I realize this might not be the ideal messageboard to post this but I recently started a new job after a long time of being unemployed, and I can’t remember feeling like I’m absolutely useless at the jobs before this one. Fair enough this job has a lot more moving parts so to speak, and I’m much more closely supervised than I’ve ever been before. But I’ve been there about 2 months now and my boss still keeps pointing out mistakes I’ve made, comments on what I’m doing and just now called me to remark at the mistakes I’d made while closing up.
I’m content at this job for now, and only have a 6 month contract but I would prefer to do a good enough job to have it renewed after it runs out, and at the moment I feel like I could get told not to come back every day when I leave. Socially I feel like I’m getting along pretty well with my coworkers, sure as hell enjoying it more than laying on the sofa watching TV all day.
The name of the company and a good recommendation would also do a lot for me career-wise, especially if my contract gets renewed for another year or two. However at the moment I feel like I would be lucky if I get to stay another month, just because from my point of view I’m doing a horrible job, I’m basically a seat-filler and I’m not sure if its my own anxiety and wish to prove myself coupled with both high expectations and a streak of perfectionism that’s doing it to me, or if I’m actually performing poorly.
I guess what I’m looking for insight on is how someone in a supervising position looks at a new employee, what expectations they have, what kind of mistakes are tolerable and when an employee is expected to be pull his own weight.
The job is a front office job in a travel related company, my tasks include closing up, doing the books at closing, handling customer relations, just to give an idea at what kind of complexity we’re talking.
The boss might just be like that with everyone, maybe its his management style. Or maybe you’re fucking up. You could try to see how he interacts with other employees, although he may keep his corrections private. Either way, you can’t go wrong with this…
[quote]wigsa wrote:
My advice would be to start listening to your boss and doing things right.
Sorry to be blunt.[/quote]
Just make the corrections he tells you about, get a feeling for how he wants things done, and do them that way.
[quote]Eric 2.0 wrote:
The boss might just be like that with everyone, maybe its his management style. Or maybe you’re fucking up. You could try to see how he interacts with other employees, although he may keep his corrections private. Either way, you can’t go wrong with this…
[quote]wigsa wrote:
My advice would be to start listening to your boss and doing things right.
Sorry to be blunt.[/quote]
Just make the corrections he tells you about, get a feeling for how he wants things done, and do them that way. [/quote]
The corrections are very public, and its something he seems to do even with other members of management a few times a week. The only thing he seems to be correcting me about is the closing up procedure, which I’ve done about 10 times, 4 when I’d just started and 5 this week. For some reason I’m having a hard time remembering the 25 steps of closing up.
My boss will criticize you for every little thing but doesn’t yell at you until he is really pissed then he forgets about it an hour later. All depends on the person, there are people at work who tell me what to do all the time and I totally ignore them and the people who are really in charge I listen to all the time.
Write everything down, and make sure he sees you taking notes. Ask him to speak slower if need be.
READ THE NOTES YOU TAKE! (You would be amazed at how many fucking kids take pages of notes, and never fucking read them.)
Continue to get along with everyone, and don’t bad mouth ANYONE at work or to any co-workers.
Always bitch upwards, never lateral or down.
It is hard to give you anymore advice without knowing your boss, you, what it is you’re doing, and what you claimed you were capable during your interview.
Listen to Beans. He is smart. You might also try approaching him and asking if you can meet for 10 minutes sometime today or tomorrow. When you meet, tell him that you enjoy working there, that you’ve noticed some issues with closing and you are working on improving it, and ask if he can give you any suggestions. Don’t be ass kissy about it. Just genuine and straight forward. I’m a perfectionist too and I’ve experienced the initial discomfort of not knowing it all within the first hour on a job. Cut yourself some slack and see how the guy responds to the one-on-one.
Thanks for all the advice guys. I’ve asked around work, and it turns out that I’m not the first person to get what they call “the treatment” which he apparently does to other managers as well. For those interested the other managers told me they are happy with my work so far so I guess I was worrying a bit too much when I wrote the post.
Countingbeans and attydeb gave great advice. Even if the other people at work say he’s like this with some people, I’d still talk to him and get this cleared up - it shows you care about what you’re doing and are willing to do a little extra to learn what it takes to get the job done.
Check out hbr.org. They have a lot of good articles on job/career stuff. It may give you some relativity on your boss’s point of view and a lot of the articles are aimed non-management people who have desire in taking an active role in their career.
