Two ways to really annoy your boss
Want to annoy your boss? Why wouldn’t you?
By simply and consistently annoying your boss you could leave those boring office days behind, forget the early mornings and that rubbish, crowded commute and spend the rest of your days at home in your underwear watching daytime TV. Whoop whoop.
Alternatively, if you hate daytime TV, you could try to avoid needlessly annoying your boss. That way you keep your job, get that promotion or even get in line for a pay rise.
1. Saying that you’ll TRY not that you WILL
What sounds better: “I’ll try to do it, I have a lot to do but I’ll try to fit it in” or “I will do that.”? Sounding certain and positive will go down well with your boss. But it goes beyond what it sounds like in your boss’s ears. This is about having the right attitude, the right frame of mind and the right approach to your job.
Having a belief in yourself, and a belief in what you can do is important to you and sweet music in your boss’s ears. Don’t concentrate on the things you can’t do – concentrate on what you can do and what you can do well. Then ask professor Google or a colleague or a friend at another company to help you with the stuff you aren’t sure of (or frankly haven’t a clue about) and then get that done too.
Of course, saying you are going to do stuff is not enough. You have to do it. So when your boss says “What about that thing…?” he or she gets used to you routinely saying “It’s done boss. Sorted.” Your boss hired you to do stuff he, or she doesn’t want to do or can’t do. Don’t disappoint.
Remember: “I’ll try” is for losers. Once something is delegated to you, your boss wants to assume it’s done.
2. Offer to do everything
Being an eager puppy and wanting to impress your boss and doing well at your job comes down to balance. Some people think that offering to do everything for your boss will give you the edge above everyone else. But doing anything and everything at every opportunity causes more problems than it solves. It is risky as hell and quite a stupid strategy.
Juggling so many balls in the air is dangerous. It won’t take long until you drop the ball – you might miss a deadline, forget about that one email or forget to make THAT phone call. You put yourself in danger of seeming unreliable and incompetent by trying to do too much, being responsible for everything and then screwing up. If you put yourself in a situation where you have too much on your plate, you set yourself up to fail. We are human. This is where the clever balance comes in.
You don’t want to offer to do everything, but you want to be able to be relied upon to do a task well. Prioritise, arrange, rearrange and work hard – the formula is clear. Be known for quality and delivery.
Choose the key tasks. The ones that you know your boss cares about. Then volunteer for, and do, those things consistently well and on time. They may or not be in your job description but who cares? The more you do the things your boss focuses on and cares about, the more you will become invaluable to your boss which translates into one word – unsackable.