 'make time', since there are only so many seconds in a minute, minutes in an hour, and hours in my working week. This didn't go down too well.
This afternoon I had a long chat with the woman who hired me (not my immediate boss, but my bosses boss. It's worth pointing out at this point that I am not officially diagnosed and I had been getting along fine until now without my employers knowing that I have some difficulties in certain work situations - it hasn't been an issue until now).
What actually happened was that initially when we met, I couldn't construct what I wanted to say, and she talked until I had got myself together. She could tell there was something bothering me. I managed to say what I wanted to get off my chest, about my boss's communication style, the problems I had with it, and the fact that I was being given too much work with unrealistic deadlines. I think it went well, and she is going to get back to me next week (and speak to my boss also) with some ideas for how my boss can communicate in a way that doesn't cause me problems.
Hopefully that will help. It has been a stressful week though, and I am currently trying to unwind.
