Rat Out the Boss (Or Why You Don't Get Career Advice from Pop Culture Magazines)

Career advice time at the Capitalist.  Let's say you're kicking *** and taking names at work, but you've got this boss - maybe he's a boomer or she's an Xer (how old are you again?), and they just aren't getting it done.  You've felt the pressure of picking up the slack for them over the last 6-12 months, and while you work longer hours, they appear to get more and more detached.

You've covered for them because they hired you, promoted you, or maybe just because you were worried about your own performance being viewed in a suspect manner if you didn't pick up the slack.

Now, you're tired, and you've had it.  You want to do something about it. What should you do?

The dangerously simplistic answer from Conde Nast's Portfolio Mag:

I like my boss, but he's seriously mismanaging a vendor, and the only reason it's not blowing up in our face is because I'm working overtime to cover his missteps. What can I do to get out of this mess?

Try to get an audience with your boss's boss—the classic entrée is under the guise of asking for advice—and simply outline what you're doing. If you lay out the process clearly enough, any smart general manager will see there's a hole in what your direct manager is doing.

An answer like that is why you never rely on career advice from a columnist who has 250 words to determine the fate of your career.  NEVER....

Here are a couple of reasons why doing a skip level session with your boss's boss may not be a good idea:

1.  People chronically overestimate their own performance.  You might be in that grouping.

2.  Direct reports often don't have a great line of sight in terms of what's being asked of their boss from above.  She might be cranking out some very valuable work - you don't really know, and if you think you do, you're already way too overconfident, unless you share an office with them.

3.  All politics are local.  Are you confident that your boss and her boss (the one you're planning on skip leveling to) aren't friends, or at least don't have each other's backs?

What's my solution if I don't like the brilliance from Conde Nast? How about talking to your boss about your concerns (in a light, non-accusational way) and how you've been impacted by them being "elsewhere" or working on other things?  Too heavy for you?  How about telling them what you have on your plate and having them help you on what to prioritize?

Or you can just drop the dagger into their back, like Conde Nast recommends in a 200 word opus that will determine your career in its flippancy.

Good luck.   

Comments

[Sean Conrad]

This would be about as brilliant as taking love advice from Cosmo.

I would hope that you would have a good enough relationship with your boss to sit down and talk about it. Maybe your boss would let you handle that relationship with the vendor as a trial to see how you handle it. Sell it as a development opportunity for you instead and I'd bet you get better results. Now instead of challenging his behaviour, you are pro-actively looking to take on bigger challenges and develop your skills.

[Wally Bock]

Great post, Kris. I suggest that if you do decide to play hardball, hardcore office politics, you take the advice of the master of it all, Machiavelli: "Never wound a king."

[David PHR]

Is it any wonder that Portfolio died?

[Tag44]

Nice advice, thanks for the post and for sharing the very resourceful information here.