4 Ways Youre Annoying Your Boss - The Muse

4 Ways Youre Annoying Your Boss - The Muse4 Ways Youre Annoying Your BossThe road to a career downfall is paved with good intentions. If youre spending your days in the office coming up with new ideas, speaking out about your opinions, intervening in office emergencies, and, overall, displaying your leadership skills, you probably have every intention of furthering the companys goals- and, at the same time, your career. But sometimes, between those noble intentions and the way your actions play out, youre doing more harm than good. By doing a few key things the wrong way, you may be making your way onto your anfhrer bad side. Like these.1. Going Around Him or Her to Make DecisionsWhen theres an urgent situation at the office, sometimes you have to make an executive decision. Maybe your boss is in a meeting and you cant get ahold of him or her, or maybe you just want to show off your leadership chops- either way, you decide on a course of action and notify everyone involved. In some c ases, your boss will certainly appreciate your willingness to stop in. But for larger issues that may extend beyond your expertise, this isnt always the best plan. For example, a co-worker of mine recently pointed out that there was an error in our customer newsletter that had already gone out to our client base. He immediately sent an email to the entire marketing department, demanding that a correction be sent to all customers, indicating it was a significant error and would likely spur customer complaints. The marketing department went into a frenzy, drafting the email, getting it approved by the higher-ups, and preparing to send it. And then my co-workers boss stopped by. We showed him the email- which, as it turns out, he hadnt known about. His reaction? Oh, we dont need to send anything. Its not that big of a deal.What was an absolute emergency to my co-worker was an insignificant oversight to his boss. And his boss wasnt too happy that hed created chaos and wasted the entire marketing departments afternoon. How to Avoid ItThere are times when you can safely and confidently make an executive decision (here are a few pointers), but when its a significant issue or you arent 100% sure about the situation, get your boss thoughts before acting. 2. Making Everything an EmergencyTheres a fine line between keeping your boss informed and assuming every situation is one that needs immediate attention. Yes, your boss certainly wants to know whats going on, so he or she can, if necessary, intervene. But sometimes, that turns into overwhelming your boss with interruptions, emails with the subject line, Urgent and frazzled office pop-ins- all in the spirit of making sure he or she knows whats going on.Often, you do this simply because youd rather be safe than sorry. Its better that you notify your boss of an escalating situation as its happening, rather than have it blow up in everyones face later. But when the situation isnt actually an emergency, its an inconvenienc e for your boss. So, its important that you can discern the difference between what is truly urgent and what is part of standard business operations. How to Avoid ItIt may take some time to determine whats really an emergency and what can wait to be brought up or handled completely on your own, but for the sake of your boss sanity- and yours, too- its important to learn.You have the companys biggest client on the line, about to cancel his or her contract and sue the organization? Yes, emergency. A typically happy customer left a mediocre response on his or her latest customer service survey? Probably not something you need to rush into your boss office immediately to address.3. Taking Forever to Get to the PointYour boss is probably juggling a lot of information at any given time. He has to keep up with his own work, as well as that of each of his direct reports. But that doesnt mean that when you have to tell him about a certain situation, you need to provide every belastung detail . As a manager, I would often have employees who would compose essay-length emails or give me long-winded speeches about a certain situation, from the very first email that was sent to who said what and how long it took her to respond to everything else remotely related to the story- until we eventually arrived at the current state of the challenge. In the end, the only thing that really mattered could have been summarized in a few quick sentences. In the long run, many details of a situation are unnecessary- and to point you in the right direction, your boss probably doesnt need to hear about them. Just give him or her the basic facts, and youll arrive at a much speedier solution. How to Avoid ItSummarize the situation first. This is especially important in an email, when information at the end tends to get lost and overlooked, but works well in direct conversations, too. In a couple short sentences, sum up the situation and what you need from your boss. If he or she needs more inf ormation, you can then go into your reasoning. 4. Failing to Look Beyond Your RoleTypically, bosses think its great when you suggest ideas to improve processes or produce better work. But in any company and role, when you present these ideas, its easy to get tunnel vision and only consider how your idea will impact you. Maybe you want to implement a new process that would eliminate some of your workload by allowing you to document less. While thats great for you, what youre not considering is how that might increase the workload of your co-workers in other departments by forcing them to track down the information you didnt document. Or, maybe you think you would benefit from a new software program- but dont take into account that the money would be taken away from the continuing education budget for your team and hinder the professional development of your peers. How to Avoid ItThink about the big picture. As you move up in your career, youll find more and more that you need to thin k beyond you and your department. Consider how your ideas will affect other teams, the company budget, and workloads- and adjust your plan accordingly. That will allow you to present well-thought out, forward-thinking plans to your boss. In the end, there are probably much more annoying things that you could do. But when its your career on the line, its worth it to make sure youre performing to the highest standards possible. Photo of woman saying no courtesy of Shutterstock.