what to do when the boss is a "cool guy"?
Feb 17 2008 22:53
they say asshole bosses made the labor movement, so what is our strategy when the boss is considered a cool guy, or a figurative "rock star" by many of our fellow wage slaves? here is a link below to a 2004 speech of possibly the next US president that, btw, may be the most charismatic figure for the center-left since John F. Kennedy. even i teared up when he talked about defending the rights of unpopular minorities.
one thing is he talks about this country as a "family". so is he wanting to be daddy by implication? and the politicians under him our nannies? i don't think it is wise to try and demonize him, but you can challenge the feel good message w/ some straight talk.
Feb 17 2008 23:30
#2
yeah what difference does it make? one of my bosses is nice, 2 are wankers. makes no difference if they're disciplining you for too much sick leave, or making your workload too high.
Feb 17 2008 23:46
#3
I used to be Revol's supervisor a few years ago in the shop we worked in. I wasn't his boss, I was a checkout assistant with keys but still, I was pretty cool and we threw stuff off the top of the fire escape when I was in charge.
I probably should have worked him harder though.
Feb 17 2008 23:55
#4
You should fired him for sticking his dick in the hotdog machine. Disgusting.
Feb 18 2008 00:39
#5
He was fucking useless anyway and pissed of our christian manager the first day by taking the piss out of his christian music
Course, I could have warned him the boss was christian, but where's the fun in that? 
Feb 18 2008 05:55
#6
Just wait till Obama (Osama?, which one was it agan?) puts his economic policies and his lovely ideas about health care into practice and you'll see how popular he'll be then. Won't he get whacked anyway?
Feb 18 2008 11:24
#7
slick bastard bosses are really tricky, like when they pretend to be your best mate. but they force you to organise on the basis of positive issues and demands, rather than 'the boss is a dick, let's do something about it'...
Feb 18 2008 11:30
#8
ftony wrote:
but they force you to organise on the basis of positive issues and demands, rather than 'the boss is a dick, let's do something about it'...
Yeah it's tricky. We had a nice supervisor, a 'nice' manager (who was on some loony management training course and was really into toyotism), and then some bastard SMT members at my old job, and finding ways to deal with that isn't straightforward.
Feb 18 2008 12:31
#9
Sometimes it can be a bonus that a manager doesn't act like a wanker, especially when cutbacks are in the offing - makes the line between the individual and the system they work for all the more stark.
Feb 18 2008 18:33
#10
my boss is a good guy, and i consider him a friend boss or not.
Feb 21 2008 17:59
#11
All of my "Cool Bosses" have never failed to reveal themselves as complete asses. Cool bosses' usually try to stick it out awhile before they are forced to take of their silly little nice guys masks. 
Feb 21 2008 18:38
#12
'cool' bosses are the hardest to deal with really, much more likely to use emotions or designs of friendship etc.. to get stuff out of you, and all that trying to pretend their just one of the gang etc.. but it's shot through with contradictions to fuck
Feb 21 2008 18:42
#13
Saii wrote:
Sometimes it can be a bonus that a manager doesn't act like a wanker, especially when cutbacks are in the offing - makes the line between the individual and the system they work for all the more stark.
I dunno, I've found the opposite. Generally, when my manager or whatever has been real sound any cutbacks they asked staff to make were made out to be as 'some mates' (us) helping out another 'mate' (them). Just as an example, this is what I encountered at my last job:
"Ah come on guys, a few things have gone missing and we know it wasn't any of you but until we sort it out we're gonna have to take away your tips, free staff drink and any other privileges".
When I complained (with a few others), I think the one thing I did to fuck things up was be too adversarial about it (you lot know what I mean, when you get into Class Warrior mode, "I WILL DEFEND MY CLASS!!!" sort of shit. Come on, you lot all know what I mean..). In hindsight, I probably should have turned the matey thing round on her:
"Yeah, fair play mate, I know what you mean, but it is a fairly hefty cut-back. If we're gonna help you out then you should reciprocate.." etc etc.
I dunno, I think this would have just drawn out that it was them being unreasonable rather than just make me look unreasonable for not accepting what essentially amounted to a 25% pay cut (not being allowed to accept tips). So yeah, that would be my top tip from my miniscule experience of workplace disputes..
