About getting on with the boss

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33929, 23 August 1975, Page 12

About getting on with the boss

(By

FRANCIS COOPER)

Do you get on well with your boss? Do you feel he is an efficient organiser, a good man to work for?

If so, let’s hope he appreciates your loyalty — nowadays it’s pretty exceptional. For according to the latest industrial and commercial surveys, fewer than 20 per cent of employees really think their boss deserves his place behind the walnut desk and his key to the executive washroom. In fact, when executives from a wide range of companies were recently asked in a London University department of economics study how they got on with their superiors, few could find anything good to say about them. Opinions ranged from: “He doesn’t appreciate me,” to “our personalities clash,” and “he doesn’t regard me as a human being.”

Blame shared And one sentiment was expressed, in one form or other, by more than half the men interviewed. It was: “He isn’t as serious about the work as I am.” But can the blame be laid completely on the boss’s blotter? “No,” says an industrial psychologist, Simon Harris, of the London School of Economics. “There’s considerable evidence that a good relationship between boss and subordinate is prevented in more than 50 per cent of cases by a fault on the part of the subordinate. “The existence of this fault is not necessarily serious — it is the unawareness which can do the real harm.” Studies have shown that in many cases the traditional picture of the idle, inefficient boss is fallacious today. Interruptions A painstaking survey by an international team of efficiency experts recently revealed that in fact the boss works harder than his subordinates — even though he has to put up with a phone-call or some other interruption, perhaps every five minutes of his working day. Industrial sociologists at London University and at New York’s School of Economic Psychology have

come up with a table of workplace behaviour. Here are a few sample questions: An equal colleague asks a favour of the boss and has it granted. When you make a similar request, it’s turned down. Four responses Would you: (a) Philosophically say, “Better luck next time?”; (b) accept the decision but hold it against the boss?; (c) tell yourself that if you were in charge you would be much fairer in your decisions?; (d) point out that he had agreed to a similar request? You ask for a rise in salary. Your superior says he’ll look into the matter, but weeks pass and you get no answer. Would you: (a) Let the matter go, as

it seems pretty clear that you aren’t going to get anywhere?; (b) point out you are entitled to a decision?; (c) sympathise with him in what must be a difficult situation?; (d) send him a note detailing the facts of the case and asking for an answer by a specific date? Arguing over some nonwork topic, your boss intimates that, because he’s got a better job, his opinion is worth more than yours.

Would you: (a) Accept his view as probably the correct one?; (b) tell him that your views on the matter are as good as his?; (c) say that you always make sure of your ground before taking a stand?; (d) Say that you consider that, so far as this subject is concerned, your views are as sound as the next man’s?

And finally, the boss criticises you severely over some minor mistake you admit making. Do you tell him: (a) “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again;” (b) “Take it easy — I’ve said I’m sorry, haven’t I?”; (c) “Everyone makes mistakes occasionally;” (d) “I admit I made a mistake but aren’t you exaggerating the consequences?”

The meaning This is what it all means:

Answer A to all the questions: You’ve got a distorted view of your boss — and yourself as well. You tend to be over-apo-logetic. In argument you give in too easily. You underestimate your abilities and importance and to you authority commands fear, rather than respect.

Answer B: You’re overaggressive. You see the relationship as a constant war. You resent criticism and argue to the bitter end, and believe that as a general rule the boss can do nothing right. Answer C: You put your boss on a pedestal only for the satisfaction of knocking him off. You tend to think rather too highly of your abilities and compare many of your chief’s actions with those you would take if you were in command.

Answer D: You have the best chance of a harmonious boss relationship and good chances of promotion. You tend to be calm and matter-of-fact in your dealings and less likely to go off at the deep end. Disagreements are likely to be at a minimum — and then rarely personal.