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[SJ] SJs, your relationship with your boss

Cimarron

IRL is not real
Joined
Aug 21, 2008
Messages
3,417
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ISTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
To the SJs:

How is your relationship with your boss? If your boss is the kind that hardly ever interacts with employees, what do you think of him anyway, your perception of him? (I know the boss can be a female, I just get annoyed with those slashes in pronouns.)

If you don't have one right now, you can talk about a boss from a past job.
 
Last edited:

raz

Let's make this showy!
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
2,523
MBTI Type
LoLz
Well, I work in a department store in the men's department. My tasks basically are:

- Ring up customers
- Put up new stock
- Help customers find clothes
- Straighten the department

I've been trying to figure out my boss' type for a few weeks now. She's very strict on everyone in the store. However, when she's with me, I tend to notice that she constantly tells me things that I could've easily done, or starts on one project, then while working on it, finds something else that needs to be done. She was telling me she had a problem before where she couldn't focus on one thing at a time. Her attitude toward her job and the people she manages suggests J, but when I watch how she maneuvers herself, I think P.

For example, we have a sock sale that just started, so we had to get the department ready for it. I spent probably 3-4 hours with her yesterday trying to get things set up. I kept asking her questions about it, she would say random things, and I had no idea if she was thinking out loud or giving me an order. When we tried working one part of it, she went near an area that needed to be worked on, and started cleaning up that area instead of the project her and I were working on. I was like, "WTF."

I ended up emptying our stockroom of extra socks a half hour before I left, and I barely got anything done that day because I was constantly following her. I got the feeling I was moving and thinking faster than her. I just didn't want to do things on my own without her consent. It was really busy yesterday, though, so she could've been really busy.

One of the major problems is with putting up new stock. I look at it, then look where it has to go, and I say, "That doesn't look like it can really fit there, what should we do?" To which she just says frequently, "Just try it! You have to make it work! Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do." The way I do things is I look at it with my eyes, and try to guesstimate on how plausible it is. She just tries anyway.

She's definitely an extravert, because when I'm working on something with her, it bothers her SO much if I'm quiet. She'll start asking me if she's offended me or the obligatory, "what's wrong?" She can be strict a lot of times, to the point that I feel like she's so cold. There's definitely no Fe going on at all with her. My store manager, however, is all about Fe. His motto is, "Just do what makes the customer happy."

She constantly places demands on me to do things, and doesn't understand why I don't really do it. A lot of things they ask us to do, I just feel stupid doing. If I were an Extraverted Feeler, it'd be a lot easier, but I'm not. I think I'm like a challenge to her, though. She knows very well that we don't get along, and is constantly reaffirming our "conflicts."

For instance, the other night, I had a box of gift boxes I was going to restock at my counter. I looked at them and thought it wasn't worth it to open two new boxes, so I'd carry both of them back to the back. On the way back, I stopped at another counter to rest for a second, which was when she saw me holding two big boxes at a counter that wasn't mine. Her first reaction was, "You better not be leaving those boxes at that counter!" I told her no, and just kept walking to the back.

When I saw her next, even though I shouldn't have, I said, "I'm glad you think so highly of me that you expect the worst." Her response was probably a Sensor response. It just annoyed me. She said, "That was just what I saw. You don't have to do all you do with your bad attitude, though." I left her and went to clock out, and a minute later, she came over to me, and apologized, saying, "I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions like that and saying what I did about your bad attitude, but I was talking about what I saw."

Actually, now that I've written this expository, I'm thinking she's ESFP.
 

lorkan

New member
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
260
MBTI Type
INFJ
"Im glad you think so highly of me that you expect the worst"

Priceless x-)... and the way you tell these examples is very funny.
 

swordpath

New member
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
10,547
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ISTx
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5w6
I've got a boss that I contend with unfortunately (female, possibly ENTJ) and I have a higher boss that I'm fine with (female, possibly ISTJ).
 

Giggly

No moss growing on me
Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
9,661
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iSFj
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2
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sx/so
To the SJs:

How is your relationship with your boss? If your boss is the kind that hardly ever interacts with employees, what do you think of him anyway, your perception of him? (I know the boss can be a female, I just get annoyed with those slashes in pronouns.)

If you don't have one right now, you can talk about a boss from a past job.

I don't interact with my boss that much and it's really nice. It allows me lots of independence and freedom. But I work for a small company so I don't have to go through the usual reviews just for the sake of reviewing like you have to in larger companies.
 

Cimarron

IRL is not real
Joined
Aug 21, 2008
Messages
3,417
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ISTJ
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5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
I don't interact with my boss that much and it's really nice. It allows me lots of independence and freedom. But I work for a small company so I don't have to go through the usual reviews just for the sake of reviewing like you have to in larger companies.
What if you had to interact with your boss more? Would you mind, or would there be some clashes?
 
