Dealing with Bosses

If your organization is targeted by a union-organizing effort, take note. Labor law gives your employees the right to join a union. Assuming you prefer to operate as a nonunion company, what are your rights?

“My boss is a dictating micromanager,” one of our readers recently posted on our Admin Pro Forum, “and I’m having difficulty handling the situation. How can I let him know that I can manage most situations with little or no supervision? I don’t want to be insubordinate, but he needs to stop breathing down my neck.” Workplace expert and author Roxanne Emmerich outlines three steps to cure micromanagement:

Your gut tells you to wait a day before sending an angry e-mail or to stay away from the rumor mill. That’s your intuitive intelligence, says best-selling author and UCLA psychiatrist Judith Orloff. By checking in with your intuitive coach, she says in her book Second Sight, you end up making better on-the-job decisions and navigating office politics masterfully.

Question:  “I work for a boss who is physically abusive. He’s never touched me, but I’ve seen him snap other female employees with rubber bands, leaving a bruise. He likes to punch the male employees and hit them in the head. He says he’s just “playing around.” “Barbara,” the owner of our small company, works closely with this man and relies on him a lot. However, she has no idea about his abusive behavior. I’ve started documenting his actions, but I don’t know how to tell Barbara. — Fearful

Question: “My boss is a dictating micromanager, and I’m having difficulty handling the situation. How can I let him know that I can manage most situations with little or no supervision? I don’t want to be insubordinate, but he needs to stop breathing down my neck. — Cindi

It’s 4:30 p.m., and one of your bosses has finally given you the documents you expected to receive that morning—the documents you need in order to wrap up a task by the 5:30 p.m. deadline. This is your biggest pet peeve—receiving things late (and without warning), but being expected to complete the task on time. What to do?

When a control-freak boss monitors your every move, you and your co-workers may be tempted to rebel. Instead, don't let your annoyance show. “Getting visibly irritated when he leans on you will only make him think he needs to keep an even closer eye on you,” says Albert J. Bernstein, a clinical psychologist and author of Am I The Only Sane One Working Here? Here are more strategies:

True or false: Employees are either creative or they’re not—creativity isn’t a skill you can teach. False. Managers can play a key role in creating an environment in which employees will want to look for new ideas. Share this article with your supervisors to help tap employee creativity.

Question: Our HR manager recently told me that my bosses had complained about my coming in late.  I am a secretary to three attorneys in a large law firm. Since I frequently work after hours without overtime pay, I assumed that arriving late was no problem. When I apologized to the attorneys, they said the HR manager brought up the subject. The attorneys thanked me for working in the evenings.  I have told the HR manager that I don’t appreciate her misrepresenting the situation. I would like an unbiased third party to mediate this tardiness issue, but a friend says that bringing up overtime would create big problems. What should I do?”  Angry with HR

Move over, Google. Microsoft grabs tech headlines this month by adding zippy new features to its Internet Explorer browser. Here are four cool tricks that will save time for you and your employees.