I am going to discuss a real case happened between my boss and me during my internship last year. It was my first time to work and I worked in a small local company in Singapore. I am from China and I have studied statistics in NUS for 3 years. My first job in life is working as a business development for a company providing product innovation and branding services. I needed to learn all from scratch since I have never learnt any business modules and had no working experience.
In the first few days, the boss started to push me a lot and ask me to implement some projects or ideas that he has thought of but had no time to do before. As a new intern, I felt very stressed since I often felt lost when he introduced me a new project development project. He spoke many physical or mechanical terms which I could not understand on the spot. At first, I asked him to explain but he sometimes didn’t know how to explain. After a few times, I noticed he was an impatient person and I stopped asking him questions. I decided to write down the words I could not understand and checked the dictionary or asked my colleagues after the meeting. However, I still missed some information from him during the meeting. The difficulty of understanding him clearly and quickly made me perform less effectively at work. My boss was not satisfied about my performance and blamed me on my poor English and slowness in actions. I also felt unhappy about his criticism and impatience. He asked me to work overtime for 1 or 2 hours, but I was not willing to do. I had to study for school at night and I lived very far from my workplace.
How do you think I should talk to my boss effectively to obtain more understanding from him?
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回复删除Hi Huang Huan,
回复删除Your job seems quite interesting. I agree that it must had been a very difficult time for you, especially working in a field which is entirely new to you and the people who are supposed to guide you didn't seem approachable.
Since your boss is a very impatient person, I suggest that instead of keep on asking the boss which he might feel annoyed, you could try to approach your colleagues to ask for explanation or clarify your doubts.
If it came to the worst case that no one could help you, then you had no choice but to try different approach to your boss.
Perhaps you should see his mood during the day when you would like to ask him something and the most important thing is that you need to show your respect even if he had response badly to you.
Hope it helps :)
I do concur with Johan here.
回复删除In this scenario, you should try asking your colleagues about your boss (they probably know his moods) and anything you do not know. Don't keep annoying the T-Rex(if you can help it)
Do approach your boss when he seems to be in a good mood (like Happy Hour)and tell him gently about your problems or constraints.
Do you have a mentor (i.e. someone willing to take you under his wing)at work?
Sin Wei has good suggestions and so does Johan. This kind of thing is common when you are new at a job or even an organisation. the smart thing to do is to make friends with the colleagues and seek their help where possible. This way you will be perceived to be both resourceful and to have people skills.
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