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Wow, you work at the complete opposite environment than my last job.
In my last job, the bosses praised the lowest performing employees. They liked having people work for them who didn't think, made lots of "stupid" mistakes (due to the not thinking)
If anyone actually intelligent worked for them, and (obviously) brought up ways to make their jobs more efficient, ways for the company to save more money, and didn't make any mistakes, they got fired or laid off within a year or two of getting hired.
I worked for a woman like the OP's boss for about 18 months. She drove me to a nervous breakdown. I worked at the same job for another boss for 10 years and had no problems. OP, do yourself a big favor and get the heck out of there. I too worked for govt and HR is not going to listen unless your organization hit the jackpot with HR people.
Life is too short to deal with that kind of stress. EVERYBODY makes mistakes. You will make MORE mistakes if you continue in that environment, and soon your self confidence will suffer. That kind of stress takes its toll slowly and invisibly on your health. GET OUT NOW. Pay cut or no pay cut.
Mistakes are simply not tolerated by my boss. If you make the slightest mistake, he becomes a rage machine, furious and screaming. It is downright scary and makes me extremely uncomfortable to be around him. (snip)
He immediately started yelling and called me in his office. He was screaming and cussing, saying how I totally fcked up and it would take all day to resort the envelopes. I would have gladly resorted them myself, but he was so mad that I thought I better go ahead and just reprint them in the right order.
The incident had me shaken the entire day. I live in fear that I might make the slightest mistake. I just can't see any justification for him blowing up at me like that. It was a normal human oversight and not something that couldn't have been easily rectified.
I'm just curious how it is at other people's jobs. I can understand being disciplined if you keep making the same mistakes, but is anyone really 100% perfect all the time?
I had a boss like that. Yelled my name loudly when he didn't like something I did. Tried very hard to embarrass me. He liked to remind me that the person who had the job before me ran away from it crying. A real jerk. I was stuck there because I had bills to pay so I couldn't leave. I decided I would look him straight in the face every single time he yelled at me with no expression. I also tried to interject humor into the situation when things cooled down. Shockingly, these tactics worked and the yelling/cursing subsided. He was still rude and nasty, but I think he realized I wasn't going to leave the job crying.
OP, you can try what I did and it may work for you. Or not, as no two bosses are exactly alike. Another idea is to invest in a punching bag and put your bosses picture on it. Use it every day after work. That may help relieve some stress. Good luck.
Your boss isn't being efficient. What kinds of solutions has he proposed to reduce errors, or to have a system in place where other people or other techniques can be used to reduce errors? I have to wonder about the managers who care more about screaming their heads off from mistakes rather than taking a task-oriented approach to train employees to be more diligent.
I work retail and the upper managers are always trying to get rid of employees (especially long term employees) to look good on payroll and get promotions. You have to watch everything you do and say in retail, it's cut throat.
For the past 5 years, I have held an IT support job with the state. I was so excited when I got this job because I invested many years in software companies only to be laid off and have to start all over. Finally some job security.
But that security has come at a price. There is a weird climate of fear at my workplace. Mistakes are simply not tolerated by my boss. If you make the slightest mistake, he becomes a rage machine, furious and screaming. It is downright scary and makes me extremely uncomfortable to be around him.
Thankfully, I have a strong work ethic and almost never mess up. If I do, I take immediate measures to prevent it from happening again. I still remember him screaming at me during my first week on the job when I was trying to learn the ropes and transferred a file too many times. I went to work and created my own checklist to prevent it from happening again. I never messed up a deposit file again.
A few weeks ago, I was tasked to print some envelopes and letters to go out to state employers. He told me to go ahead and print the envelopes which I did in alphabetical order. Then he told me to not to do the letters just yet. A week later, he gave me the green light to print the letters. I happen to be really busy that day so I printed the letters and handed them to him with the envelopes. I had forgot that the envelopes were printed in alpha order when I had printed the letters in number order. He immediately started yelling and called me in his office. He was screaming and cussing, saying how I totally fcked up and it would take all day to resort the envelopes. I would have gladly resorted them myself, but he was so mad that I thought I better go ahead and just reprint them in the right order.
The incident had me shaken the entire day. I live in fear that I might make the slightest mistake. I just can't see any justification for him blowing up at me like that. It was a normal human oversight and not something that couldn't have been easily rectified.
I'm just curious how it is at other people's jobs. I can understand being disciplined if you keep making the same mistakes, but is anyone really 100% perfect all the time?
State job, right?
All sorts of weird behavior with government supervisors.
Public or private company, full time or contractor, there is no such thing as job security. You can get closer to that with a government job, but then you are more than likely getting paid much less.
Sounds like your boss is a head case and needs to be reported to HR.
Only people who ever had a right to yell at me were my parents when I was a child and wife when I was married... Other than that, they need to show a little respect and common courtesy.
I work retail and the upper managers are always trying to get rid of employees (especially long term employees) to look good on payroll and get promotions. You have to watch everything you do and say in retail, it's cut throat.
its a different world today ,,,when i started in retail workplace over 30 years ago, we worked hard, but could joke around,,
now you have to walk on glass, watch every word you say -as not to offend anyone,,,,and keep your distance with female co-workers, if a guy looks at a female the wrong way it can be sexual harrassment.
i know it sounds stupid ,,,but companies get sue'd every day...and yes some have merit ,,,but ive known many that did not..
Oh, that just sounds like an awful work situation. I am a perfectionist, but we all make mistakes occasionally. We are just human.
Is he the top boss, or is there someone you can talk to about him...you know, "over his head?" He needs to be reminded that he is hurting the people who he depends on to make him look good.
Best of luck to you in this work situation.
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Re: No Mistakes