G

garbage

Guest
I work at a small research center, directly beneath the director of the center. He's also my Ph.D. advisor and heads up two of the projects that I work on.

My boss is definitely a more technically-oriented worker who embodies routine, perfectionism, day-to-day operations, and focusing on one task at a time. He also doesn't interact with his employees much beyond an "as-needed" level, leaving them to their own devices but sometimes discouraging those who won't pipe up about their own needs. Contrast him to his "right-hand man" who is very outgoing and friendly, but worries way, way too much about the future. Staff meetings where my boss isn't present usually devolve into talking about some crisis that will doom our research center three years in the future, and ones without the right-hand man get heavy into project details when such detail is probably unnecessary. I constantly have to remind them both that their differing viewpoints keep each other in check.

Working directly for my boss, my need for feedback and direction used to leave me discouraged, as I never felt like I was appreciated.. when it should have been clear that exactly the opposite was true. It was just that he didn't express it outright, but it definitely showed in the eventual clout that I was able to have. This can be applied to other ways in which I deal with him--for example, when I need a question answered, I either do so through email so that he can answer it on his own time if he's deeply-entrenched in some task, or I come into his office and wait for him to "spin down" before I ask my question.

When I got to understanding his own mentality, working with him became much easier. I find that this is true of most anyone I come across in the working environment. One project that I was on involved working with some more extroverted and less focused types, which used to bother me until I observed that they wanted more of a personal connection (during meetings and through email and phone conversations) and actually appreciated being brought back to task when their trains of thought wandered off. When I began to think about how they might be feeling, I could connect with them easier and get more out of them without conflict.

I spoke about how two diametrically-opposed viewpoints keep each other in check. I find myself more balanced in certain ways (for good and for bad) than either of them, so when I work directly with one of them, I'm usually the one to keep them in check to some degree. Actually, depending on who I work with, I'm probably deemed either a perfectionist or a corner-cutter, a forward-thinker or a "live for the moment" kind of guy, etc. ..

I'm one who greatly values flexibility and independence in my work, and so I could probably not deal well with an employer who constantly needed to keep tabs on his employees.. which, unfortunately, can be pretty common in the engineering world. I realize that other people might need structure and guidance to a greater degree than I do, but I can't help but feel that it would be a lack of trust in me as a professional--and a waste of time--if my boss consistently asked me for progress reports.
 

d@v3

Perfect Gentleman! =D
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
2,830
MBTI Type
ISTJ
To the SJs:

How is your relationship with your boss? If your boss is the kind that hardly ever interacts with employees, what do you think of him anyway, your perception of him? (I know the boss can be a female, I just get annoyed with those slashes in pronouns.)

If you don't have one right now, you can talk about a boss from a past job.

I get along with my boss well. My guess is that she is an ENFP. She is always very nice to me BUT, when you get on her bad side- lookout! I only know this because I am "second in command" and when people under me don't do what they are supposed to, guess who gets chewed out for it! :cry:
 

Giggly

No moss growing on me
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Jun 12, 2008
Messages
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iSFj
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sx/so
What if you had to interact with your boss more? Would you mind, or would there be some clashes?

Well, I have a great boss now so, no, but I've had sucky bosses in the past and I still did what I was told even if I didn't like it because, well... I was supposed to. It's what I was hired for.
 

Anna212

New member
Joined
Nov 6, 2008
Messages
7
MBTI Type
ISTJ
I have two bosses. One is middle aged and I don't typically see him very much. The other day, I was in his office, and he tried to make me do some task that was pointless and boring, and I got into an awful argument with him about doing it. I got into trouble for being insubordinate. :doh:

My other boss is a male NF of some sort, and I like him a person but I have a couple of gripes about him. One, he asks me about my personal life which I don't like sharing with coworkers. (He asked me the other day how my love life was and what I wanted to say to him was "None of your g******ed business!").

The other thing is that I have to work closely with him on certain tasks, and he doesn't give me enough directions. Him being a big picture person, he just assumes that I am ok with little direction... but I prefer to know what I am getting into!
 

oasispaw

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Joined
Jan 2, 2008
Messages
265
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isfj
i get along great with my boss. i've been trying to figure out her type, but she's a toughy! i want to say infj because she has an uncanny "psychic" ability. but she might be a sensor. when i have my hair down she sometimes asks if she can touch it and she likes touching fabrics and stuff. she's totally i, totally f, and totally j.

i work for a property group that owns and manages low-income housing projects/ developments. i am in the lowest position in my office as an accounting clerk. my boss is very understanding and kind of shields me from the executives in the office. she knows i have a busy personal life and doesn't want me to get all wrapped up in work. i think that's awesome because i could stay there and work my buns off until the cows come home, but i'd rather come home on time and spend time with my little boy. she's kind of mother-y and always has time for my questions about procedure and stuff, even while her stacks of work pile up to the sky. she always says "thanks for your help" at the end of each day and will send me an email saying so if she has forgotten to mention it.

