Hey Pandas, If You Are A Boss Or An Employer, What Are Things You Wish Your Employees Would Understand? (Closed)
Let us know!
This post may include affiliate links.
Please try to read the lot of this. It always drives me insane, but:
the employees can always choose to slack off because all they are for is the money to keep their days going. They don’t care about anything happening to the company or the workspace. After they get fired they can just walk off and get another job.
The bosses can’t, because IT IS THEIR working environment and THEY ARE IN CHARGE. The bosses can’t just slack off, they are doing it for the money too that THEY MUST MAKE ON THEIR OWN instead of SOMEONE GIVING SALARY TO THEM, the way of an employee.
Yes, they have to work hard to get the salary, but THEY HAVE A FIXED OBJECTIVE. The bosses don’t. The bosses have to USE THEIR MINDS to work out the things they NEED WORKING OUT to make sure EVERYONE GETS MONEY.
Please don’t just assume all bosses are selfish, insane and expecting something completely devoid of realism.
THEY HAVE FAMILIES, THEY HAVE A WORKING MIND, AND YES THEY ARE NOT DEVILS SENT TO TORTURE YOU ALL EMPLOYEES.
THEY ARE HUMANS, GUYS!!!!!
Maybe some are bad-tempered and not patient, but THAT DOESN’T MAKE THEM ONLY EXIST TO TORTURE YOU.
NO ONE ENJOYS FRUSTRATION WORK.
SHOW SOME RESPECT.
That this is not my life, it’s how I pay for my life. I’m your boss because I know what I’m doing and I like this field, but do I want to go home early and call off, yup, but I can’t, cause you already did that…sigh.
Bosses end up taking the brunt of your bad behavior in ways you never see or know. On your phone all night? That's an email I get the next day from corporate telling me they saw it on the camera system and expect me to discipline you. Is it the third time? Then they expect me to fire you. Don't feel like going in today? Sure we all have those days but I worked a 12 hour shift today and now have to do another 8 hours on my feet because when you call out I have to pick up the slack. I don't even get paid for it because I'm on salary. None of these other employees are going to volunteer for more hours-- even when they complain they don't get enough hours. People need to understand the difference between the boss and the owner. The boss gets the s**t end of the stick a lot and people think 'that's what you get paid more for' but often we take home less than you because we're on salary. The owner is the one setting the rules and then letting us deal with it.
As a lead or boss or whatever high position you have access to information, which employees know nothing about.
I'd wish employees would understand and accept, that some decisions I make are based on information, that they don't know about and that for a reason. I need some kind of bird perspective for the whole thing if I want to create an environment in which YOU as an employee feel good and be able to focus on your work.
Dismissing someone for example. I am not allowed to tell you, that that guy stole notebooks and sold them on ebay because the case went to court and is still going. But please trust me that there is a reason for that.
Or that you really really have to give me a short info before you begin to work on this or that idea or otherwise I'll have to tell you that the 10 hours you put in it were wasted, because the other guy is already working on it... and that you (and me too) missed the chance to team up with that guy and work on it together - with maybe even a better result.
YES. This so much. So many people don't understand that there are certain rules we have to follow. We can't just fire someone. They could turn around and sue us! We have to follow state laws and company guidelines. We also can't tell you what disciplinary action we've taken, even if we wanted to. We understand the frustration people have when dealing with a bad employee and there's always the complaint 'the bosses aren't taking care of it' and there is some truth to that in some cases, but a lot of times we HAVE tried to deal with it but we have to do it legally. Or corporate requires other steps, or flat out won't let us deal with it the way we want to. Even with hiring-- we had to take who corporate gave us to hire. People would get mad at me for hiring certain people but this is who they sent- I didn't have much of an option.
The boss is doing the best they can. Just because they’re the boss doesn’t mean they always have the right answers. Sometimes they’re winging it just like the rest of you.
They want to grant all of your requests but they have several other employees also making requests for things constantly. There is no possible way to make everyone happy all the time.
Find out what you can do to make your boss’s job easier. Yes, it’s their job to do that for you, but if just one employee would treat the boss like a human, it would make it so much easier for the boss to reciprocate.
People seem to think being the boss comes with a ton of money and a lot of perks. As someone who has managed others for almost two decades I can tell you that being the boss comes with a tiny bit more money than the rest of you and a ton more work and headaches. Most days it’s not worth it. Most days it feels like we’re running a kindergarten class.
I can't agree with this more! Not only what you said, but also....the boss is often not as well trained as you think. We don't always have the answers. We get thrown into things and figure problems out the same way you do, the only difference is we don't have mommy's hand to hold... we actually have to try and figure it out without help. So we don't just look at it and give up. We play with wires and unplug things and plug them back in and reboot computers, pull out the printer jam, work the extra hours for callouts, try to contain the leaking ceilings, etc. All with little help from our staff and often with big attitudes as if it's my fault. If everyone pitched in to help with basic things it wouldn't be so bad. And it would help if I didn't get a call every.single.day. on the few hours I have off to ask me to do something for them that they could have asked about during the 12 hours I was there or just figured out themselves by thinking about it for a minute.
There are horrible bosses out there, but stop taking out your anger for corporate decisions on your immediate boss. It's not always their faults. And have some self-accountability; admit when you're wrong. Maybe your boss is mad because you were slacking and didn't get something done. Is that true? Apologize and take the criticism and move on. Don't be so butthurt about it. I promise you your boss is not dwelling on it unless you behave like a child and then we DO think about it. And sometimes the reason you're unhappy has nothing to do with your job. I constantly see people complaining about how bad their job is and how unfair sometimes completely reasonable requests are. There's only so much your job can be responsible for when it comes to your happiness. Maybe it's not the greatest job but no one held a gun to your head to apply and accept the position. If the job requires washing windows and you get mad because you have to wash windows, it isn't the job's fault.
There are horrible bosses out there, but stop taking out your anger for corporate decisions on your immediate boss. It's not always their faults. And have some self-accountability; admit when you're wrong. Maybe your boss is mad because you were slacking and didn't get something done. Is that true? Apologize and take the criticism and move on. Don't be so butthurt about it. I promise you your boss is not dwelling on it unless you behave like a child and then we DO think about it. And sometimes the reason you're unhappy has nothing to do with your job. I constantly see people complaining about how bad their job is and how unfair sometimes completely reasonable requests are. There's only so much your job can be responsible for when it comes to your happiness. Maybe it's not the greatest job but no one held a gun to your head to apply and accept the position. If the job requires washing windows and you get mad because you have to wash windows, it isn't the job's fault.
