Your boss is not your friend. Your boss is not someone you can trust. Your relationship with your boss needs to be entirely professional.
- Do not do your boss favours. No working for free. No doing unreasonable duties. No working outside the hours you state as available.
- Do not say anything to your boss. About anything. Keep it work related. They will only use personal information against you.
- Know your rights. Know the laws. Your boss will come at you trying to get you to quit like its a favour to you. Its usually because they can’t legally fire you.
- Be wary around your coworkers. Some will have no problem passing things along to your boss. Such as your mental health or financial standing
- Never offer to pay for anything lost, stolen or broken. Especially if money is missing from the till.
- Demand safe working conditions.
Your boss is only there to exploit your labour for profit. Unfortunately you need that labour to sustain yourself. Just be careful.
Your boss will likely act buddy/buddy with you. Let them. But don’t reciprocate. They tell you how they got wasted and are super hungover at work? You tell them how you wish you weren’t such a boring person who goes to bed at 10p every night. They tell you how much they don’t like your co-worker, you tell them that the co-worker tries their hardest.
super mega important: “They tell you how much they don’t like your co-worker, you tell them that the co-worker tries their hardest.”
o_0
Sitting here reading this and I just…
My boss shares pictures of her grandkids– sometimes even has the grandkids in the store, lol, and if you stop to play with the kid for a few minutes that’s okay, unless they are actively calling for help on the floor. My boss helps customers on the salesfloor– though she doesn’t carry scissors or know how to use the cash register. My boss gets excited about my cosplay projects and excitedly shares her own projects with us– she dressed as Molly Weasley for comic con, got her husband to dress as Arthur. My boss took a quilting class at the store recently and excitedly showed me the first row she had put together.
I realize this post is targeted at people in lowest common denominator jobs, but… no. It’s not universal. I work at a store where my boss actually sees her employees like family.
Please if you are reading this, remember that not all jobs are like this. Sometimes people are actually not horrible.
Buddy I’m happy for you but I too had a boss who considered me part of the family and treated me with respect and kindness and compassion and he fired my ass with no notice the day after he found out I was queer
There’s not a damn thing wrong with not trusting your boss as far as you can throw them
One of the most important pieces of workplace advice I’ve ever heard was that “we’re like family here/we treat employees like family” inevitably translates into “we have a total lack of healthy boundaries and unreasonable expectations as to what you will do for us without compensation, and will likely act personally offended and possibly retaliate if you push back to assert your own space and life.”
This advice is relevant across all job classes, levels etc. Lemme tell you about the terrible fucking boss I had who pulled that we’re all family shit on me and when I tried to enforce some boundaries, harassed me until I had to take FMLA leave.
I was traumatized from how that fucker treated me when I went to a different school, to the point where I expected to be berated and fired for the tiniest mistake.
Fuck this trusting your boss bullshit, like ever. Something about being in charge changes people, usually for the worst
No but this is legit. My new boss thinks he is the coolest, friendliest most likeable guy. When I was temping he was going on and on about how his company was like a family environment all this shit. The day I was hired full time I told him I had family vacation coming up in 2 months and he suggested I cancel it. I’m looking at this dude who was talking out the side of his mouth about family and then he is BUGGING about giving me a few days to see my family. I knew if I caved he would have really just let me cancel my vacation so I didn’t budge and he gave me the days off. Fast forward to this week and he hands out a new company policy that literally says we arent allowed to speak to each other during work hours unless everyone in earshot is on a scheduled break. do you know how crazy that is? human beings talk to each other. then I find out that my coworker never got maternity leave. she was in labor doing the fucking payroll and this guy legit just saw it as her being loyal.
YOUR BOSS IS NOT YOUR FRIEND!
Please remember that if they fuck up they will blame you. Always be prepared. Your boss is not your friend!
Got rear ended by a grabage truck after being called in early when I got out of the hospital my boss reemed me out because she had to work my shifts while I was in the hospital. Among other shitty things like demanding I remeber store protocol even thought I suffered a concussion in my accident. (And was working in a neck brace)
Even if your boss has the best of intentions, they can’t be your friend. Its their job to be primarily concerned about the business, and given the way capitalism works, the businesses interests are unlikely to be aligned with yours. Plus the boss has power over you and there will be times when they have to assert that power. You can be friendly with your boss (ask about their weekend, kids etc) but they will never have your best interests at heart.
you know the thing that i find weird about this is: you could all be bosses. someday. do you truly believe that this is inevitably how you would also treat your employees?
I am a boss right now. I own a small business and have part-time employees. I have the best of intentions with how I interact with them and how I compensate them for their work. But business is business and it isn’t a family. I wouldn’t trust any boss that purports that. It is about profit.
With my business, I try to be fair in communicating my expectations, fair in how much I pay them, fair in not intruding upon their holidays (I ask them all to tell me when there’s blocks of time that they’ll be unavailable for any reason). But it isn’t a family and if somebody stopped performing how I need them to perform I would let them go because at that point they’re a liability to me and the people who entrust us by hiring us. That is just how it goes.
When bosses try to claim “we’re family” they’re trying to break down boundaries that will only help the business – not the worker. “We’re family” leads to “do this unpaid labor” and “sacrifice time with your actual family and friends for my benefit.”
I know this post already long af but I just gotta add if your boss has an “open door policy” where you can “express thoughts freely without prejudice”, DON’T FALL FOR THAT SHIT. They will use that against you. If you have a gripe and an anonymous box or something isn’t available, honestly just hold it until you find another job. Or if it’s something that desperately needs attending to, go to HR or further. I know 3 people that got fired for expressing concerns and solutions to problems. Boss said and I quote, “If you don’t like how I’m driving this bus you can get off”. Let buddy go the next day. AND THEY WENT TO EACH OTHER HOUSES FOR HOLIDAYS !! Kicking the shit with each other like it was nothing.
At the end of the day do your job, be respectful and respected, go home.
Absolutely. I love my boss like she’s my mom but there are certain things that I would never voluntarily tell her. Not because of anything sinister, but more because of all of the above is common enough for me to know to be careful. You can have a nice relationship with your boss and mutually enjoy each other’s company but never ever ever forget that they control your ability to eat and pay rent. never forget.
I’m sorry yall, but my bosses have helped me get out of trouble and are committed to making things better and easier for me at work. When my friend starting having a ton of medical problems they made sure she was taken care of and even helped her with her fmla.
My direct manager and i are very much into the same things and once spent an entire meeting suggesting books to each other.
I’ve had shitty will fire your for whatever bosses, and then these bosses where i work (call center) are different than any retail job ever.
thisacelovesheadcanons 