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How to deal with the "Anal" boss


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Six months ago I took a new position leaving my previous employeer of 22 years. The job was my dream job and not only that the pay was $9000 more than I was making at my current job.

 

Here's the problem. My new boss is ANAL!! I have never seen someone like that!! Not only that he has to have EVERYTHING in our department go through him first. Yesterday I answered an e-mail that was addressed to the both of us and it was a simple yes/no answer and since he wasn't replying and we had recieved three e-mails I responded. This morning I had an e-mail from him stating that I was not allowed to answer e-mails that were addressed to the two of us...HE would respond and if this person would have called me I should I referred her to him!! OMG!!! Talk about childish!! At first I thought he was just doing this to me since I was new, but after learning my new job fairly quickly I realized that he treated EVERYONE like this.

 

Another problem is that he's never in the office and we can't make decisions without him, thus he slows down our work waiting on him. A co-worker and I recently discovered that he's having an affair with another person that works in our department and he comes in late, takes three hour lunches and leaves early. When his boss pushes him for a report or something he starts to really let us have it.

 

So my problem is how long (since I'm new 6 months) do I wait before I go to his boss?? He has made rude comments that I have already told him I didn't appreciate and some other unprofessional comments about a new employee that I processed in the other day.

 

Forgot to mention after he takes his three hour lunches he expects me and another co-worker to work late to get work done. We're tired of working all of these extra hours because he's out running after his mistress all during the day instead of work.

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Document, document, and MORE documentation is what you'll need to combat your boss.

 

Note the time lag between helping or responded to client's request, take down when he leaves and when he comes back.....note any abnormal behaviour and track the OT you and your co-workers spend on extra tasks that could've been avoided.

 

You can build a case in about a 30 day period. This will allow his boss to see the affects of his managing abilities....

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Thanks Moose. I have already done that. I had a friend that use to work for the place I work now and he said my boss was anal, when I reached my friend last week...I said there's anal and there's ANAL!!

 

The co-worker I mentioned and I are both documenting all of this. Because my job is professional we do not get paid overtime. We're mad that he runs off to meet his "friend" at lunch and doesn't see why we wouldn't want to stay late. FYI...He has now been gone for two hours for lunch and our department had a "lunch" for all the employees after a departmental meeting and he disappared after the departmental meeting...

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As a boss, I can tell you a little bit about how to handle this. But first just realize that there's nothing you can or should do about this issue with the affair. Whether it's true or not, it's not something you need to get involved with unless you want to lose your job. The only other way to deal with it is to anonymously let his boss know about it - but even that is risky.

 

All that aside, in some ways I can understand his need to be informed of everything that goes on because I require that of anyone who works for me. The reason I started doing that is because something would become a major problem and the first I would hear about it was getting a call from someone at our corp office and I would be completely blindsided. As a manager, I can't have this kind of thing happening. Also, most of the things that went on, I could've nipped in the bud immediately. So since I've started requiring that I be copied on emails and being informed of anything out of the ordinary that goes on, I have almost no problems. So you can see the benefits. But....

 

...your boss is being a mircomanager in the sense that he won't empower his people and doesn't trust anyone to make a decision. This is very frustrating and makes people feel unappreciated. He has a lot of trust issues but this is backfiring on him in the loyalty aspect of his team.

 

Here are some suggestions on how to handle this. First of all, copy him on ALL business emails you send out, without him having to ask. That may seem over-the-top, but it will let him know that you are happy to keep him in the loop. It will make him relax where you're concerned and he'll be more likely to trust you. If he ever tells you that you're copying him on too many emails, then let him know that you just want to make sure he doesn't get left out of anything that he may need to know about. But, also get specifics from him because he's apparently hard to read and you don't want to annoy him (although I doubt he'll get annoyed about getting too much information).

 

Also, email him regular updates on anything you think he'll want to know about. Again, a boss relaxes when people are pro-active and open, which means the boss doesn't have to keep prompting people to do things and give them information. Knowing he's anal tells you basically that you probably can't give him too much information, so send emails filling him in on things that are going on. Don't inundate him with them, maybe something daily if the timing isn't critical. With things that are time-critical, send him an email and then call him and leave a message. That way you're covered all the way around.

 

Do those things for awhile and see if things improve. Over time, he may start to trust you more and you may want to suggest that he give you a little leeway and let you make some decisions and he can judge how it goes. These may seem like small things but they can make a huge difference. Especially with him because he's obviously paranoid about being left out of the loop. It would be my guess that something happened before that was very critical that he didn't know about and it bit him hard.

 

Obviously, his management skills are lacking and he has a lot to learn but I will warn you that if you ever intend to go over your boss's head, be prepared to look for another job. Because the people who have done that to me in the past ended up losing their jobs. Those people were either being immature and never talked to me first, or they were just going after my position. But regardless, you need to be really certain that going over his head is going to get him fired - which it probably won't because companies tend to protect management (for a reason) - otherwise you're putting your job in jeapordy. I would first try to fix it with him and see if you get any positive results from that before you take things to another level.

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Angels reply is dead on... Pay attention to the last part about going over your bosses head..

That almost never works and you will find yourself in the unemployment line.

 

Like I said angels post is dead on.. he is a micromanager to his detriment and she gave you good advice on the rest :)

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