Q & A Table of Contents
What Am I Doing Here?
From: Padmaja Delhi, India
Question: I am working for an organisation which is conservative in nature I am not getting any satisfaction of out of my job.
My manager is a person who never cares for staff, he wishes that we should do by ourselves. He just want to simply sit and watch
I need a break from this. How should I deal with him?
Response: The first thing you should do is look at your BATNA, your Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. Can you find another job that will provide you a better situation than the one in which you currently find yourself? Once you know whether you have a strong or weak BATNA, a strong or weak alternative to the current situation, you will be in a better spot to negotiate.
If you have good alternatives, you can tell your manager -- or his boss -- that you have been offered a job someplace else (if this is true) but that you are prepared to be loyal if they will improve the situation. Once the boss or his boss responds, the choice is yours.
If your alternatives are not good, then you should talk with other employees and see if they have the same problems as you. Acting as a group gives you greater strength and confidence. While your group may be too small to be considered a labor union, you can decide together what actions to take.
A situation where you are on your own requires that you go to your manager and ask questions to find out what his interests are for his own career, how you can help him advance his career, how he feels your attitude about him should be and why, etc. You should not ask questions to which he can respond with a simple 'yes' or 'no', but rather give him open-ended questions that encourage him to supply you with useful information.
Once you know what to expect, and once he knows that you are a person who should be taken seriously because you are observant and concerned, hopefully things will improve. However, if I were you, my first choice would be to find someplace else to work.
Good luck,
Steve
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