MQB is back by popular demand from reader Steve H. There’s been a couple of reasons for the lack of posts, one more reasonable than the other. First, our landlord has been doing major renovations to the building our office is located in, so we’ve had to take up residence in a very rudimentary part of the building and arrange our desks and office equipment wherever we can find a space. The good news is I have a very private space to myself. The bad news is I’m on my 3rd dust mask. Since I’m more separated from Boss than before (lucky for me, but not for this blog), I haven’t had much material to post. Second, although all the stories on this blog are very much real, I do have to have a decent level of creative exertion in order to set up the stories and “Bossisms.” That requires energy that sometimes just isn’t there for me. I’m going to try to do better in the future.
——————-
This marks week 7 (or so) of Boss’s attempt to repair one of the company vehicles that is broken down. He wants to save money by doing it himself, and I think he enjoys being unavailable to do his more Bossly duties. Most of those aren’t as fun as working on cars (in his mind, at least).
I can’t complain about his absence too much. The reprieve from his long stories and his usually unsuccessful attempts at acting as if he knows what’s really going on with our business is certainly appreciated. Since our working conditions have changed, Boss has been more isolated and he doesn’t handle the isolation well. He is fine with working alone when he’s repairing something, but he can’t sit at a desk for long periods of time without someone to talk to or else he gets bored. Now he makes frequent visits to my office to chat about whatever is on his mind. That ‘whatever’ is most often complaining about the various employees in the office. I’ve shared a story or two about this sort of thing on MQB before, but I simply cannot give you an adequate picture of just how often this occurs. Boss visits my office space and begins with a loud, dramatic sigh. Then he’ll say, “I just don’t know what I’m going to do about _______[employee A, B, or C].” He’ll then begin to give a list of their offenses, some of which are genuine issues that need to be addressed and are quite detrimental to the company. Other “offenses” are simply the fact that employee B is naturally lacking the strong points Boss wishes they had. These strong points could be developed in these employees if Boss would take the time to train them. Of course, that does not happen. It’s easier to complain than to train. Regardless of the type of offense, the fact remains that Boss never, ever goes to the employee with his complaint. It is almost as if Boss thinks a clan of little office elves will emerge from hiding and solve the problem if only he complains enough.
Now, I’ve urged Boss multiple times to schedule a meeting with the Offender so he can express his concerns. His response? “But they always get so defensive!” Yep. Apparently they all get so defensive. He’s been talking about the same people with the same problems for so long, he’s probably invented memories of having confronted them.
I believe one of the contributing factors to Boss’s inability to heed advice involves one of his Boss Tendencies. Boss has a habit of walking around the office cleaning out his ears with his car keys. I don’t know if he realizes that he’s doing this in front of people. It honestly seems like such a second nature act that he forgets people are watching. When he does this I try to look away, but I usually catch him in my peripheral doing this gross act. He usually “cleans” his keys off on his pants once he’s completed his goal. Once, I managed to look directly at him after he had just removed a key from his ear. After seeing the nastiness that was on his key, I began to understand that my advice doesn’t go in one ear and out the other, it never gets in his ear at all. Not literally of course, but I’m sure there’s a very applicable metaphor in that story somewhere. Feel free to dig it out.
Back later this week with some fresh Bossisms!
