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!
ESPECIALLY for us Black Women In corporate jobs. WE are still women, Black Women and those in authority may use stereotypes against us whenever THEY want. So, don’t get too comfy with your bosses or the people on the job, period!
And it doesn’t matter if your boss is another woman either! Keep it professional. Always.
Amen. Young black women entering the workforce imma double down and say NO ONE AT WORK IS YOUR FRIEND! I’ve had other women who were at my pay grade get me fired before. Go do your work, smile, be pleasant, then bring your ass home and talk to your real friends.
so I’m like, half a manger at my workplace and not only do I very carefully police my interactions with my actual manager, but I continuously regulate my interactions with my coworkers. More often than not this literally translates to, “Hey, cool, please don’t tell me that.” when it comes to coming to work drunk or hungover, I’ll exchange stories but always under the pretense of don’t do this or “my friend did this”. This is an important post for employees, but ALSO if you’re in a supervisory position but not corporate, pay DOUBLE attention to this. because it applies to you on both sides. buddy-buddy with your manager can get you fired, buddy-buddy with your coworkers can get you fired. keep it professional, courteous, careful.
Posted about this before, but I’m gonna send this around again because EXACTLY THIS. But I’m also going to add that there are rules and regulations - as a boss - that need to be followed and can get us fired if we don’t follow them. Namely, don’t tell your boss - even if you’re besties - if you in any way break the law. Minors, this means smoking, drinking, or fucking. Some jobs legally require us to pass that information on to the correct authorities. Same with mental breakdowns.
Seriously, if you’re having mental health issues and/or have a doctor’s note, do not give it to your boss. Work through HR and consult with your medical practitioner on who you have to get information to. That said, keep a hard side-eye on HR too. They work for THE COMPANY and while they have to be super compliant with labor rules and regs and there are some things they LEGALLY cannot disclose to their bosses… BE AWARE OF WHAT THOSE THINGS ARE.
Honestly, your smartest course of action is to READ THE STUPID ORIENTATION and HIRING PACKETS. No really. NO REALLY. Look up the labor laws that apply in your country/state and KNOW THAT SHIT. The best defense is good documentation and knowing your rights as laid out by the labor rules.
Don’t trust your boss. Because they are your boss and that means a lot of extra stuff too. Be friendly, be polite, but do not trust them. (Or me. I mean, I’ll tell you not to trust me as your boss because I must abide by CSA regulations and mandates as well as rules laid down by my state and institution, AND I FREAKING MEAN IT.)
I am someone’s boss and this is 100% right. I wish it wasn’t. But it is.
This is already a long post BUT - In my line of work, you literally have to be a caseworker before you get promoted to supervisor (there may be some exceptions due to nepotism, but the job description explicitly states you need 4 years of experience at the advanced journey level of caseworker in order to promote to sup). What this means is, that friend of yours? That you walk with on your breaks and go out to lunch with and hang out with after work? They could easily become your supervisor. My sup was a caseworker for EIGHT YEARS before getting promoted. We were all friendly with him before that, chatting with him about his kids, about grad school, about that new Ethiopian place near the office, etc. And I still sometimes catch myself slipping into conversation with him the way I used to. But it’s NOT SAFE NOW. And I notice the people he tells me he dislikes are also going into his office, closing the door, and having gossip fests with him. It’s toxic and weird and gross, but this is the American workforce in a nutshell. Your boss is not your friend. YOUR BOSS IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. Play the game, be funny and friendly, but don’t give up anything personal. Ever.
