It was a long day of work, a half day of rest, and a half day of meeting with one of the most important people in my life. I was excited to hear good news, but when it came to my breakfast I was a little panicked.
My job is to keep the business running. That means keeping track of all the orders, invoices, and bills. That means keeping track of all the people who need my help. And then there’s the fact that I now have to listen to my boss speak, which is a lot like a conversation in real life.
It didn’t help that my boss was the best of the worst. I mean, I am the most important person in the company, but he was the worst. He was the guy who let the employee down. He was the guy who thought that his company was just a bunch of dumbass nerds. He was the guy who couldn’t tell his secretary to stop talking about his work. He was the guy who wasn’t sure if he was doing enough to keep the company running.
So, the boss says, “Hey, I know your pain. But I can fix it.” I don’t really know what this guy means by that, but I would bet he’s talking about fixing all the things that have gone wrong in the company. We all need a little help.
So, if you’re a business owner, you dont just hand out bad advice. When I was a manager I used to have a saying that I liked to tell the employees: “Don’t let your employees down.” This was meant to be more of a motivational speech, but every manager I ever had was a jerk.
This is one of the most common problems when a manager tells an employee not to let down the company. I think it is because we feel so threatened that our only recourse is to point out that we can’t help, but we are so weak that we can’t do anything to stop the boss.
When you are on autopilot and you don’t care if you are a jerk you can’t let it go. But then your manager is trying to sabotage you by telling you to back down and not to back up. It’s not a good idea.
I know, I know. There are so many things wrong with this. First off, it makes it seem like the employee is the only one who can ever get fired. I think that is a problem. But more dangerous, is that in the past, if you say something that is rude to your manager, you are going to be blamed for your manager’s bad behavior.
Most of the time, you can still do what you said you would if your manager called you out on your behavior. But if you don’t say it, then you’ll be charged with insubordination. This is why so many managers will put their employees into small groups on a weekly basis. But this is also why some managers will tell their employees that “everyone knows each other and if someone says something, then they are going to get their ass kicked.
In our experience, this happens to the majority of managers. They make their employees feel that their managers can be abusive, and they are right. But what they don’t understand is that if you are always going to be your manager’s bitch, then you will only be happy when you are their bitch. They will never understand how you feel about your managers. They will never understand your need for a manager who is going to stand up to your managers.
