Posted on 07/15/2014 2:13:15 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The boss/employee relationship has an inherent inequality of power, and since knowledge is power, most bosses will want to keep some knowledge to themselves and away from employees.
Doing so often involves telling the following lies:
1. “We can't pay you more.”
If a company has any cash flow whatsoever, the boss is making decisions about where to spend based on what the boss feels is a priority. Your salary isn’t the priority, so can’t really means won’t.
Since your compensation always reflects the minimum your boss believes you’ll accept, when you hear this lie, it’s a signal that you need to renegotiate the compensation agreement you have with your boss.
2. “Your raise is above average.”
If you’re in an organization in which the compensation for everyone in the group is pulled from a set amount of money, there’s a good chance that the boss is describing almost everyone’s raise as “above average.”
Companies that employ nonunion labor are exquisitely sensitive about anybody sharing salary information, because such sharing inevitably makes somebody feel that he or she is being slighted.
Bosses therefore tell this lie because they’re afraid that if you knew what your coworkers were being paid, you would quit in disgust.
3. “We're one big happy family.”
In real life happy families don’t keep secrets from one another, and tend to share everything equally.
The most wretched places to work are those in which bosses and employees replicate the yelling, spanking, criticism, deception, and cruelty that play a huge role in the horrors of a miserable childhood.
Your best bet is to quietly refuse the entire premise of the lie and remember that it’s not personal, it’s business.
4. “There's no truth to the layoff rumor.”
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
“7. “Your response will be confidential.””
I remember this one, back in the days of paper. They promised us they would be confidential, but they were serialized. Now, on a computer, nothing is confidential, and you’d have to be a TOTAL IDIOT to think otherwise.
That is absolutely true. Always dangling something and never following up on it. And if you call them on it you are punished. I have a great boss but even he has used most of these excuses. And the stuff that C level people do for themselves but say they "can't" do for staff is mind blowing.
Congrats for getting out. I'm working on an exit strategy as well. Life is too short to live in a Dilbert cartoon.
Ok you got me laughing with the Dilbert reference.
It is SO true.
Hard to believe people talk like this. We all started out with UGH!
I received this email today. It has this as topics:
Topics Addressing Your Every Need Include:
• Position IT as an enabler of transformation
• Embrace virtualization and cloud services
• Roll out a BYOD program fueled by mobility
• Transform IT human capital through people architecture
• Redesign the support model from the outside in
• Drive your business forward with data and analytics
Yeah, I've heard that one. The rumor was true, and the company itself folded a few years later.
I should add this...
The union killed the company.
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