10 Things You Wish You Could Tell Your Boss

What with pay freezes, the threat of lay offs and the ever-present sense that there's a mile-long line of unemployed workers itching to do your job, the recent economic turmoil hasn't been great from employee-manager relations. Even in offices where the lines of communication are open and employees work along in relative good cheer, some tension simmers away beneath the surface. So what do employees wish they could tell their bosses, but rarely do? Fast Company blogger Roberta Matuson rounds up ten:

• We are happy to have a job. But that doesn't necessarily mean we are happy in our jobs. Big difference. People who are happy in their jobs act a lot different than those grateful to have a job. They are highly engaged and will do whatever it takes to delight the customer. The other group simply floats along praying for the day they can tell you really what they are thinking. Most likely we will do this as we hand in our notice. That is if we even give notice.
• You're not the boss of me. You may be the boss, but you don't own your people. The minute you start playing the, "Because I said so" card, you've lost the game.
• Your girls don't like being called girls. I remember how shocked I was when my first client started speaking to me about the girls in the office, as he pointed to a sea of silver haired women. It is disrespectful to call females over the age of 18 girls. They are women.
• We are no longer going to take one for the team. That is after the senior team has just awarded the departing CEO an exit package that certainly could have been used to restore salary cuts.
• We are tired of picking up the slack from the non-performers. We know who is not pulling their weight and so do you. Do something about it before we throw ourselves on top of the dead weight pile.
• That was our idea you just shared with the CEO. We understand that tough times call for tough measures, but that doesn't give you the right to take credit for something that is not yours. Now go back in there and give us the credit we are due.
• Measure us on results, not face time. Stop penalizing us for our ability to get work done quickly or we will give you what you want. More face time, and that's about it.
• Stop wasting our time with surveys. You already know what's wrong. Now start fixing things before we find a work place that is willing to take action.
• Stop micromanaging us. Micromanagement is a sign of mistrust. You've hired us for a reason. If you don't trust we'll get the job done then by all means, either find people who you think will, or leave us alone to do our jobs.
• We are never going to act like business owners. Stop complaining that we don't act like business owners. We are not business owners nor are we compensated the same as the owner. And by the way, if we really wanted to act like owners we would have started our own businesses.

(Photo courtesy Flickr user joshjanssen , CC 2.0)