I am not your boss but a friend who is always right

Should we complain and tell our boss what we think about him/her? This post is about this.

 

In many occasions we are unhappy with our work and with our boss. This situation leads us to consider telling what we think about him/her. But sometimes we need to know in advance what it is advisable to say before making a big mistake.

Talk with full sincerity to our boss, telling him or her all what we think is a very risky relief, above all if we don’t find the right moment, way and place.

Normally, this sincere impulse hastens due to lack of tune or for the permanent conflict with your manager. It might be your boss does not get along with you and you are aware of it.

It is also possible you were not meeting the expectations, he sees you as a threat or you always disagree with him/her.

You could use different strategies depending on the reasons. You can leave the company or you could also survive coping with the situation until you find a new job but you cannot fight this attitude of rejection as if nothing happened. Therefore the solution is to complain or be honest and tell what you really think.

It is true that if the company where you work monitored your performance based only on your achievements you should not be worried about talking honestly and openly. But honesty turns out to be, in many companies, an act of suicide.

A very important advice would be, never do this in front of a big audience. The negative feedback has to be commented in private and the positive in public. This is a rule of thumb.

It is very important to be focused on the objective errors and avoid the personal view. In addition, you should propose your own alternatives and solutions to the potential mistakes of your manager. But you have to take into account that your boss could make the mistakes in particular circumstances and give a positive view to your critics by analyzing how he/she resolved them.

In my experience if an employee has the right skills for a job but shows lack of loyalty it is likely this is more important. So if you doubt it is better not criticizing and get some lessons for the future.

Based on the above the question is what to do to get anything positive? The important thing with your complaint is you don’t have hidden agendas nor has no substance. In addition it should be concrete as you are aiming the things change.

The decision to be honest with our manager entails our arguments have to be based on facts. We have to avoid judgements and interpretations clarifying what are our actual needs. But very important as well is to know how he/she feels with us so we could use the complaint to know what he/she expects from us.

Finally, to be honest does not imply to be fully transparent and tell the first thing that comes to our mind. You need to understand the circumstances and do an objective analysis.

Ideally the perfect situation is when you are fully aligned with your boss so you have discussed openly what you expect from him and what he/she expects from you. This trust is the base for the future relationship and normally leads to a higher performance and mutual satisfaction.

But remember, regardless what I have commented above, there is a second rule of thumb, Never tell your boss what you think about him/her. But it is up to you.