Fire Your Boss (4 page)

Having preached contrarian solutions to problems in the past, I know they can be hard for some people to accept.
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I realize it’s asking a lot for you to suddenly drop the job attitudes you’ve been taught by all your previous mentors and advisers and adopt a revolutionary approach preached by someone you’ve never met, no matter how rosy a picture I’ve painted of the potential benefits. So let me offer you four quick inducements to at least continue on reading.

3. As the author of
Die Broke,
which encourages people to use their assets to the fullest extent possible during their lives and forgo leaving an estate, I’m used to getting some resistance.

First, as you’ll see by the stories of my clients’ successes, this approach is working well for people now — even in what is one of the worst job markets in the nation. The essential elements of this approach, as outlined in the seven steps, are applicable to everyone in America, regardless of where he or she lives.

Second, what have you got to lose by considering my approach? Those of you who have been out of work for some time already know the traditional approach isn’t working. Trying to get a new job today using yesterday’s techniques is like trying to tunnel through a brick wall with a spoon. It is possible, but it is incredibly difficult and could take years. Why not give my approach a chance? If you’re unhappy with it you can always return to the spoon. Those of you who are still employed have the luxury of investing in new ideas before you need them. Again, if you’re not convinced by what I write, you can stick with the traditional ideas — just make sure your boss hasn’t seen you reading this book.

Third, this is the perfect time to adopt a new approach to the workplace. It has become a cliché to say we’re living in a transitional time. However, despite its becoming a hackneyed observation, it remains true. The workplace has clearly changed. Yet, the widely accepted approaches to finding and thriving on the job have not. Most people are still following the old patterns. This allows those who adopt new patterns to really stand out from the crowd. Think of it as getting in on the ground floor. I’m not saying everyone will be following my approach in the future. But clearly they will be following some new approach. Those who abandon the old, outmoded techniques first will be in the best position for the future.

And fourth, I believe my approach offers an unprecedented opportunity not only to increase the size and security of your stream of income, but also to increase your chances of getting the emotional satisfaction so many of us currently lack. Increase your income. Make your job more secure. Find psychological satisfaction. All this is possible in today’s job market, as long as you’re willing to at least temporarily unlock any airtight compartments in your mind and consider some new ideas. Turn the page to break the seal and let in some fresh air.

ALL NATHAN WINKLE’S
friends and coworkers think he’s a control freak. Nathan’s clothes closet looks like a display in a men’s store. His files at work are perfectly alphabetized, using color-coded labels and tricut folders in pristine order. He tracks his auto mileage and brings his car in for an oil change as soon as it has been driven three thousand miles. Nathan follows his investments online daily, and prepares his taxes on January 1. The tools in his garage are mounted on Peg-Boards. His wife jokes that she and the kids don’t stand still long for fear Nathan will use his labeling machine to label them on their foreheads. Yet despite his being a control freak, Nathan had his territory at work changed twice in the last year. Nathan’s boss had him change his vacation plans twice, to accommodate the boss’s changing plans. There were dozens of other things that all added up to Nathan’s feeling as if he had no control of his work life. It was as if he were a marionette, with his somewhat flaky boss holding the strings. But in the past year Nathan has changed all that. He decided when to take his vacation this year…and his boss rearranged his own schedule to accommodate him. Nathan was able to pick and choose which projects he worked on, which trade shows were worth attending, for how long, and where he would stay. His secret? He adopted the first element in my workplace philosophy: he fired his boss and hired himself. You should do the same.

Americans are obsessed with taking charge…except when it comes to their work lives.

I know people who obsessively take charge of their gardens, selecting where to place different perennials to ensure the colors and heights don’t clash and there’s a constant supply of blooms during spring and summer.

Lots of parents today take charge of their child’s life, scheduling everything from sports to study. Some go so far as to plan out a complex social, cultural, and academic pattern to get the child into not just the right college, but the right preschool.

Professions to help us take charge of our lives abound. There are professional tax planners, estate planners, investment planners, kitchen planners, landscape planners, even party planners.

Yet when it comes to work, the element of our life that provides the fuel (money) for so much else, and that occupies so much of our time, we cede control to others.
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4. Sure, there are lots of people who play office politics and who try to maneuver their way through an organization’s bureaucracy or up a corporate ladder. I’ll get into those efforts later in this book, but I don’t characterize them as taking charge. That kind of activity is tactical; it’s short-term and reactive. Taking charge of your own work life means being strategic; it’s long-term and proactive.

Most of us have almost no control over our work lives. Our boss has the power to fire us at will, for no reason. In effect, every supervisor, every employer, is potentially a miniature George Steinbrenner, able to terminate impulsively if he or she so wishes. But the power to terminate isn’t the only weapon the boss has in his or her arsenal. The boss decides when you should arrive and when you can depart. The boss chooses where you sit and when you can go to lunch. The boss sets dress codes. The boss must approve the timing of your vacation. The boss determines your responsibilities and obligations, and how long you have to meet them. The boss dictates how you are supposed to do your job, and what tools you are allowed to use. The boss judges whether your work is acceptable or not, and whether you deserve an increase in compensation.

