It’s 4 solutions to 4 questions. Right here we go…
1. My new boss has a special work fashion than my outdated boss
I’ve been in my job for 3 years underneath James. I’ve favored working with him and have realized quite a bit. The work is pretty strategic in nature, and James usually requested for a number of approaches to be examined and a number of workshopping earlier than making selections. He prioritized creativity and thoroughness over velocity. Principally this labored out wonderful and he was by no means sad with my work, however typically it took a month to do one thing that I felt might have been completed in per week. I’d have most popular a bit of extra independence and decisiveness, however general it was wonderful. He would additionally typically assign initiatives after which overlook about them after I was completed, which wasted time or sources.
James has lately been promoted and is not my supervisor. I’m now supervised by his former boss, Michael. Michael approaches the position very in another way. He’s way more targeted on getting outcomes and whereas it’s been a bit extra hectic, general it’s a constructive and I’ve been getting much more completed and really feel higher that initiatives aren’t dragging out any longer.
Michael has not stated something adverse to me however has often queried why one thing from some time in the past was by no means completed or why an earlier model of one thing took for much longer. I’ve simply stated the priorities on the time had been totally different however haven’t elaborated. I’m undecided if I ought to ask for a gathering to clarify that I labored at a selected tempo as a result of that was what James wished and I wasn’t slacking off or struggling earlier than. Michael wouldn’t beforehand have identified quite a bit about what I do however I don’t need him to have a adverse impression so I’d wish to clear the air, whereas additionally not blaming James for the earlier slower turnarounds.
I’d love some recommendation on how you can method this or if I ought to even say something. James nonetheless works right here, and he and Michael are good pals.
I don’t assume you’ll essentially want a particular assembly to handle it; it’ll most likely be sufficient in the event you simply add a bit extra info every time James asks about one in all these items. For instance, somewhat than simply explaining that X didn’t occur or took a very long time as a result of the priorities had been totally different, you might say, “James wished me to check X, Y, and Z earlier than making a closing resolution about it, in order that added a couple of weeks to the timeline.” Or, “I did X and Y on challenge Z however James finally determined to not pursue it.” This isn’t throwing James underneath the bus; it’s giving your present boss factual, related context about why issues had been completed. In some unspecified time in the future if it comes up organically you might additionally say, “James most popular to check a number of angles and his fashion was to prioritize that over ending extra shortly. I really actually like ending issues shortly and discover it extra satisfying, so I feel my fashion meshes extra with yours in that regard.”
2. Can I’ve an image of the president on my workplace wall?
I’ve an image of the sitting president and vp on the wall of my non-public company workplace. It isn’t in a typical space just like the break room, convention space, or hallway. Is that this a violation?
That’s as much as your organization! But it surely’s undoubtedly affordable for them to say that individuals can’t put up partisan political messages at work, they usually can have a professional curiosity in doing that. It is likely to be extra intuitive if you consider the way you’d really feel a few colleague who had a portrait of the earlier sitting president of their workplace and the way that would probably have an effect on your working relationship or just be a distraction.
(This assumes you’re at a non-public employer. Within the federal authorities, workplace buildings continuously cling portraits of the sitting president, though they’re usually in widespread areas. It is a bizarre custom.)
3. “Have an ideal day!” in e mail signatures
A number of individuals who report back to me use an e mail signature that features the phrases “have an excellent day” or “thanks and have an ideal day!” earlier than their signature. Emails might embody exterior or inside buyer assist, in addition to day-to-day inside emails.
I discover this off-putting. Emails could possibly be something from a impartial buyer query, to a really major problem with a buyer account, to responding to a coworker who emailed about their mother being sick. Typically it simply doesn’t match with the remainder of the e-mail. I feel I’m additionally personally aggravated by being instructed to have an excellent day.
To date, I’ve not stated something. I assume they’ve added this to their e mail template out of kindness. In at the least one case, I don’t have the perfect relationship with the individual, and I don’t need to unnecessarily enhance pressure. Is that this only a private annoyance that I ought to recover from? Is there a professional enterprise case in asking them to take away it?
It’s largely a private annoyance that it is best to recover from. There’s one exception: in the event that they’re not enhancing that out of emails the place it could be inappropriate (like a response to somebody saying they’ll be out for bereavement, for instance), you’ve standing to inform them to be vigilant about doing that. In any other case, although, let it go — in spite of everything, in the event that they had been manually writing that out each time, it could be too micromanagery to inform them to cease. (This assumes that you just’re working in a reasonably typical surroundings the place individuals have some autonomy over the way in which they write emails past this.)
4. Coworker retains sending timecard reminders to our group’s social group textual content
My group lately doubled in measurement, and lots of the new hires are of their early 20’s, both of their first or second job post-school. We additionally employed two leads, a model new place for the expanded group. Each of the leads had been outdoors hires, neither of whom had direct expertise in our discipline, and it looks as if one in all them, “Taylor,” is struggling a bit to determine what being a lead means. Of their protection, one of many group managers is a large micromanager and energy hoarder who I think has not been sharing energy properly and who I do know has pushed again on each leads once they’ve come to administration with solutions for what they could contribute. Neither administration nor coworkers with extra seniority know what the lead roles are both. (That’s a part of the rationale not one of the current employees utilized for them.)
A technique this has displayed for Taylor, although, appears to be making an attempt to say their authority as a lot as doable in ways in which I and different coworkers I’ve chatted with discover annoying and counterproductive. The newest manifestation of this includes a coworker group chat of about 20 individuals began by one of many different new hires. Now, I don’t need to be in a 20-person group textual content in any context, however particularly not for work. It’s largely social with individuals sharing enjoyable photographs (adopted by a dozen notifications of “Elliott favored this picture”), however lately Taylor has began utilizing it to remind everybody to submit our timecards. They’re doing this by making memes about it, so not solely do I get the textual content from them (earlier than I’ve even clocked in that morning) but in addition the requisite 5-10 follow-ups that somebody slapped an emoji response on the meme.
Taylor will not be my (or anybody else’s) supervisor, and I don’t want or need timecard reminders from them. I’ve muted my very own notifications from that group however apparently my telephone will neither enable me to depart the group totally nor stop notifications from displaying within the standing bar. Can I simply reply within the group chat after the subsequent timecard meme simply saying, “Hey, can I request we preserve this chat social and go away work messages for e mail or Groups?” I do like my colleagues and don’t need to appear crotchety, and I feel for Gen Z an enormous group chat is a fairly innocuous factor, however I’m genuinely aggravated. Ought to I say one thing to Taylor in individual so I’m not calling them out in entrance of everybody else? Ought to I simply preserve dismissing notifications and calm down?
It’s affordable to say, ““Hey, can I request we preserve this chat social and go away work messages for e mail or Groups?” And truly it makes it much less of a giant deal in the event you simply say it casually within the chat somewhat than having a complete one-on-one dialog with Taylor about it. In order for you, you might add, “I don’t at all times examine right here and I don’t need to miss something work-related that I have to see.”
But in addition, this might be A Lot for lots of people. May you counsel shifting the entire thing to a Slack channel or one thing else that’s simpler to mute/ignore and the place you may flip off push notifications altogether (or solely have it on work units)?
Nonetheless, all that solely will get on the fixed notifications drawback, when it seems like your actual difficulty is with Taylor asserting authority that they don’t have. If that’s the piece you actually need to tackle, that’s a one-on-one dialog with both Taylor or your supervisor — though in the event you go that route, deal with examples apart from the timecard factor since, whereas that’s annoying, it’s prone to appear a bit of nitpicky. You probably have extra substantive examples, these can be more practical to make use of.