Is your common sense really common sense?

Good evening, this is Mikipro.

Do you realize that to a subordinate, a boss is a scary presence?

The other day, something like this happened.

At our company, there is training to teach the importance of protecting information, and there is a simple test to check understanding. It's about 10 questions, just marking circles and crosses, so I thought it would take about 5 minutes to complete. However, on December 1st, I asked A-kun, who hadn't finished it even though it was already December, to submit the test.

The next morning, since he hadn't said anything, I asked A-kun about it.

Now, what do you think when you see this exchange?

By the way,since A-kun is a first-year employee,there is a lot for him to learn in his company work, and because he has a sense of being bad at administrative tasks,his daily work tends to be delayed,which is something I, Mikipro, was aware of.

"You fool! Why didn't you say that yesterday! If the lost item was customer information, it would have become a major incident involving the whole company!"
I could have scolded him like that. I sometimes scold employees to make them understand the necessity of reporting to a supervisor immediately if customer documents or the like are lost, even from when they are new employees.

However,is A-kun really the only one at fault?

On the day I spoke to him after the deadline had passed, or more accurately,I think I should have said a word to A-kun before the deadline.I suspect that rather than forgetting about the test, A-kunhad misplaced the test papers and was troubled about what to do, so he couldn't bring himself to say it.

To a new employee, a boss is a scary presence.Even if you aren't raising your voice, you might be older, or you might be creating an atmosphere that makes it hard to speak up. I, Mikipro, wanted to be a boss who is easy to consult with. However, from the perspective of a first-year employee, depending on their personality, it can be hard for a subordinate to speak up. It might be necessary to lower one's perspective, perhaps by checking if they are having any trouble while also mixing in daily conversation with work discussions.

It is premature to assume that all employees understand work etiquette, such as "meeting deadlines at work" or "consulting with those around you when you have trouble at work." It is better to grasp their experience, age, and personality, and discard the uniform"common sense" of how a working adult should be.Even if you think something is "common sense," you need to think carefully about whether both parties feel the same way.

Are you making it easy for opinions to be expressed in the workplace?

I don't think humans can ever be completely objective.

I, Mikipro, alsotry not to easily deny things or dismiss them from the start.This is because it is necessary to doubt common sense based on the current situation and the surrounding environment.

However,I think it is wrong to stick to your own common sense and become an unreasonable person who inconveniences those around you.

By the way,is the policy in your department often decided top-down by the boss?

We have morning briefings or mini-meetings to go over the day's communications, butI'm struggling because they end up just being sessions to confirm the boss's instructions (with no proactive input from subordinates).It could be said that the bill is coming due for the fact that I haven't experienced many productive meetings myself.

I don't think it's meaningful for a boss to simply ask for opinions directly, as that just leads to people saying what they think the boss wants to hear.

It seems necessary to change how we conduct meetings and how we prepare for them. I want to try some trial and error.

Summary

The position of a boss is one wherethere is a gap between how you see yourself and how you are seen by those around you.

Looking back 20 years, it's true that when comparing talking to a boss versus talking to a peer,it was my peers I could speak honestly with(laughs).

Power harassment and the like can sometimes arise from such gaps. In my current position,I want to re-examine whether my own behavior is appropriate.