You Might Be a Psycho-Employee If …
After reading 7 Ways to Deal with a Psycho Boss, a friend suggested I write about psycho-employees.
You might be a psycho-employee if you use your wife’s urine to pass a drug test and your wife is pregnant. (Reader’s Digest) If you aren’t a psycho, you’re dumb as a rock.
You might be a psycho-employee if …
#1. You expect your boss to make everything at work meaningful and exciting.
Sometimes work sucks. Make the best of it.
#2. You believe meaningful work is easy.
Meaningful work is rewarding, not easy.
If you aren’t doing hard things, you don’t matter much in this world.
Purpose gives meaning to hard work, but it’s not an exemption from sweat.
A little ease is helpful. A lot of ease is evil.
#3. You concentrate on what’s wrong with your boss, but nothing’s wrong with you.
#4. You blame your boss for what’s wrong with you.
#5. You refuse to see yourself through the eyes of your boss.
Read Emotional Intelligence 2.0 to increase your EQ.
#6. You build protective walls around yourself and get upset when your boss doesn’t treat you ‘right’.
Protective walls are built by scaredy-cats.
It takes courage to know and be yourself.
Psycho-employees might improve if they:
- Understood mindreading is a parlor trick.
- Realized they aren’t the center of the universe.
- Accepted themselves rather than wearing masks.
- Spoke their mind before they were angry.
#7. You reject feedback.
Psycho-employees have no idea the boss is tolerating their psycholery.
The boss is trying to help, but psycho-employees feel picked on.
When you give a psycho-employee feedback, they think something’s wrong with YOU.
Bonus:
You might be a psycho-employee if all you do is think of others when you read the above list.
You’re definitely a psycho-employee if you see yourself on the list and still think the problem is your boss.
How would you complete, “You might be a psycho-employee if … “
What’s one simple thing you could do today to be less of a psycho?
You may be a psycho employee if you are a habitual, arrogant and impatient naysayer.
Thanks Gerry… No I’m not! 😉
According to this, all 14 of us in the office must be psycho-employees because we all think the boss(es) is/are the problem.
Thanks C… That sounds about right. Frankly, there’s a bit of psycho in all of us. Maybe the big solution to this is taking more control of our own world without blaming others. Best wishes.
PS… I just had a thought…I wonder if your bosses think you’re psychos .. 🙂
You might be a psycho employee if you believe your work is superior to everyone else’s and you treat them accordingly.
The traits you mention could also be applied to psycho peers!
Thanks Daryl. The psycho in me finds comfort in feeling superior. OUCH!
I intend to speak my mind before I get angry, to avoid the occasional psycho outburst.
Thanks Jackie. One of the places this works best is figuring out the good we want to bring to others and voicing that. “I want our team meetings to be energizing. What if we ….. “, for example.
Thank you Dan for the reminder of how to constructively speak my mind – increasing the odds of getting what I want, getting buy-in, resulting a win-win situation. If not, I will probably learn why I can’t (obstacles, reality) or an even better fix/suggestion from the person(s) I speak with.
The bonus is GOLDEN
I agree with all of these – and according to these traits, I can admit I’ve had my “psycho” days.
I feel that #5 (you refuse to see yourself through the eyes of your boss) is one that is somewhat two-fold. While I think this is vital, this point leaves a lot of room for your mind to wander, to become paranoid in the endless possibilities of what another person may or may not be thinking of you.
I think a big part of being able to see yourself through the eyes of your boss falls into the boss’s realm of responsibility to provide the feedback that many employees simply don’t get enough of. Once employees feel they have the feedback (both good and bad), they can then do something with it and begin to see themselves clearer through the eyes of their boss.
What I love most about your posts Mr. Rockwell is they cause me to ponder to myself, “where and when have I shown up in my work as psycho boss or psycho employee?” I like to think it’s not my dominant trait, but I do believe everyone has the capacity for greatness and some days all we can do is our best for that day. I use The 4 agreements of The Toltec’s “Always do your best” as my guide knowing that some days my best might be a bit psycho to use your term.
I commit to learn a new thing a day to be less psychotic. Over a period I understand how difficult is to be committed to learn everyday. Eventually I value my boss peers and my associates.
Hello Dan – Great list! Thank you for providing a fun way to discuss and awkward topic. It’s always nice to see that we are not alone when navigating office relationships.