What to do when your boss is never there?

Published in El Pais, 2 February 2019.

Be happy! Might be in first answer to the question above. As the saying goes, when the cat is away the mice will play! If this is the case, then there is a real issue with how your boss manages the people. By the way in the case you are a boss and your people get a hard to hide smile when you tell them you will be out of office for a week, worry!

When I just started my first job I had a boss who was never in his office, didn’t reply emails and in the case I saw him in the hallway, we could not talk as he was heading to an important meeting. In the beginning I looked up to him, thinking that a busy person is an important person. At the beginning, it was actually kind of nice to not be bothered by someone all the time about my work. But as time advanced, I also stopped sending him my doubts, my ideas and my weekly reports since I never got any feedback or reply anyway.

After a while, he noticed that his absence was causing problems. So, he started to overcompensate, going into full micro-management mode. This means that your boss is breathing all day in your neck. Checking what you are doing, telling you how to do it, and in some cases, showing you how to do it. Not always very pleasant if you are used to his absence and learned to deal with the things yourself. People got upset and started a campaign to send away.

What is the job of a boss? The most critical one is to make sure that the team has the right tools, information and environment to work and achieve the goals set. In other words, a boss needs to make sure the team runs smooth and needs to solve problems, answer questions, accept ideas and keep a positive team spirit. A boss who is never there, cannot do all the things mentioned above.

 A study done by Forbes magazine, showed that 65% of the people would prefer to fire their boss, instead of a salary increase!. Something to think about if you believe that being busy makes you look good in front of your team.