Annie is an administrative assistant in the Marketing Department of a large manufacturing company. Just as Annie was about to leave the office, her boss, Mr. Dua became very angry about a series of reports Annie had not yet produced and distributed to key executives. “If you want to work here, you’ve got to understand what people need and when they need,” said Mr. Dua. “You can’t just wait for me to tell you what to do. I expect you will have those reports out first thing tomorrow morning.” What was frustrating for Annie was that she and Mr. Dua had already agreed that the reports were not due on the executives’ desks until the next afternoon but suddenly, without advance notice, Mr. Dua was changing the deadline and admonishing Annie for not taking steps to meet it. Annie has found herself in this situation quite often since she started working for Mr. Dua. Deadlines are often altered without Annie’s knowledge. Mr. Dua frequently assigns projects without first checking Annie’s workload. Priorities change constantly and many times, while Annie is in the middle of completing a series of tasks, Mr. Dua will hover over her desk. Annie has a problem that is an unfortunate part of the business world – working for a difficult boss. For all the effort Annie makes to anticipate and meet Mr. Dua’s need, the fact of the matter is that she is working for a boss who lacks the skills necessary to be a good manager.
Questions Narrate the steps you would take to overcome this problem, if you were Annie, giving reasons.
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