Yahoo Finance 8 Ways You're Telling Your Boss, 'I Don't Want to Be Here'
Do you occasionally daydream about responding to an impossible deadline request by laughing in your boss's face and dumping your coffee on her shoes? Or maybe your happy thought is about devoting most slides of your big presentation to the challenges and triumphs of your fantasy football team. Or, speaking of fantasies, how about that one in which you simply hit the snooze button a few times, brew yourself some coffee, pick up a book and never, ever go to the office again?
Snap out of it. If you've been spending lots of time in La La Land, just thinking about how to diss your boss, chances are, you're actually doing that in real life. You're (hopefully) just being a little more subtle. Here are eight ways you might be inadvertently, and maybe even subconsciously, telling your boss how much you hate work.
1. You're not following through. Skip Weisman, leadership and workplace communication expert, describes a familiar tell among underachieving employees: "You give lip service and give the impression that you're on board and you're going to follow through, and you conveniently forget about it." The catch is that your boss will probably notice when the email you agreed to send doesn't land in her inbox. And that missing message will send a big one to her: Either you forgot, don't care or both. And neither is a good look.
2. You're fixating on what's "not your job." Oh, you weren't hired to send daily progress updates? No one cares. Your manager is probably doing a laundry list of tasks that never appeared on her job description, so she likely expects you to stretch your role, too. Weisman points out that even if you're lamenting about extra duties to co-workers, rather than directly to your boss, she could very well hear the complaint through the grapevine. Similarly, he adds, "deflecting and comparing the work you have with someone else on the team" looks bad too. Focus on doing your duties the best you can, rather than questioning (read:complaining about) why your co-worker never sent those progress updates.
3. You're doing the minimum workload. Your boss will also notice if you're "doing whatever you have to do to keep your head above water" -- and that's it, Weisman says. "You just do the minimum and never ask for more work or are proactive in doing something beyond what the expectation is." So fine, you're sending progress updates because you were told to. Is there a new data point the updates could include? Could they be formatted more effectively? Show your boss you care by exceeding expectations, or as Weisman puts it: "picking up the ball and running with it." Another way to show you're up for going above and beyond is by offering to help overworked team members, he adds.
4. You're bringing up problems but not offering solutions. While you shouldn't sit mum if you're unhappy with an aspect of your job, speaking up without sounding like a complainer can be tricky. Weisman says the key is to take the issue to your boss, along with a few ideas to fix the situation. Can't think of any solutions? "Approach it as a concern for the greater good," Weisman says. Maybe you suspect or have even heard that your progress updates often go unread, because team members don't have time to keep tabs on them. So instead of: "I hate sending those stupid updates," try: "Sending the updates every morning eats into my client time, and I've heard the emails spam the team's inboxes. Sending more in-depth updates once a week may work better for everyone." This approach "at least shows that you're thinking beyond yourself," Weisman says.
5. You're tweeting and texting and browsing and shopping -- when you should be working. Yes, people sometimes notice when you scroll through Facebook, add items to your virtual shopping cart or hunch over your smartphone. And speaking of that addicting iPhone, stop checking it during meetings. Seriously. Doing so doesn't make you look important; it kind of makes you look like a jerk. At the very least, don't set the smartphone or tablet on the table during the meeting, says Patti Wood, body language and communication expert. Doing so is "almost like bringing your 3-year-old to work with you," she says. "You're saying: This is important to me. It's right by my side, and if this distracts me in any way, it's more important than you are." And yes, you may feel like whatever you're doing on the phone is more important than whoever is talking. But Wood points out: "[Your boss] doesn't know if you're playing Candy Crush or checking your email from a big client. And they usually assume the worst."
6. You're arriving at 9, leaving at 5 and never staying a minute longer. Whatever the standard working hours are, you're consistently devoting the least amount of time that's required of you. "That would show me, if I was your boss, that you're not really enthralled or engaged with what you're doing," Weisman says. "You're just going through the motions." Weisman advocates for arriving to the office with enough time to "get your act together" before launching into work at the scheduled start time. So say you're workday is supposed to begin at 9, and you typically start by spending 10 or 15 minutes hanging up your coat, dropping off your lunch in the fridge, grabbing a cup of coffee, chit-chatting with your cubicle neighbor and then going to the restroom. In that case, Weisman says, "get your butt there at 8:50 or 8:45." As for tapping out at the end of the day, he urges employees to step up and occasionally stay late when necessary, during "all-hands-on-deck" projects.
7. You're being silent. Wood says silence comes in many forms, such as not picking up the phone to make that client call, not speaking up in meetings or not responding to an email. She points out that while you know in your head why you're remaining silent -- you plan to make the call tomorrow; you were feeling under the weather during that meeting; you're gathering your thoughts before sending the email -- the people receiving the silent treatment will probably not be so generous. "Typically people always assume the worst, so they will make up reasons," she says, and those reasons may not be so flattering, like laziness or unprofessionalism. Don't leave any room for assumptions. Speak up and engage.
8. You're not engaging with other people in the office. It's simple: Say "hello" to your team when you arrive to work, and say "goodbye" when you leave. Give the nod and "howyadoin'?" when you pass your boss in the hallway. Small talk isn't as small as you may think, Wood says. You give your time when you stop and ask about someone's weekend plans. And "time is a communicator of respect," she points out. You don't have to chat it up or treat every day at the office like a networking event, but simply extending common courtesies goes a long way, Weisman and Wood say. And the reverse is true, too. Your co-workers and manager likely notice if you skip these niceties every day. "People don't feel recognized; they don't feel connected to you," Wood says. "And whatever your motivation is, people aren't going to know that." So if you're shy, distracted or, in fact, miserable at work, suck it up and at least say "hi."
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