You've Got to Be Kidding!: How to Keep Your Job Without Losing Your Integrity

How to Keep Your Job and Your Relationship with Your Boss

One of the most difficult tasks an office professional has is making the boss realize that “no” is a complete sentence.

You have to keep trying. You have to believe that your boss can change her mind. Even if earlier attempts to “talk this thing through” yielded only unhappy consequences, a few of your arguments just might have gotten through. Maybe your boss has reconsidered and tempered her position, or maybe there are sufficient incentives—like the threat of a lawsuit by another person due to a similar dilemma—that will cause your boss to return to the discussion and try to work out some sort of an understanding. Whatever your reasons, I applaud your efforts to persist. I wish I could personally pin a medal on each and every one of you who continue to fight for what is right.

Did you comply or not comply with her request? Did you clam up and do it, divorcing yourself from the act with some rationalization like, “No one is getting hurt anyway, so why not?” or “I have to do it to keep my job”? Close your eyes and let her rip off the company knowing that questioning her actions would cost you your job? Use your knowledge for leverage in the future? Or did you challenge her to get her act together and do the right thing? Attempt to “fix” her, or save her from herself or rehabilitate her? Turn her into the ethics police in your company?

What hurts most in these situations, of course, is that she asked you to do the deed in ...