Business English: Can I make the boss return my toy?
A male investment banker (23) wrote: A while back, a vendor came to my desk for onsite training, and left me with a promotional foam football. As a twitchy person, I greatly enjoyed playing with it while I worked. ...... When my boss was walking by, he would put up his hands for me to toss it to him, and then toss it back.
One day, however, he caught the ball, walked into his office, and never returned it. He's a good boss, and I get along well with him; I can't see how confronting him about such a petty, trivial matter could possibly be a good idea. Nevertheless, every time I see him playing with "my" promotional toy, it stirs up a deep resentment.
I've tried nonchalantly walking out of his office with it, but he asked me to toss it back to him. Any thoughts?
Read what Lucy Kellaway, "agony-aunt" of the Financial Times (London), answered:
Hidden in this apparently superficial problem are three important points about office life.
First, it provides the answer to a question that has long baffled the experts: why women don't get on better in investment banking. The answer has nothing to do with glass ceilings or sexist remarks or misogyny or long hours: it's to do with balls. Balls that you play with. Women simply don't find it fun to fiddle with foam footballs or to sling them at their bosses. If this is how people communicate around them, they can get pretty lonely.
The second lesson is about triviality. There is no need to feel sheepish about the pettiness of the problem: as you are only 23, you may not yet have realised that office life is made up of trivial things. Mostly we don't get upset about big things - being stuck in a stressful, boring job that we hate - because such things are depressing and generally not in our power to change. It's foam balls and biscuits that we fret about.
The third is to understand that working in an investment bank is like a ball game in some ways and quite unlike one in others. It is a competitive endeavour in which there are winners and losers. But the playing field is anything but level. Different rules apply depending on your position. If you are the boss then you can say what the rules are. If you are a 23-year-old grunt, then you mostly have to put up with whatever he decides.
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Return it to its rightful owner
In extremis, grunts can complain if they don't like the boss's rules, but they must pick the right things to protest about. If your boss had taken your wallet then it would have made sense to protest. But when he takes a foam ball that was a freebie from a supplier, you have to go along with it.
The good news for you is that in office life, as in games, daring grunts can sometimes take matters into their own hands - especially when no one is watching. If you really do want your ball back then you take it by stealth. I assume that you are an ambitious banker and, therefore, practically live in the office. In that case, there must be some times when you are in and your boss is not. Wait until the coast is clear, slip into his office and go in and return your foam ball to its rightful owner.
Quelle: The Financial Times, London. www.ft.com
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The Financial Times, 05.09.2010
© 2010 The Financial Times,
© 1999 - 2012 Financial Times Deutschland
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Aktuelle Nachrichten über Wirtschaft, Politik, Finanzen und Börsen
Börsen- und Finanzmarktdaten:
Bereitstellung der Kurs- und Marktinformationen erfolgt durch die Interactive Data Managed Solutions AG. Es wird keine Haftung für die Richtigkeit der Angaben übernommen!
Über FTD.de | Impressum | Datenschutz | Disclaimer | Mediadaten | E-Mail an FTD | Sitemap | Hilfe | Archiv
Mit ICRA gekennzeichnet
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