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New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All
6

New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

(OP)
Hi All,

My new boss is younger that me, has less experience, and has the biggest chip on his shoulder. What do you do in this situation?

Mad Dog McDurmott

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

Nothing.

Why?

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."   
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

It's been my experience that people give those types of people all the rope they need to hang themselves, and within 12-18 months you'll get a new boss.  Of course getting the department/company upright and productive/profitable again is a topic for another thread.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."
Steven K. Roberts, Technomad
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

If you were bypassed for that position, look for a new job.  

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

What's remarkable about that?  Aren't all bosses like that?

The real question is "how does the chip manifist itself on his sholder"?  Does he belittle staff to pump himself up?  If so, get HR to sit in on staff meetings.  

If he is smart enough to just push you around more or less in private, use the technique we used to call the "cotton covered rock".  In short, yeild on all the small points, don't appear to resist the important stuff but don't budge either.  When he asks you to do something stupid, just go off and start doing it, at the top of your priority list and don't worry about "important" deadlines (if the company is stupid enough to put this guy into your life how can their priorities be important?).

And if it sucks too much Oil & Gas is always looking for a few thousand good engineers.

David

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

4
McDurmott, stop goofing around on the internet, get back to work, and do it the way I told you.

Sincerely

Your Boss.



RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All


rofl

GREG!!! shocked You really DO have a sense of humour.

laughtears

cheers
Helpful SW websites  FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions  FAQ559-1091

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

Greg,
Stop goofing around on the internet, get back to work, and do it the way I told YOU.

Sincerely

YOUR Boss

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

Why should the boss be the oldest and most experienced person? Wouldn't it be a pity to take the real work out of the hands of the most experienced guy and let him manage the team instead?
Just give your boss some time, he may turn out not to be as hopeless as you thought.

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

I take it this is an example of the "Bungee Boss" first mentioned in a Dilbert strip, c. 1994?

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

Mad Dog,
how long have you had him?
Is this his first management role?
Maybe he is just a bit nervous in his new position; some one probably told him to "go in there, show 'em who's boss and don't take any bull***t." which means he comes across as arogant and a jerk.

Why don't you see how he "matures"...

You can always get rid of him later.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

What are you all doing, palying around in the internet??
GO BACK ALL TO WORK NOWWWWW!!!

McDurmott:
To the punishment room for distracting the others.

BIG BOSS

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

I'ma stockholder/shareholder in your company. Is this internet goofing the reason why my annual dividend was so low. I'm going to write to your boss!!

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

By the way, we're going to have to move your desk down to the basement.

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

Years ago there was a wonderfully insightful article in Machine Design magazine entitled "How To Sack Your Boss".  It was tongue in cheek, directed towards managers.  It described the passive-aggressive tactics used by employees to retaliate against bad boss behavior.  In summary, it stated that bosses need employees and their support to keep from stepping in the glops of manure that inevitiably occur in a managerial position.  If the employees are reluctant to provide accurate, complete, timely info to the boss, adivse of upcoming trouble, and so on, then ultimately the boss won't be very successful running his department and will either leave or be replaced (ummm...generally, that is).  Over the years, I have seen this actually happen.  The challenge for the employee is to try to outlast the situation without grinding your teeth down to nubs or causing yourself heart trouble.

But if the boss is genuinely abusive in a work environment, then you should complain about the **behavior** to the HR department (if it exists) in a professional manner.  My experience is that tactic works very well, too.

I suppose that the bottom line is that we are all weak and stupid humans and we should try to deal with each other in a good way as much as possible.  That goes for bosses and employees.

TygerDawg

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

"I told them, I said, if they move my desk one more time....I'll, I'll, I'll burn the place down"

Ahhh I love that movie

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

Milton Waddams: The ratio of people to cake is too big.

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

Now Milton.....Just pass

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

Don't jump to conclusions, even if you have a mat for it.

Your boss may be nervous or trying to put up a good front, or he might just be exactly what he seems.  Time will tell.  All you can do is the best you can with what you have, and don't take crap that you don't deserve.

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

"My new boss is younger that me,"

Shouldn't be a problem


" has less experience,"

yes, younger people are like that

" and has the biggest chip on his shoulder."

about what?

