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One of the unwritten and unenforceable clauses in your job
contract is to attempt to get along with your boss. There are
many types of supervisors and each take a different approach.
One of the most difficult is the Bah Humbug supervisor. This
supervisor is usually a male. He seldom speaks, he frowns, he
never learned to smile, and on the rare occasions he does speak,
it is to criticize someone. How do you deal with a boss like
that?
Be Happy
Forget the tyrant with the bull whip at your back and recall the
great date you had last night. How your stocks have gone up ten
percent since last spring. Think about the party you're looking
forward to this coming week end. This may drive your supervisor
crazy, but there has never been any justification for firing a
person just because they are happy.
If you should achieve some breakthrough on your job, express
your joy out loud. You're not going to get fired for improving a
product and your fellow workers will mostly be happy for you.
Convince all your co-workers to visualize your supervisor as a
clown instead of a three-piece suit. That should bring a smile
to your face every time you look at him.
Plan a birthday party on your lunch hour. If there are no
birthdays, show cartoons.
Hang a bulletin board in a prominent place and encourage your
co-workers to pin jokes and cartoons on it from time to time.
You may find that many employees will arrive 5 to 10 minutes
before starting time. Not because of any demand from the boss,
but because they hope to get a few laughs before starting work.
This is the same principle as reading the comics in the
newspaper first so the news doesn't seem quite so tragic.
If you have a cassette play your favorite music while you work
if this is possible. Wear your earphones so you won't bother
others. It may start a precedent, which will offset the gloom of
the workplace.
If there is an alternate road to your place of employment,
consider it. Ideally it is a two-lane, country road, past a few
mansions, a park, a lazy steam, a golf course and even a
cemetery. By the time you get to work, you will be more relaxed
than you would be battling 10,000 cars on the freeway. It will
be easier to put up with the stress at work and maintain a
cheerful disposition.
Turning gloom into a happy workplace has even been known to
cause a grin on a supervisor's face.
Copyright 2009-2015 Robert T. Lewis
About the author:
Robert T. Lewis, Ph.D.
Psychologist and Author of: The Best Little Job Stress
Manual on the Planet
www.self-helpebooks.com
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