“The truth shall set you free” is an old adage that has done quite the rounds throughout centuries. However, this is not always practical in most situations, especially at the work place. In fact, telling the absolute truth while there, will most likely get you serious disciplinary action or better yet, fired!
Everyone bites their tongue once in a while at the office especially, when dealing with higher ups. Whether it’s the intern chasing paper for their supervisor or the CEO taking heat for their decisions from the board of directors. All this in a bid to avoid saying what we truly feel which will be most likely termed as disrespectful or defiance of authority.
For this piece, we will set aside all the political incorrectness and the office etiquette, just this once! Here are a few things that we really wish we could say at the workplace but just can’t.
You're not my boss!
You can never miss these characters at the office. They could be employees who’ve been at the organization for far longer than they should and just because you’re new, they think they are entitled to boss you around. They keep on delegating tasks for you to work on, in the name of teamwork and are always seeking updates on the same. Gone unchecked, these bossy peers can be a total pain in the neck.
You’re not always right!
More often than not, we are encouraged to consider the word of our superiors as the holy grail, but what if they are wrong? We may have a different view which could actually work but since you cannot imagine taking advice from a junior, you would rather sink the whole team with your methods or ideas.
It is important to be teachable, as we all don’t know everything.
That sounds like your emergency not mine!
We know them well! Those coworkers who always bombard us with ticking time bombs at the very last minute. They then declare that, unless whatever they are asking for is done, the whole company is going to burn down and it will all be because of failure on our part. Since when did poor planning on your part constitute an emergency for me? That definitely sounds like a ‘you’ problem and not a ‘me’ problem.
What a snitch!
Snitching at the office may the pettiest act yet, but oh my, how it has undermined so many peoples’ jobs and even led to most of them leaving their roles. There is always that coworker, always watching from the corner of his or her eye, taking mental notes of nothing else but your mistakes and reporting all of them back to the boss. That coworker everybody, is the office snitch!
I have a life too!
Constant tasks past work hours! Incessant office calls over the weekend or during your off days! and trust me, it can get worse than this. Work life balance, is often at the bottom of your boss’s priorities at this point. Unfortunately, telling your boss that you’re overworked doesn’t always get you the desired effect. If anything, some bosses may term you as a lazy, uncommitted employee who does nothing for the firm but complain. Harsh, isn’t it? But it happens.
Shouting won't make me understand you better.
Just when you thought it was going to be regular day at the office, you hear your boss or supervisor shouting at you from their office for whatever reason. Everyone can hear them; coworkers, clients, the birds that randomly perch on the office windows, I mean everybody!
It is usually worse when they are either belittling your professional training or hurling threats for some mundane mistake you made. If you’re one of those people who pretend not to be capable of shedding tears, this is usually the moment when your will is tested.
Was this meeting really necessary?
Meetings! Whether online or physical. Too much of it leaves employees with little or no time for their ‘real work’ throughout the day. I mean surely, what are we discussing from 8am to 11am in the name of status reports. This meeting definitely could have been an email.
I wish you’d stop taking credit for my work.
Not to sound petty but it definitely feels good to be recognized for your own efforts towards certain successes especially in the office. It could affect your chances at promotions or awards.
However it doesn’t always happen like this, does it? We’ve all had this happen to us at one point or another; you share an idea with a colleague and then hear him repeat it in a meeting or you burn the midnight oil towards a solution and the idea is labelled a mere departmental breakthrough.
Ideally, we want to believe that our work will speak for itself but at the office, it definitely matters who gets credit especially if it is a habitual occurence.
I just don't like you!
Making friends at work can definitely be the best thing. I mean, one could always work with just the people they liked and in turn make their daily job more bearable. Wouldn’t that be a dream come true? Unfortunately, you can’t always pick ,let alone like the people you work with.
From the passive aggressive emails ,constant queries about how one is fairing even though we know we could really care less, to the awkward smiles at the lobby, it can definitely get very awkward with these coworkers. What to do! Sometimes you just have to fake it, to keep the ball rolling.
