“My boss doesn’t care about fixing disagreements between employees around here.”
“My boss is the cause of all the problems around here.”
“My boss has never shown an interest in doing any of the things that you’re talking about.”
“My boss is never going to come to any of these workshops.”
“This is all great information, and it would be better if my boss were here to hear it.”
“My boss will never let me do any of the things that you are talking about here.”
Yes.
Your boss has never shown an interest in resolving disagreements.
Your boss has never shown an interest in attending a training, or development opportunity.
Your boss is a person in authority and sets the tone in the workplace of “my way or the highway.”
Your boss is not a progressive thinker or doer in the workplace.
Your boss is the one where all the problems at work start.
And if your boss would just change, everything would be better at work.
Right?
Well….
You could try to strategically disrupt your boss, but many of you are more concerned about your mortgage, your kids’ education, your status at work, the importance of the work that you think you are doing, or whatever the other reasons are you come up with, to not engage in strategic disruption.
You could try to disrupt your boss, but you are afraid that you will be fired, reprimanded, or even not promoted. Or even worse, if the disruption works, you are afraid that the responsibility and accountability for what will happen next will fall on you. And you already have enough tasks to accomplish at work.
You could try to disrupt your boss, but you are worried and anxious that the other employees looking at you, won’t back you up as you speak and act with candor, clarity, and courage. So, you’ll be out there by yourself, facing an angry boss, shifted office politics, and new disagreements that you didn’t think could possibly happen.
Right?
The empathy that exists around acknowledging the presence of all of these reasons for not acting, and for making the statements that you make that are listed above, does not reduce the impact of three facts:
Only you can take responsibility and accountability. Yes, it might not work out when you confront the other adult, known as your boss, about their lack of interest in changing the conflict culture of the workplace you’re in, but it just might.
Only you can implement ideas and strategies to reduce the impact of conflicts in your workplace, in spite of the politics of your co-workers, not because of the politics of your co-workers.
Only you can start the process of addressing, honoring, and respecting adults as adults. Rather than dealing with them in the way that the boss does who you complain about—as if they are children.
“My boss doesn’t care” is the beginning of, not complaint, but possibility.