the accounting assistant is her husband and he's like a step above me. he's pretty awesome too because he'll look at stuff for me that i've been looking at for too long to even be able to figure it out anymore. he's an isfp. he will also do the filing if i'm swamped.

i get along with them on a personal level as well because we share a similar sense of humor and were all kind of outcasts in our school years. my boss and i both worked diligently in school and take pride in that fact. we've both worked in coffee and retail. she's been in the property management business in different roles for probably the past decade.

anyone above that, i don't interact with enough for them to have an impact on my day.

oh, there's also my cubicle-mate who i think is an ent-something, but i need to look into it more. she very friendly and kind of absent minded but will say what she thinks in a given circumstance. she always volunteers to call people and yell at them if they need yelling at. she is the accountant for our weird properties that are under construction or who need special attention. i think she works on like 6 of the 32 properties.
 

Tiltyred

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Dec 1, 2008
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sx/sp
I'm a legal secretary and I have four bosses. The most senior one is the one I've had the longest, and he's the one I'm "married" to -- for example, my best friends moved to Colorado and wanted me to go, too, but I didn't because I didn't want to leave my boss. He's what keeps my life stable. He reads his mail standing at my desk in the morning, and then he goes about his business and I go about mine. He really just stands there to be available to me if I need to ask a question or to inform him of something I think he needs to know, and that means a lot to me, that he stands near me for a bit without making me chit-chat. At the end of the year, he gives me an excellent review, and I get an excellent raise. He doesn't make me sit down and go over the review -- he just gives me the paper to sign, and I sign it. I often sign off on the review before I've even read it, because I trust him completely after these 9 years of being his secretary. This year was kind of funny because when he gave me the review, I went straight to the last page and signed and dated, and went to hand it back to him, and he was like, no, wait, you might want to look at this one, so I did, and it was a really good review, even better than usual, and I got all choked up and managed to say "Thanks," and he said "I know it was a hard year," and it meant the world to me because it really was a hard year, almost unbearable in spots. He is really good like that. He also keeps me informed if he's going through personal difficulties, but it's just a sentence -- "My dad is in the hospital," or "I'm getting a divorce," and that's good. He's a total extrovert and loves to chat, but he is not like that with me and I see that he's making a difference to suit me, and I appreciate it. He's an ENTP.

2nd in command is female. She drives me nuts - every time she passes my desk, she screams CIAO! and I jump a mile and it takes me 10 minutes to find my place in what I was doing, and she's a terrible attention whore which personally grates on my nerves really bad, but those are small gripes -- overall she's a sweetheart, extremely well intended and always does the kindest thing, she gives very thorough instructions and knows exactly what she wants, and she also gives me good reviews. We had some personal interaction when she was floundering in her personal life, crushing on a married coworker and was just going 'round and 'round with it, so I got fed up and just took the wheel for a bit, got her credit card out of her and wrote ads for her on a couple of personals sites, using pictures of her from the firm newsletter, and she did really well, just took off with it. She picked a great guy and I feel pretty sure they'll get married. She just needed someone to help her get her ducks in a row and give her a push. I trust her and she trusts me and that is a solid relationship, too, built over years.

Third guy is a sweetie, sometimes a little anxious but less so as we go on. He brings me back presents when he travels. Presents are good. I don't know anything about him personally.

Fourth guy is also a very good person with a very good heart, and he's funny and can take a joke -- my silly or sarcastic one-line zingers.

We get along well together and we do go out for our birthdays, Christmas, Secretary's Day, and every once in a great while one of them will take me to lunch just to socialize, but that's like every couple of years. I care for them and consider them family.

I have known the person who sits next to me for 12 years. We talk a little from time to time. Maybe once or twice a year, we go to lunch. She's a good person, loyal to her friends, good at her job. Much more extroverted than I am but she doesn't hold my I against me, so it works out nicely.
 

Nihilen

Permabanned
Joined
Oct 27, 2008
Messages
977
MBTI Type
ISTP
To the SJs:

How is your relationship with your boss? If your boss is the kind that hardly ever interacts with employees, what do you think of him anyway, your perception of him? (I know the boss can be a female, I just get annoyed with those slashes in pronouns.)

If you don't have one right now, you can talk about a boss from a past job.

ISTJs are supposed to BE the boss.
 

Cimarron

IRL is not real
Joined
Aug 21, 2008
Messages
3,417
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ISTJ
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5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
ISTJs are supposed to BE the boss.
No. I hate being the boss. Another cog in the wheel, I don't mind being that, though I'm not really thrilled about it.
 

raz

Let's make this showy!
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
2,523
MBTI Type
LoLz
Thought I'd say something about this, because this was funny last night. My supervisor was telling me about the lack of things the people in my department are doing. She then said, "Maybe I'll have to just give you all lists of things to do each day." I was like, is that supposed to be intimidating? Because to me, that feels incredibly relieving.
 
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