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

What troubles you ?

1.  Your boss's age ?
2.  His/her experience ?
3.  His shoulder ?? :0(

Was he promoted ahead of you ?  Or he came from elsewhere ?

HVAC68

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

The most successful businesses are run by leaders and the work is done by followers. They sound like a leader but you dont sound like a good follower. Let him have his head. Better he makes a decision and you make it right than typical of managers dont make a decision, waffle around, call meetings, procrastinate etc etc. Better a leader with guts.

If you want to be a leader, quit and go somehwere else. The town isnt big enough for the two of you.

If you are just a whinging MBA managerial type leave anyhow and give the boss a chance.

If he is that bad your boss's boss appointed him so you have no chance of success so you have to quit.

All in all you are out of their with your own baggage.

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

Where is MadDog? Maybe the boss 'retired' him?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"It's the questions that drive us"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

(OP)
No, still alive and kicking.
Got a few laughs from you all.
I probably was a bit rough, but when the only avenue for career advancement is removed (no fault on Boss's part), I feel a little frustrated.

Now what are all you slackers doing playing on the internet? Get back to the cube-farm!

MDM

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

You guys really scare me. With so many people ordering us to go back to work, it is possible that one of you may be my real boss.

BTW, Boss! what are you doing here? Get back to the work.

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

OK Kids,
I know excatly what you are all doing, all of the time and here's how:
http://forensicsoftware.co.uk/Policy_Central_Professional.htm

I'm just waiting till I get a real bad day and want to fire someone before my first coffee.
It's so nice to fire people and feel good about it. Justified. You know?
But not as nice as firing people for no reason at all.

It's Khama, kids, you can work hard all day and stay off the internet and I might still fire you. Actually its all the sweeter because you'll feel all hurt and upset that I didn't fire Mr Brown-nose who is always looking at the porn sites and saying really nasty things about me behind my back, or Mr Sick-Note who never seems to do a days work.
No, too easy. No satisfaction.

One of you will do nicely. "Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

Well if my company forbids me to surf the web during my two-minute breaks (I'm not a smoker) I guess I'll go back to the old system and read the newspaper in the toilets or spend the entire afternoon in the plant looking like I'm working my @$$ off trying to follow a piece of pipe from A to Z.

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

The equivalent for us software engineers would be to push windows around the screen all afternoon.

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

SomptingGuy,

I thought software engineers kept looking busy by deleting .dll files from their machine until a blue screen pops up.

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

I once found that the only way to KEEP a BSOD from coming up was to delete a particular .dll...  Photoshop had some bunk dll with it that was trying to do something-or-other on my intel processor that didn't work so hot.  End result was that every tenth time or so that I'd shift a layer around on top of another one, the whole machine would die.  I went one-by-one through the graphics-related (guessing by name) dll files, renaming them each, until I found one that made the crashes stop.  Then I buhleeted it and that was that.   Photoshop still works, sans BSOD.


RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

All the organs of the body were having a meeting, trying to decide who was the one in charge.

"I should be in charge," said the brain, "because I run all the body's systems, so without me nothing would happen".

"I should be in charge," said the blood, "because I circulate oxygen all over so without me you'd all waste away."

"I should be in charge," said the stomach," because I process food and give all of you energy."

"I should be in charge," said the legs, "because I carry the body wherever it needs to go."

"I should be in charge," said the eyes, "because I allow the body to see where it goes."

"I should be in charge," said the rectum, "Because I'm responsible for waste removal."

All the other body parts laughed at the rectum and insulted him, so in a huff, he shut down tight.

Within a few days, the brain had a terrible headache, the stomach was bloated, the legs got wobbly, the eyes got watery, and the blood was toxic.

They all decided that the rectum should be the boss.

The Moral of the story?
The arse hole is usually in charge.

cheers
Helpful SW websites  FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions  FAQ559-1091

RE: New Boss is an Arrogant Know-It-All

CorBlimeyLimey, that was a long time ago I have seen this one, but the moral was somehow different:

It doesn't need a brain to run a business, just an @ssh..
(popular phrase among the craft)

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