Disorganised boss woes

pug_in_a_bed

Don't know where to begin here...
basically been in my job a few years, with this boss, who also happened to be my boss at my previous job so I know him well, we get on etc but he's a terrible delegator and very disorganised. I've always accepted it because he has never been any different.

Anyway, one of his habits is to ask me to do something, then forget he's asked, and do it himself without updating me, I go ahead and do the task and look foolish. This can be a simple thing like calling someone to arrange a meeting to find he has already done it, to much more serious issues such as completion of tender documents.

Today has really been the last straw, basically I've went ahead with a task which he asked me to do, then he found it wasn't required, and I've caused a whole hullaballoo by releasing info the company no longer want revealing. Turns out he had forgotten to tell me.

We have a good relationship as a team, get along well, supportive etc but he constantly slags off other member of the team to me, but won't confront the employee he has an issue with, and i feel like I have to defend them.

I have my own small team of four, projects etc. yet until recently a large number of people in work thought I was his p.a. This has caused me issues when I've been doing work, and people have questioned why a p.a. would need such and such info.

He will do things like get an email, come to my desk and ask me to reply to it, or call back someone who's just left him a message. I book his meetings etc. into outlook, even reviews with staff because he couldn't get himself together to book them in and the directors were querying why he hadn't done them.

So I have probably not helped myself. I do a lot of high profile work for the company and I believe I do it well, but on more than one occasion he has put me in a situation where I come out looking a right dipstick.

I started working with him as a graduate and he led me to an opportunity for promotion which I'm very grateful for, and then let me know when a job came up in our new company which I got, and am also very grateful for as its close to home, I enjoy it and so on.

But I'm fed up, feel unappreciated and todays incident has strengthened my resolve that I need to move on.

A few weeks ago he was telling us all how the board had been singing his praises as his board reports were so good. He was beaming ear to ear, except I wrote the board reports which he seems to have forgotten.

He isn't just my boss, I know his family etc and he really has never been any different re: being a terrible delegator and disorganised. He panics and will come in and say something needs doing that he remembered at 4am, yet I will have already done it a few days or even weeks ago. We have meetings every day, work in the same office so its not like communication is an issue.

I feel a bit beholden to him because he gave me an opportunity in my last job and to others appears to have given me yet another opportunity in this job - in actual fact the CEO asked me if I would like to apply as he felt I would be a good asset.

I think he may feel a bit like I should feel grateful towards him, and maybe uses this a bit.

I feel really fed up today, the damage from today's incident is repairable but I still look like a total idiot.

OH thinks I should just put my head down and sweat it out and look for something else, but I don't know if I should talk to him, esp. about what's happened today - he hasn't clicked on yet that he should have put the brakes on the task I was completing.

The woes of being in work, eh

Sambucus_Nigra

HI boss. Can I just ask - why do you ask me to do things and then do them yourself? As it makes me look an idiot and wastes everyone's time.

Mischa8

pug_in_a_bed wrote: »

Don't know where to begin here...
basically been in my job a few years, with this boss, who also happened to be my boss at my previous job so I know him well, we get on etc but he's a terrible delegator and very disorganised. I've always accepted it because he has never been any different.

Anyway, one of his habits is to ask me to do something, then forget he's asked, and do it himself without updating me, I go ahead and do the task and look foolish. This can be a simple thing like calling someone to arrange a meeting to find he has already done it, to much more serious issues such as completion of tender documents.

Today has really been the last straw, basically I've went ahead with a task which he asked me to do, then he found it wasn't required, and I've caused a whole hullaballoo by releasing info the company no longer want revealing. Turns out he had forgotten to tell me.

We have a good relationship as a team, get along well, supportive etc but he constantly slags off other member of the team to me, but won't confront the employee he has an issue with, and i feel like I have to defend them.

I have my own small team of four, projects etc. yet until recently a large number of people in work thought I was his p.a. This has caused me issues when I've been doing work, and people have questioned why a p.a. would need such and such info.

He will do things like get an email, come to my desk and ask me to reply to it, or call back someone who's just left him a message. I book his meetings etc. into outlook, even reviews with staff because he couldn't get himself together to book them in and the directors were querying why he hadn't done them.

So I have probably not helped myself. I do a lot of high profile work for the company and I believe I do it well, but on more than one occasion he has put me in a situation where I come out looking a right dipstick.

I started working with him as a graduate and he led me to an opportunity for promotion which I'm very grateful for, and then let me know when a job came up in our new company which I got, and am also very grateful for as its close to home, I enjoy it and so on.

But I'm fed up, feel unappreciated and todays incident has strengthened my resolve that I need to move on.

A few weeks ago he was telling us all how the board had been singing his praises as his board reports were so good. He was beaming ear to ear, except I wrote the board reports which he seems to have forgotten.

He isn't just my boss, I know his family etc and he really has never been any different re: being a terrible delegator and disorganised. He panics and will come in and say something needs doing that he remembered at 4am, yet I will have already done it a few days or even weeks ago. We have meetings every day, work in the same office so its not like communication is an issue.

I feel a bit beholden to him because he gave me an opportunity in my last job and to others appears to have given me yet another opportunity in this job - in actual fact the CEO asked me if I would like to apply as he felt I would be a good asset.

I think he may feel a bit like I should feel grateful towards him, and maybe uses this a bit.

I feel really fed up today, the damage from today's incident is repairable but I still look like a total idiot.

OH thinks I should just put my head down and sweat it out and look for something else, but I don't know if I should talk to him, esp. about what's happened today - he hasn't clicked on yet that he should have put the brakes on the task I was completing.

The woes of being in work, eh

What is your actual job description?

Does he have a PA?

When/do you have an appraisal?

