People-Skills: 6 Subtle Signs You Annoy Your Boss

Even those with good people-skills are bound to annoy others sometimes. When you annoy your boss, you may pay a price you didn’t anticipate.

If these things have happened to you, improve your people-skills so you won’t annoy your boss again!

People-Skills: 6 Subtle Signs You Annoy Your Boss



6 Subtle Signs You Annoy Your Boss

  1. You have to interpret a blurred CAPTCHA code and enter it to get a text or email through to the boss.
  2. There is now a speed bump in front of your desk AND one pops up in front of his/her office when you, and only you, approach.
  3. Your spell checker has been mysteriously disabled.
  4. Your new office mate never stops talking.
  5. Your tele-commuting request is quickly approved and your assigned computer can only run Windows 3.1.
  6. You must run an all night video conference and then host a breakfast with top customers early the next morning.


All kidding aside, people-skills have a tremendous impact on leadership, teamwork, customer service, sales, and business success.

If you want to future proof your career, identify the top three situations where you have mis-stepped with your boss or colleagues or where you might in the future. Can you prevent it or repair it?

I am here to help you as I have so many others. I look forward to working with you. Until we meet …

Here are some of my other people-skills posts to get you started!

6 Ways to Avoid Scaring the Bejeebers Out of Execs

Avoid the 7 Common Causes of People-Skills Mistakes

5 Ways to Sound Helpful Not Patronizing

The Perfect Apology and the One Word That Destroys It

People-Skills Mistakes Won’t Define You If …

Bury These 4 Phrases for Best Teamwork

Smart Answers to Handle Jealous Office Teammates

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2011-2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.


Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers workshops, keynotes, and consultations that turn interaction obstacles into business success for employee engagement, teamwork, leading change, and the ultimate customer experience. Leaders have been booking Kate for 21 years to turn people-skills extremes into business wins. See this site for customer results and book Kate now for your next team meeting or special event.

3 Responses to “People-Skills: 6 Subtle Signs You Annoy Your Boss”

  1. Don J says:

    Kate,
    Do you ever find that some individuals just don’t get it. There are some personalities out there that don’t get it or don’t want to get it. I’ve found that the ones who need the most help sometimes are the ones that think they have great people skills and we all need to get over it…lol.
    In a recent customer service training I did for my employer the person that didn’t want to be there, but was told it was mandatory, spoke up loudly during training, threw her papers down on the table and said “you’re not solving my problem”. Keep in mind that an essential beginning of the training was about attitude (the 90/10 principle).
    I calmly explained that using the tools from the training hopefully she would be able to solve her own problem, but that I couldn’t personally fix her problem. She left at the end of training unhappy, of course.
    Any suggestions?

    • Kate Nasser says:

      Hi Don,
      To answer your question, yes I have seen this behavior when delivering both my customer service workshops and team building. I see it even more when I am doing custom sessions during times of great change in any org.

      What you were facing — based purely on what you have written — is individual change resistance. Her extreme behavior you describe may even have more problems behind it. Hard for me to say without seeing it. When I am witnessing it first hand, I can tell 95% of the time what is the right response to handle the situation.

      The one suggestion I have for you for future training — something that I learned early on and share with others — the goal is learning not necessarily happiness. She may come around to seeing her challenges in a subsequent moment when you are not there. One thing you can do before any workshop is a bit more research on attitudes and then plan an ice breaker for the beginning of the session which focuses on them owning their attitudes.

      After that — move into the training itself.

      P.S. As I read your comment, I thought back to one very difficult student who wrote me the following message at the end of class on the back side of the evaluation form in super tiny size: “I have trouble learning from people who know more than I do.”

      I never forgot it. People act badly for many reasons. Food for thought.

      Best wishes to you,
      Kate

  2. Liz Weber says:

    Hysterical! Some people just do NOT get it. A participant said to my Director of Operations before one of my speeches: “I get the impression Liz doesn’t deal with stupid very well.” No I don’t. I guess that’s why I am The Dragon Lady of Leadership Accountability:)
    Another great post Kate. Too bad so many can relate to the boss in this one!

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