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(couple sentences of screaming ahead – taken from my LJ and edited for language)
How do you tell your boss ‘no’? Especially a controlling, passive aggressive butthead.
My boss at my design job has no sense of design, and I’m stuck having my name associated with the hideous mess he makes me churn out. The worst being today, where I really wanted to just pick up the stack of paper i printed out in order to do this bulletin board and throw it in the recycle bin and say: “No.”
It started out as a mock certificate, I liked it, my coworker liked it. My boss? “I just want it to say appreciation week. Erase all that and make ‘Appreciation’ real big and ‘week’ small.
It looks like crap, and I want to throw all the paper I printed on to tile it away, tell him I’m not comfortable doing that bulletin board that way and if that’s all he wants I’m going to redo it so it looks good. The more I think about it the angrier I get.
And my mother (who usually has good advice) is not helping. I AM SO SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING: “He’s your boss, he said do it, that’s just the way it has to be.” That’s just ticking me off ten times worse! That is not how is has to be!!
I AM NOT A SLAVE!! I AM AN EMPLOYEE WHO IS THERE TO LEARN AND NOT SOMEONE TO BE DEMANDING A ‘YES MASTER’ FROM!!!!!!!! YOU WILL NOT GET IT!!
I am a person, not a peon! I am your graphic designer, and you should at the very least take my opinions into consideration, if not value them! I am not stupid. You are a marketing person, you never had a design class in your life and the stuff you do looks like something I did in kindergarten. You wouldn’t know good design if it bit you in the face. I am not happy when you ask me to do way less than I’m capable of and diss me when I push my abilities.
Yes, it may only be a two hour a day job, but I didn’t take it to be insulted.
ARGH!
Hang in there! It’s much better to vent than to seriously maim the jerk! 😈
I’ve been through the same thing–worked for 3 weeks on a huge project only to be told at the last minute, “Oh,sorry, but we aren’t doing any of that anymore. We need to start over with blah blah blah…..” Nights, weekends, none of it mattered because the new king of the hill wanted it his way! 👿
I think there’s a Dilbert cartoon that shows a really good example of this, too… 😉
While I’m sure I’m probably full of something else. I would say do it his way once or twice and each time give him credit for it in a grandiose fashion. After a while people will go straight to you instead of him.
I would help but I am just to tired to get out of bed today~
Engaged to a WeaselThe problem with that is he thinks he’s the be all/end all of all design in the office. Even if another person has asked me to do a flyer, he still thinks he’s got the right to make final changes to their requests.
Most of the time I turn in the work I do to the people who head the student activities (this is a student job, btw, it’s nowhere near permanent, but I’m not learning a darn thing), they OK it, and then he has to piddle all over it like a dog marking territory.
Case in point being we’re having Appreciation Week soon, which means services are free for faculty, alumni and staff. He was so stuck on ‘free week’ that The Boss had to tell him to change things to ‘Appreciation’ week, not ‘free’ week. Even student workers in other part of the office were going: “No, that’s Appreciation week! Change it back, it’s not ‘free’ week!”
Ok, this may not be what you want to hear, but your mom is right. You are right, too. You are not a slave and have the right to quit. You are, however, an employee so you do have to do what your boss says. If you dont like it, find someplace else that can appreciate your talent. Your boss is the one responsible for your actions, so he should have the final say. If it looks like crap, he takes the heat.
Romeodanny wrote:You don’t want to hear this either. I agree with Ski.
So do I.
What I would suggest is that you keep samples of 1) all your work as you turn it in,
2) your work as approved by the person requesting it and 3) the job as management demands it be done.If you are really unhappy there see your advisor and find out if there is anyplace else you can work.
laphon1 wrote:Romeodanny wrote:You don’t want to hear this either. I agree with Ski.
So do I.
Ditto
tdm
Laphon1 has a great point. It’s documenting the incidents, for one thing, and if the matter should come up it gives you proof that your work was very different from what El Bozo insisted upon. Yes, he’s a consummate idiot and stuck at kindergarten level (in many ways). Yes, he is NOT making best use of your talents. But having documented proof of what you would have produced versus what he demanded will help you prove later on that the flaw wasn’t in you. Seriously.
You could take it one step further and start a private file of improvements on other stuff that twit put up, and how you could have improved it. Don’t show it to anyone except maybe your student advisor. Turn it into an exercise. It might help you get a step back from this very annoying situation. Good luck!
That is a great idea, so if it comes down to your boss trying to pin a crap job on you, you have proof otherwise.
All good advice already. I would just add that if you hate the kind of boss you have, you should strive to open your own business. I think crummy bosses far outnumber good ones these days. I would document your work, too. You’re bound to run into somebody that’s going to take your work and take the credit for it completely.
lamortefille wrote:All good advice already. I would just add that if you hate the kind of boss you have, you should strive to open your own business. I think crummy bosses far outnumber good ones these days. I would document your work, too. You’re bound to run into somebody that’s going to take your work and take the credit for it completely.
Honestly? After all the bad bosses I’ve been through, doing my own thing without a boss is something I’m desperate for, it’s just a ways off yet. I think I’m far too much like my father (who has owned his own business all of his life, and would never ever be able to work *for* someone).
Barrdwing’s idea is a good one though, I just might do that.
when you work for some one else, unless they say so..you are to do what they want. I know it is is irritating… i have had simaler situations.
like it was stated, do your idea, and if he insists on it being different..then no biggie. do what he wants..keep a record that what you designed was very different. Is there a way to put a notice that the design of what ever he tells you to do is his idea, not yours? that way people can associate his name with it. I think that is the one thing that would bug me..i would not want my name associated with something that dose not portray my real skills.
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