Have you approached HR with any of your concerns?

all are points I'd iron out before starting to look elsewhere.

marybelle01

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

HI boss. Can I just ask - why do you ask me to do things and then do them yourself? As it makes me look an idiot and wastes everyone's time.

I have some sympathy with the view. But probably not very practical.

But having had a few bosses like this, my suggestion would be a work programme. Set out all your work and where it is in terms of progress and staple it to his forehead regularly. OK maybe not staple, but make sure he reads it if you have to stand over him to make him do it. If he can't organise you need to do it for him, at least until your can get the job you deserve.

VfM4meplse

marybelle01 wrote: »

But having had a few bosses like this, my suggestion would be a work programme.

It's not going to be helpful if the workload is unpredictable.

OP, it's time to get anal. Ask your boss to send you confirmation of everything he wants doing - including responses to queries - by email, and email him back with a summary of what's been done. That way, there's and audit trail with names, dates and times. Also, try to get him to use the task manager on Outlook so he has a written record, it will take a while to get used to but persist in the interests of efficiency.

pug_in_a_bed

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

HI boss. Can I just ask - why do you ask me to do things and then do them yourself? As it makes me look an idiot and wastes everyone's time.

I'm sure there are lots of us who would like to say something similar, including me lol, but I think I probably need to be a bit more subtle;)

I also like the idea of attaching the stapler to his head at the moment but a nice glass of red might dampen that urge down a bit!

I like the idea of documenting everything to the letter, I think I'll try and start this tomorrow. I love my to do lists pads and I've tried and tried to get him to use one, but he won't! Its like he just can't focus on one thing; we'll be in a meeting, his phone will go and he will leave and answer it! The time wasting element is a good point too, and if I do decide to talk to him I'll perhaps use this angle.

We're supposed to have personal reviews every 8 weeks, I've had one in 3.5. years and never received the typed notes...

Admittedly the whole place is a bit loopy, its gone through a lot of changes in the last 5 years but I just feel particularly aggrieved at the moment as several things have happened within a few days

pinkshoes

I'd just have a private chat with him, and point out that on a few occasions, he's asked you to do things, then done them himself, so would it be possible to create a list of what he's asked you to do so that the work doesn't get duplicated.

ali-t

Following this thread with interest as I have one with similar traits.

SandC

This is exactly what your appraisal is for if you feel you can't get time with him in the normal day to day. Do you have appraisals and when is your next one due?

Try and forget that you know his family, that he gave you a leg up as a graduate etc. Everyone had a first boss at some point and rarely are they instrumental in getting you where you are - we do that ourselves. Stop thinking you owe him and remember this is your career, your job and you need to be happy in it.

We have meetings every day, work in the same office so its not like communication is an issue.

Communication clearly is an issue and it's the biggest problem you have. This is where you need to start being assertive and I agree with a previous poster, requests for things need to be in writing for him - whenever he asks you to do something, ask him to put it in an email for you. He will question this at first but you just tell him that you are doing some work on prioritising or something of that ilk. He'll get used to doing it in no time. When/if you encounter problems like you have been doing, you then have it all in writing for when you bring it up at appraisal - it's not that you are documenting everything he does wrong - it's just a way of showing how your time can be compromised through lack of communication.

Slinky

If you can't get him to email you his requests, you could always email him to 'confirm our conversation and that I will be doing X as you asked me to by Y date.' which allows a documentation of the process. You then follow it up with an email telling him when you've completed the task.

jfh7gwa

It sounds like you've grown out of your boss - being an inexperienced graduate, new to a job after uni, it's easy to feel beholden to a particular boss, especially if he's genuinely helped you in the past (although, let's face it, it isn't entirely altruistic as you seem to support him very well, and he also gains kudos (maybe even a bonus in some work places...) for finding a capable employee!).

But you have to ask yourself two questions, in all this:

1) At what point does my desire to progress in my job, and be happy in the workplace, over-ride the ties I have with this boss (knowing his family, his previous headhunting of you)? There will, and should come a point - it sounds like you've reached it. Otherwise it would be unhealthy ("I can't leave my job because he gave me a chance...") and unprofessional.

2) Are you ever going to change him? The likely answer is no. You can put in place coping mechanisms (emailing summaries of meetings, clarifying any communications issues, whatever - some really practical tips have already been offered) but, is your ability to "manage" your own boss going to bring him within the tolerance you have for putting up with his disadvantages?

In your scenario, I would start looking to move. Not urgently, and pick the roles I would consider wisely - since there's no real time urgency. But I would still start to look around and mull over the opportunities out there. After all, it does nothing for most people's careers in the long run to stay stuck with the same boss/employer for many many years anyway - so even if he'd been the best boss in the world there would have likely been a point where you start considering alternative experience anyway.

I say this as someone who's had a similar boss in the past - I still get on very well with him personally when I see him, but, frankly, my stress levels have gone down a thousand % after moving roles. And I don't have the world's best boss at the moment - everyone has their flaws. But that old one I had really made the working environment much more disorganised than it needed to be, and I don't regret moving. It was one of the biggest factors in me taking up the next role I was offered.

For example, I'd started to do the "emailing a summary of verbal meetings" thing. But all that meant was that when he said "Oh, you didn't need to do X, why did you think you did?" and I'd reply "because you told me to on Tuesday, see it was in the email summary I sent here" [waves email printout] he'd say "oh sorry, I should have told you."

So emailing myself enabled me to prove I was in the right, but it didn't fix the real problem (me looking disorganised to external clients, say, and his crappy organisation skills!).

i.e. it wasn't enough that I was in the right, and could prove I was. In my working day it mattered more, in the end, that I wasn't put in that chaotic situation in the first place. Hence I moved jobs.