How to deal with my boss?

[Willa]

Girls (and guys) tell me if you ever had to deal with this kind of situation...

For some people it could be a dream, for some others like me and my coworkers, it's starting to be a nightmare.

Long story short : we are 3 employes plus one boss.
Last year in august, the boss we have right now came in. Got chosen by the board of directors, we had about 5-6 months where we auto-managed the place by ourselves without any problems.

The fact is, since he's in, it doesnt make any difference if I compare to the moment when he wasnt.

I had the sad impression that we have a big case of incompetence...

A year and a half after, he still can't talk to the clients directly. He doesnt know how to use properly our date base (always changing stuff he shouldnt), we don't know ANYTHING about him, he always go by himself on lunch time, when we go to the restaurant all together he can't talk to us because he's too shy (can't answer our questions, he says yes or no without developing).

When I transfer him calls from clients, he hangs up after taking their number and have to ''study'' the case for HOURS before calling them back (even on a small case...). The fact is : we can't do that, because the clientele we have isnt always home or at the office, they have other jobs and stuff to do, so, sometimes it can takes days/weeks before you can close a file.

When he participates to meetings, nobody listens to him, they talk over him, don't listen to his ideas... He's uncredible!

Am I asking for too much?
Is it normal that he doesnt do the same thing our old boss did?
He changed everything, spends the whole day watching the walls or wondering what to do next. When I talk, he interupts me, I HATE that. He doesnt listen when we talk or advise him on some points he should be able to do, and when the time comes he has to do that he comes back to us with his ''dead fish'' look because he doesnt understand what to do!!!!

It brings some good points tho : when I don't come in because I'm sick, he doesnt take hours on my pay. He never asks for papers when I go to the Dr, if we come in late he doesnt say anything... I work in jeans, I can listen to loud music in my office, he even gave each of us 150$ to decorate our office...

Am I complaining for no reasons here?

 

[Simply Elegant]

I think it is a valid complaint. If there is anyone else higher up I would let him know that you are having some communication issues in that he does not listen to your ideas and seems very apathetic.

I don't know how far you'd go with telling someone that he doesn't really atively participate in lunch conversations when he does go out with your other coworkers, I think that he probably prefers his own company. But I do think his lack of leadership is a problem that should be addressed. Your other coworkers probably have similar thoughts.

 

[Willa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simply Elegant I think that he probably prefers his own company.

And I totally understand, I just stated the fact because I wanted to give some examples on how he's a lonely man.

The thing is : he is the one who always brings in the idea to go eat out! o_0

I can't really go higher, the way it is right now, nobody would listen to us because we think they elected him for the fact that he's easy to ''manipulate''...

 

[TISH1124]

Sounds like he will crash and burn on his own....I'm sure the person he reports to has to have some idea of his work or lack thereof...I personally would just do my job and try not to worry about him, because it seems like he will eventually hang himself by his behavior.

 

[ClaireAvril]

Hmm... this situation is kinda tough

Its good that he can be easy going with some things, but if his lack of knowledge gives you more work I can see how its frustrating.
We have 2 people like that on our team now (they are not managers).. but their lack of knowledge causes more work for everyone.

You can be up front with him and tell him politely.. maybe you can put in some extra hours with him filling him in on important information.. I am sure you can come up with a way to make it sound professional and not make it seem like you're trying to belittle him.. and that will be hard because I know a lot of men have a hard time taking orders from women, especially when the man is in a position of authority.

You can report it to someone higher than him..

Maybe he really just doesn't care.. I have someone like that here too..
She comes in late everyday.. is supposedly sick at least 1-2 times per week..(guess who has to do her work when she's not here) sometimes she doesn't even call to let us know that she is not coming in. She sits on the phone making personal calls while her work is piling up.. she has no respect for the team she works with.

if you feel as though he doesn't really care then its your decision to make.. you can stay and hopefully there will be some resolution to this (or you can just put up with what's going on).. or you can leave.. always find a new position first before you leave.. i'm sure you know that.

I think this depends on what type of person your boss is.. hopefully you can figure something out.

Good luck.

C