SURVEY SAYS: What Happens When Your Boss is Out?

In fact, nearly one-in-four said they got more done when their boss wasn’t around (see  While the Cats Away, the Mice…. ).  

This week, I asked readers if it made a difference when your boss was out.

Well, for a clear plurality – more than 38% of this week’s respondents – whether the boss was in or out had no impact at all, though 28.6% got more done when the boss was out, and only about 3% said they got less done (or got stuck with more work).    On the other hand, nearly a third chose “other” – a response category that ran the gamut – but was mostly comments along the line of “I work harder, but don’t get more done.”

As one respondent noted, “I was going to check the box “I get less done”, but that’s not 100% true…I get less of my OWN work done. When my boss is either on vacation or out of town, I am the next in line to contact, so most of my work gets put on the back burner while I try to stay afloat handling what she’s got going on.”

Verbatims

My favorites among this week’s verbatims:

“I really try to get more done so that my boss doesn’t think I’m sloughing off when she’s out.”

“I get more done when she’s out and wish she would were out more often.”

“…there are certain things that require her approval in order to get done. Her peer, who is responsible for that approval in her absence, sends everything back with inane questions. So, in that regard, I get less work done. In fact, our entire team stockpiles that work for her return so we don’t have to deal with her peer.”

“I get less done because I have to cover for my boss who really does work.”

“Even when my boss is out…she is in…still calls, or emails if needs something completed.”

“Yes it makes a difference. I work harder in order to play harder when he is gone.   When he is here I actually think I work slower to continue looking busy so he won’t come and chat with me.”

“I’m doing the same good job either way. Most of the time even when my boss is here he’s not really here…”

“Get more done but have more to do — have to track down the boss who does not leave his cell phone on and rarely replies to e-mails. At times, it is like “Where’s Waldo”?”

“I get more done. But that’s because when my boss is out, most of my coworkers somehow seem to be out, too. hmph…”

“In my department we tend to get more done when the boss is out – until she wakes up and gets on her blackberry or laptop. The requests that come in then are awful and knee-jerk reactions to things she is not well informed about. My supervisor came running out of his office one day while the boss was out and declared “The Boss is awake, I had to get out of my office!”

But this week’s Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who said, “I’m my own boss, so I better get work done, even when I’m not looking :)”

Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey!

If the "subordinates" were reassuring on the point - that work proceeds apace whether the boss is there or not - the bosses responding to this week's survey were even more assuring.  

More than half ( 54.4% ) agreed that their subordinates worked at the same pace, regardless of their presence.   Roughly 8% thought that the group(s) that reported to them got more done when they were gone, nearly 9% said they got less done, and a like number said that "they leave plenty for me to do when I get back to the office."   Two percent said they seem to get nothing done.

As with the subordinate group, a strong one in five ( 19% ) chose "other" - but here, for the very most part, the reason was largely a function of one of two perspectives; either "it depends on the individual" - or "I'm not sure."