Just leave me alone, boss
Simply get a punching bag… Or, go the safe ‘virtual’ way and download online games that will allow you to take your anger out on your boss, recommends Sonal Kalra
Ihate her, hate her, hate her,” he announced, banging his fist so loudly on the sofa that clouds of dust that had accumulated for weeks, courtesy my ‘efficient’ housekeeping, filled up the air in a dramatic way. It was fun to see Jayant, my MNC honcho friend, react like this to anything. He is otherwise such a bland and boring soul… like that one odd friend we all have from whom we stop expecting any display of emotion.
“Cool it, Jayant... I’m sure she had a reason for yelling at you,” I tried to reason with him, while wondering inside if there could ever be a good enough reason to humiliate someone in public. By the way, before you get an impression that he had got himself into a lovers’ tiff, lemme explain that the ‘she-devil’ behind his rare display of anger was not a girlfriend or wife, it was his boss. And maybe it was the 200th time in the past one month she had screamed at Jayant for some work-related matter in front of the entire team.
“It’s so humiliating yaar… maybe she fights with her husband before she comes to work, but she can’t take it out on us ‘slaves’ like this,” said Jayant, and I could sense that his wife was also in for a bad time that evening. Isn’t it always a chain reaction? We get irritated by something and vent out at someone totally undeserving of the wrath.
Anyway, coming back to the origin of the anger. This woman is the typical ‘boss-type’ creature a lot of us encounter everyday in our work lives. I’ve personally seen bosses of various kinds — from devils incarnate to those who defy this common perception (my current is so nice that I feel like revising the original definition of ‘boss’ in my devil’s dictionary, but I’m sure he’s a rare exception). But more often than not, one sees people perpetually stressed about how badly bosses treat them.
Sometimes, I wonder if the frustration is because of the way certain individuals behave or a generic resistance to being ‘bossed’ around by anyone. Anyway, the calmness trick to surviving boss stress is not easy to suggest. One which works for a lot of my friends is to set up a private meeting with the ‘yeller’ and try to explain that their behaviour doesn’t help productivity — it rather hampers any chances of having a positive atmosphere at the workplace. But, if your boss is not the one to take too kindly to your attempts at trying to ‘talk it out’, don’t risk it. Simply get a punching bag… or, go the safe ‘virtual’ way and download online games that allow you to take your anger out on your boss. Don’t make punching bags out of your friends or family, it’s not their fault anyway that God decided to impose a wicked creation on you.
Sonal Kalra is a boss to some who are sweet enough to tell her that she’s ‘not bad’. She plans to bug their cabins and find out the true opinion someday. Mail your thoughts at sonal.kalra@hindustantimes.com or facebook.com/sonalkalraofficial. Follow on Twitter @sonalkalra.
You can now also listen to Sonal Kalra’s podcast #TensionNot on http://HTsmartcast.com and http://hthealthshots.com