My supervisor hates me
The Worker
When we were entering the university, the future we envisioned involved a mansion, a sweet car, sweet wife and sweet children. We planned to get a job immediately after graduation, live the baby boy life for two or three years. Then, get married, have children, work for five more years then retire young. Great bliss!
That dream has shattered. This role as a Quality Assurance officer is doing everything within its power to kill that vision. The saddest part is that the role sounds very dignified, yet all I do daily is manually check the bottled drinks the company produces. Then I check if the packaging is wrinkled or smooth, I ensure the juice is at the right level and that the expiration date is correct. This life is not close to the one I envisioned.
My boss is a sad man; he is so obsessed with being evil, he nags at me every single minute. He is not related to the owner; he does not have shares in the company, yet he has decided to add more misery to this already miserable job.
I work harder than anyone in my department, I work the longest hours, and my supervisor says I am not productive enough. I have developed great muscles from working in the factory. With all my hard work, I am the only one from my set that is still at this level. It is embarrassing seeing new entry-level staff getting promoted before me. My supervisor is just a wicked man; maybe those people are bribing him to be promoted.
The man hates me; I have been here for two years now, the same position, no promotion, no nothing. Then Henry joined less than a year ago and has been promoted. I know it is because they are from the same state. That man is very partial. See me here wasting my life, working so hard and yet its is not yielding anything. I heard he is planning of kicking me out of here, what did I ever do to deserve this?
…
The supervisor
Why I still volunteered to raise these new entry staff is beyond me. Well, I want to ignite the true passion in them, but somedays I feel like terminating their contracts. What do they want out of life, what exactly is their goal, to work in Quality and Inspection Unit all their lives? That boy John is the most frustrating. He is bent on wallowing in his sorrows; he can not think. John puts in the most effort in the team, but a lot of effort without results could be synonymous to manual labour.
I need him to come up with ideas, the world is innovating, but this guy is bent on leaving things at the level he met it. Even when I introduce an innovation, he struggles with it and prefers to work twice as hard using traditional methods. I have never worked with such a person before; he is killing the passion of the team. I honestly think John is the problem; he has to go. Two years and he can not even advance to data entry; he is a blockhead when it comes to technology. He is so excited to prove that paperwork is better than computer work. I will not want him to influence these new people and make them think that hard work is better than smart work.
He thinks I hate him; everyone in the team is advancing to new levels, yet he is the only one stagnant. Blinded by the amount of effort he puts into his work, he does not see that effort alone did not build this company. It took smart thinking; it involved minds who could proffer solution. John is too busy trying to assess the cause of his problem that he can not think of a solution. He is beyond the stage of advice, he keeps trying and trying, but he is not moving forward. I would give him only one more month to improve, else, he can go to a small company interested in little or no innovation.
“Performance more often comes down to a cultural challenge, rather than simply a technical one.”
– Lara Hogan, Senior Engineering Manager of Performance, Etsy
A common dissatisfaction people struggle with is evolved around their place of work. It feels like no matter what they do, they remain at the same spot. One question I have to ask is this, is there one person who is growing in that office? If yes, what is that person doing to thrive? The fact that you may not be growing at a place of work is mostly a result of the cultural difference you have with the company. A company has the identity of a person and has its unique personalities. The way you would need to gel with a new friend, you would need to gel with a company. Please take a look at your company, what are her core values, what is the acceptable mode of communication? If you can not get yourself to walk hand in hand with the company, I advise you to find another job.
It is a common belief that corruption is the only way forward, and those not willing to be corrupt suffer in many organizations. A study has shown that in such environments, a percentage of the staff that ends up growing did something very right and was indeed not corrupt. Some of the problems for stagnancy at the place of work are;
- Lack of innovation
- A lot of complaints
- Lack of passion
- Handwork with no brain work
- Inability to profer solutions to problems
- Poor communication
- Failure to sync with the company culture
The dodged people that grow within a harsh climate have decided to make a change in that organization. They note the existing problems and proffer solutions rather than complain. They also use people skills to ensure they approach management with the right attitude to make sure their ideas are accepted. They are those people who would be said to have “excess ginger”. They are intentional in making a difference; they are those employees that would go the extra (unasked) mile to make something happen. At that time, most of those people are working to make an impact, not working to make money.
If you figure out that you are not growing as expected, please check yourself. The environment will never intentionally support your growth. Even in winter, some plants survive. You can thrive irrespective of your work environment, decide to grow today.