Think I’m overstating the case? Let’s see. Take out a notebook or pad and a pen or pencil. If there aren’t many blank pages left, go out and buy a new one. I’m going to be asking you to do exercises throughout this book, so you’ll be needing it often. Ask yourself these questions and write down your answers.

Let’s go over your answers one by one.

Okay, I’ll bet you wrote down your salary or something close to it. Now let me ask you another question. Why do you assume your current salary indicates your value in the workplace? Odds are you’ve no independent assessment of that. Instead, you’re depending on your boss for an estimate of your value. If you’re like most of us, you accepted the initial salary offered by your first employer. Subsequently you’ve expressed thanks for every raise you’ve been granted and understanding for every increase that’s been delayed or denied. After all, what can you do about it? A lot actually, as you’ll soon see.

Once again, I’ll wager that the benefits you listed are those you’re currently receiving. When you were told that the company needed to shift to an HMO or that your copayment had to be increased, you were annoyed, right? But you assumed you’ve no control over the situation, and that the benefit was industry-wide practice, didn’t you? You’ve let your boss determine what you deserve.

I’ll bet you’ve listed a package of skills that were assembled based on what your employer wanted you to do. If the company believed someone in your position should be able to create a database, you were told to learn how. If the company said your job description required you to write press releases, someone taught you how. Most of us have developed a bundle of talents based on our employer’s needs rather than our own. If you’ve been on the job for a while, you’ve put together the perfect package…for this job at this company.

Take a look at your list and note if you personally value any of these achievements. If you’re lucky, maybe one or two of your achievements resonate with you personally. That’s because most of us have let our employers dictate what type of achievements are valued. In a company with little regard for customer service but that places a priority on customer turnover and traffic, you may be rewarded for keeping your interactions with customers short rather than polite. Perhaps you work for a firm that values quality over profitability. While specifically tailoring your achievements to your company is a good way to ingratiate yourself with your boss — something I’ll talk a great deal about later in this book — it can narrow your horizons.

Okay, where did you come up with this number? Is your assessment based on objective criteria, or does it come from your boss telling you “you’re not ready” or because there’s a company “icon” frozen in place above you in the hierarchy?

Have most of the stops in your career followed a well-thought-out plan that you developed with the help of some unbiased mentors and advisers? Or have you gone from position to position and/or job to job because of the whims and needs of your boss or the twists of fate? Other than those who have become entrepreneurs, every one of my clients, from the wealthy, Ivy League–educated corporate executive to the struggling immigrant cab driver, has progressed through his or her work life without a personal work plan.

When I first point out to clients how little control they have over their work lives, their response is usually something like this: “Well, I still have the ultimate power; I can quit.”

Granted, since slavery and indentured servitude have been outlawed in America, we all now have what most people perceive to be the ultimate doomsday workplace weapon: the power to walk out anytime you want. Having this power may make you feel better — “I’ll show him…I’ll quit!” — but that’s about all it can do. And the palliative effect is pretty short term. Quitting impulsively (as opposed to giving notice) stops feeling good just about the time you’re leaving the building. Having the power to quit is the equivalent of having the power to commit workplace suicide.

Quitting isn’t an effective power, since you can be replaced. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure you’re incredibly good at what you do. And I’m certain if you walked away from your job tomorrow the office would be in a state of turmoil. But not for long.

No one is indispensable. I don’t care how loyal your customers are to you personally, or that you’re the only one who knows how the accounts-payable system works. FDR died while the United States was still fighting World War II, leaving the presidency in the hands of Harry S. Truman, who had been vice president for less than a year and hadn’t been brought into the decision-making process, and whose only executive experience was running a men’s clothing store into the ground. The war effort didn’t skip a beat. Everyone can be replaced.

When you quit you hurt yourself and your former coworkers. Your boss won’t be staying late to clean up the mess — unless he or she is the only other person who works for the company. The burden will fall to your former coworkers.

That’s one reason why the pioneers of workers’ rights in America, and around the world, decided to organize labor into unions. If all the workers in the company stuck together, the boss would have to replace everyone at the same time. And if workers in separate companies throughout an industry supported each other, it could really put the squeeze on employers. Having effectively organized, the labor movement was able to use its power politically as well. Politicians, eager to gain the support of labor, helped enact laws that protected workers from some of the worst practices of employers.

Similarly, the civil rights movement and the women’s movement led to legislation that protected employees against discriminatory practices. Beginning with laws protecting employees against racial discrimination, the umbrella of protective legislation has expanded to cover religious and ethnic minorities, women, older Americans, homosexuals, and the disabled. (See the box on page 34: How Protected Are You?)