Three ways to show the boss who’s the boss

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Employees at all levels are no strangers to ill-treatment from the boss – demands for higher sales figures, longer working hours and attempts from the boss to squeeze out every ounce of productivity from employees by hiring less people while setting higher targets.

Although workers never get tired of complaining about how the boss tortures them, most would never dare to speak their minds. But there are always exceptions. This blog post on Heawork shared three scenarios of fearless workers fighting back against their boss.

1. Dare the boss to fire you After making a huge mistake, instead of apologising or trying to fix the issue,  an experienced employee grabbed the arms of his colleague and yelled: “You and me into the boss’s room now! Tell the boss to fire me!”

The boss and the colleague were so stunned, they kept silent.

2. Bad guys always seem to win  The writer of the post said a friend of his received an email inquiry from a client in Chinese.  Instead of following up on it, he forwarded it to his expatriate boss and cc-ed his secretary.  The employee insisted it was the secretary’s job to follow-up on such inquiries and somehow managed to force the secretary to do what he was supposed to do.

To conclude, if you are enough of a badass, you can do whatever you want in the office.

3. Respond in English In the local office, speaking in English gives one an advantage even over the boss. In response to the boss’s demand for a better performance, a worker replied: “I am paid to work, but I am not well paid to work.”

The boss seemed startled by this iconic response. The boss left the employee alone and went back to his room to rethink the true meaning behind the employee’s words of wisdom.

These daredevils seem to be gaining an advantage on the boss, but the reality is they are winning the battle, but losing the war. After all, what kind of career advancement can they expect with such a poor attitude?

ALSO READ: Five ways to shut the boss up “Hong Kong style”

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