A TELE-COUNSELING SESSION WITH A CLIENT. IT’S THE FIRST SESSION AND THE CLIENT CHOSE TO DO IT ON PHONE RATHER THAN ON ZOOM.
And what brings you here today?
Well, I am concerned about my job. It’s a real warzone.
What about your job are you concerned with?
Well, I’m not sure. It’s my boss and it could be, umm, me perhaps…
Would you please shed more light on what is going on at work?
AND THIS IS WHERE I SHOULD HAVE JUST ASKED “WHAT HAPPENED?”
Well, I feel like my boss is stonewalling me yet I feel I am getting the short end of the stick…
When I try to shine a spotlight on the issue I feel like I just leave a bitter taste in his mouth.
My boss is the king of the castle and we, his loyal subjects are only there to do his bidding. A few customers are feeling the whiff that something’s wrong and yet I have to turn a blind eye coz if I say anything, it would not only be a huge red flag but a sign that there’s plenty wrong at the castle.
Now, I don’t know what to do without raising eyebrows and the thing is my workmates seem to be taking sides with my boss? I feel like throwing in the towel. Perhaps it’s time to hang up my boots and call it a day.
What are you colleagues saying or doing?
Well, I am not sure it just that everything is being played under the surface at the moment and I do not really want to open a Pandora’s box to find that it’s a can of worms. So, I can’t say for sure what they think. Besides everyone is at their own little corner doing their own thing. I am here covering my ass.
Have you talked to your boss about your concerns?
And say what? That he is undermining me whilst taking all the credit for the leads I have created in the business and won’t let me take my annual leave for the last three years nor talk to the customers directly about the performance of the funds we have invested on their behalf. Mark you, Chris we are talking about 50 million USD worth of investments. If I told him what I thought, I would just get fired.
I wish I had taped you so that you could hear yourself speak. Yes, I feel there you have an issue to do with your workplace and more specifically with your boss. However, if you’ll allow me I think what you have here, is a communication problem and perhaps a communication breakdown.
A CHUCKLE
No need to be so dramatic. I just clearly explained to what’s going on.
Well, you did and yet you didn’t. If you’d heard yourself speak, you would hear all the idiomatic expressions and the truth of what the issue is came out in what you did NOT think you could tell your boss. And yet the result seems headed in the same direction. The longer you don’t tell him what you think and feel, the more you ponder on the idea of tendering your resignation or taking an early retirement. And if you tell him, you say he could terminate your employment. Either way you get to leave your current employment.
Are there any other options you could think of?
You came highly recommended, and here you are judging me. I think let’s just stop there and I will look for another therapist.
Thank you for your time and for having considered to let me work with you. I wish you well. Truly.
Yeah Right. Whatever!
My Side of the Street 