Question: “My boss is somewhat disorganized, so I track requests sent to him and then meet with him every few days to make sure he hasn't let anything fall through the cracks. This takes a considerable amount of my time. I have become very disheartened the past few weeks because every time I go into his office he is playing solitaire! The company measures our success by department responsiveness. How should I approach him about how this affects our accomplishments? This reflects poorly on both of us.” — Anonymous
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I have yet to see anyone “document” what they do and in REALITY have it save their rears when it hit the fan. I have witnessed the boss take all the credit for all the hard work while they have “screwed off”. And in one case the “Boss” was the HR manager and he still has his job, while the person under him had to be moved to another dept. or he would have fired her.
I agree with Sammy’s comment. As much as I would like to be able to confront my boss (who is the TOP boss), he definitely would retaliate. As he states “I’m the boss”; so, no matter what, you just have to document what YOU do so that you aren’t thrown under the bus if this comes down.
Gisele, Wow!
I would treat HR the same as my prior post.
It’s sad that a BAD HR person would even still be at your company, playing games on a computer!
I need to speak to this person, I am a HR professional and it took me 5 years to buy my first DVD player, let alone having time to play games at work on the computer! LOL! (Shaking my head and laughing with my hand over my mouth!).
Dr. “StillStanding” :)
Is your boss the owner’s husband or son? Even if he is not, you can’t do much about bringing his behavior to light without risking your own career. How is your department’s performance? Does your department have a reputation of being highly responsive? Then give yourself a big pat on the back, because you have made it happen. If your department has a bad rep, then explore ways that you can improve it without going through Mr. Solitare. Soon, YOU will have a reputation for raising the level of service and they will all know who did it!
okay, so trick question: what happens if this so-called boss is in charge of HR?
I cracked up when I read that! Thanks for making a really tough situation funny. We had an employee who did the same exact thing (play solitaire) all day long. Even though everyone knew it, no one did anything about it. Eventually enough people noticed and she was offered an early retirement. I’m not sure how anyone could handle it with their boss though other than with your humour.
There is always one of these at every job. BUT . . . the boss is the boss and you are his employee. It sure isn’t right but if you need your job, ignore his actions and do your job to the best of your ability. If it is possible to tell HR or a supervisor what’s going on, do so in an very confidential face to face talk with the caviat that you just want your concerns about both of your behaviors on the record so the boss can’t undercut you behind your back. I’ll bet you everyone knows he’s playing solitary anyway.
Next time it happens, make a joke out of it. Say, “I didn’t know we were having a Solitaire tournament. What time am I scheduled to play?” Then shut-up and wait for his response.
Wow! This is a TOUGH one.
You have to be so careful with this one, because it could be a “double edge” sword, in that; if you confront your boss you may (or may not) suffer retaliatory consequences and IF you do not confront your boss you may suffer mentally (i.e. “I wished I had said something last year about his behaviors!”. UGH! Sigh!
I wish I had the PERFECT response for how to handle this one. Unfortunately, I do not.
There are so many variables. How does your boss handle criticism? How does your boss handle being confronted? How are your boss’s communication skills (i.e. does he listen or will he keep playing solitaire)? How well connected is your boss (i.e. does the CEO and all the board members play golf together every Tuesday or is your boss UNTOUCHABLE?). Sometimes it may take a while to reach a person who has all of these high powered connections, but eventually; all bad apples are exposed at some point. This is where you have to use due diligence.
As a professional human resources senior level member of management; I can say that often times what you all may see, is not in actuality what is happening. Meaning that HR may actually be watching this boss for his low productivity or his unprofessional behaviors. HR may have even given him a “last chance” agreement to improve in these areas. Or this boss may be saying “hey, I am angry that I did not get that promotion, therefore; I am going to do absolutely NOTHING, until they fire me! Then I can sue the company or get my unemployment benefits!”
People have all sorts of ways of thinking.
Now to address the problem at hand…………SIGH! UGH! ERRRRRRRRRR!
(1) Document, document, document, and document some more!
(2) Keep a journal of what transpires daily. (Keep this journal or copies of the journal at your home and one copy in your safe deposit box at the bank.)
(3) Try to us the 3 R’s (record/document, review, and restate). You may have to meet with you boss more than once to re-state what you are feeling.
(4) Ask for a time to meet for 1 hour with your boss (but only plan on using 30 minutes or less) to discuss what you are feeling, seeing, thinking, etc. This is your opportunity to be 100%, open, and direct. However; always remember to use a professional tone.
(5) Use “I feel” statements. And use statements like “I am very concerned that when I/we walk by your office we see you playing solitaire and/or similar non-business programs on your computer. I would like to suggest that perhaps you get a privacy screen to reduce the amount of exposure the team may see you playing games on the computer. I/we understand that you may be using these programs on your break or lunch periods, however; I would be remised if I did not bring this to your attention, John (or whatever his name is). I feel this may actually be reducing the productivity and morale in the department. This is a major concern since we are judged as a department on productivity and this may directly affect our bonuses.”
Sorry for the 11,000 page essay! But this is no EASY one! Again to be clear, you may run the risk of being labeled “trouble maker”, “complainer/whiner”, or subjected to retaliatory behaviors. (Hey everyone save the baloney about “our company has a 0% tolerance for retaliation. Trust me, it still happens in 2010. Maybe not as much as it did in 1910, but it still happens unfortunately.)
There is NO perfect script for this one. Please feel free to edit my script or delete it. Not an easy way to handle this very unprofessional boss.
IF all else fails you may want to send an e-mail or hard copy letter to his superior????
I hope this helps team.
Dr. StillStanding
Just keep documentation so if it does come down later that work performance is inadequate you will have everything down on what you accomplished.