Feb 22 2008 01:21
#14
Definitely throw reasonableness back in their face. Management can rarely justify what they're doing and if they blame higher ups then either refuse cooperation (well if they're doing that to us we can't do anything for them) or get the manager to subvert it.
I was a supervisor once and I spent most of my time playing pool and writing up a handover sheet to make it look like we'd done loads of work.
edit: although I needed the money I wasn't doing it for a career so I suppose I wasn't forced into screwing over the workers I was supervising.
Feb 22 2008 16:52
#15
Just smile and steal more.
Feb 22 2008 18:04
#16
My Teacher was being a wank a few months back and forced us to read science textbooks during registration, in responce I as a Student Council rep called for direct action, he told us to take the books, we simply said no, he was being all chummy like "guys I don't like it any more than you do but this is what the school says we need to do" when we continued to be opposed, he issued me with a punishment exercise which I proceeded to rip up in his face..... over did the drama for a school problem but it's good preparation for either my Student Revolution or an eventual workplace.
Feb 24 2008 10:06
#17
anarkista is young so let up on them. also a newbie so just let it go.
Feb 24 2008 23:11
#18
I think we all practiced our troublemaking at school in ways which were a little less than constructive and most of us turned out alright.. except Refused who I still would never trust in a combat situation.. 
Oh, and welcome to the boards AnarkIsta!
Feb 24 2008 23:59
#19
jef costello wrote:
Definitely throw reasonableness back in their face.
Yeah, definitely nice managers don't be rude to them, just be polite back but demand stuff that's totally reasonable, but that they really don't want to grant. I'll try to post some concrete examples. My place I got one nice manager and two arseholes, I play hardball with the arseholes (still appearing reasonable cordial mind) and all nice with the other.
Feb 25 2008 00:08
#20
Ed wrote:
except Refused who I still would never trust in a combat situation.. :)
Are you saying I turned out psycho?! And I wouldn't trust myself in a combat situation either.
Feb 25 2008 02:45
#21
Ed wrote:
What about Offspring T-shirts?
Smash is a very good album.
Feb 25 2008 03:53
#22
The difference between a cool boss and an arsehole boss is time.
Feb 25 2008 08:15
#23
stop the derailing now, any more off-topic posts will be deleted.
Feb 25 2008 15:51
#24
the button wrote:
The difference between a cool boss and an arsehole boss is time.
Yeah, this is true (to be honest I'd be worried if anyone on these boards thought differently) but its still something that requires a change of tack. I mean, my spectacular failure at organising against 'the nice one' showed it clear enough. Button, have you got any experience of going up against friendly bosses?
Feb 25 2008 19:22
#25
Quote:
Yeah, definitely nice managers don't be rude to them, just be polite back but demand stuff that's totally reasonable, but that they really don't want to grant
here's a wedge: "we're hoping that obama stands by his rhetoric of being for democracy by endorsing our demands for workers to have the right to elect a majority of recallable voting delegates to the boards of all for-profit corporations."
Feb 25 2008 19:57
#26
Quote:
The difference between a cool boss and an arsehole boss is time.
So true, but you only have the luxury waiting the nice ones out if the workplace isn't constantly turning over. Generally my strategy is to try and push a split between upper and lower sups. Sometimes it works, often it doesn't.
Feb 25 2008 19:58
#27
Who is the "we" in that statement? That demand wouldn't solve any of my problems, or those of my co-workers.
Feb 25 2008 23:03
#28
EdmontonWobbly wrote:
Quote:
The difference between a cool boss and an arsehole boss is time.So true, but you only have the luxury waiting the nice ones out if the workplace isn't constantly turning over. Generally my strategy is to try and push a split between upper and lower sups. Sometimes it works, often it doesn't.
Very true EdWob, the time when I had the spat with my nice supervisor I was working at a place with fairly high turnover (slower then some of the places I've worked, but still just a temporary bar job). Could you expand on the pushing a split between higher and lower sups? What did you do? (By 'sups' you mean supervisors, right?)
Feb 26 2008 00:52
#29
No-one's cool to everyone.
Feb 27 2008 09:47
#30
worse when you're boss is a really slimy cunt
The problem we have with bosses is not that they are evil but that they are bosses.