Your Questions About How To Get Noticed By The Boss

How can I be well liked by my coworkers and my boss?

I recently got hired a little less than a month ago at my first job (I’m 17). I’m a Food Service Worker. It’s great and I love the challenging work but I really want to get noticed positively by my boss and my co-workers. I want them to think I’m hard worker and I really want to be friends with them, but I don’t necessarily know the best way to get to know them. I’m a little bit of a shy person and I noticed sometimes I have trouble joining conversations with other people if they aren’t originally talking to me.

Can any of you offer me some advice that will help me to become better friends with my co-workers and my boss?

In the workplace, how do you avoid negative gossip or comments being spread about you by superiors?

I don’t really mind gossip being spread about me when I’m with friends or family, but in the workplace, it’s a different story altogether. What’s being said about you behind your back can really hurt, especially if it’s coming from a manager or executive.

But this happens to everybody. No matter how many hundreds of good things you do for your company, it’s always going to be that *one* shortfall you make, that’s going to get noticed by your bosses and put your butt in a sling. True or false?

Isn’t that what most managers are about? Looking for ways to destroy their subordinates (who are making far less money than they are)?
To the first responder: what you’ve written *seems* like a good approach, but you have to come back down to reality. Many folks are just too timid about confronting their managers (or another higher-ranking person within the company) for making slander or bad comments because of fear of retaliation.

It’s very simple to get back at a subordinate employee without it looking like unlawful harassment, bullying or discrimination.

I told my boss off…?

After a year of being shuffled around and generally abused at work by my boss and the incestuous workplace she espouses, I quit yesterday. I submitted my two weeks notice by email and said that there would be a followup hard copy letter coming. She called me this morning (which she has never done unless she wants something) to know why I was quitting, and I told her. I told her I was disliked the work environment that she created, and how her friends are always on the inside track, leaving everyone else in the dust behind them. I also told her that the people receiving promotions (her friends), were also the ones who bragged about their relationship with her, and how they knew they could get anything they wanted by manipulating her. It felt great to get it off of my chest, and it’s all true. Needless to say, we weren’t friends before, and we’re certainly not now.

Now, of all things, I’m worried about references. I’m not going to ask her, but how will I explain a 1-year employment gap? I never received anything less than a glowing review of my work, including her own yearly review. I brought up the subject of favoritism with her in person, and when she didn’t do anything about it, I took it to HR, who did nothing. I feel like I tried to make it work, and was continually kicked in the teeth for doing so. Where do I go from here?

How can I determine if the way I’m treated by my boss is considerred dicrimination?

I have been employed at a restaurant for almost 13 years. My employer and his family, who also help to run the business, speak to me disrespectfully in front of other employees and customers, but I have noticed that they do not to the other employees. I’m white, and all of the rest, except for one other gal, are hispanic. I have always observed that my hispanic coworkers are consistantly treated more fairly than myself and other past white employees who have eventually quit because of the sometimes abusive treatmentby the boss and management. Our business has slowed down considerably and ,my hours cut severely (aprox.14hours per month). I also am bypassed often when they seat customers. The hispanic servers will be running around franticly, while I might get seated one or two tables IF I’m lucky. The other white server is the only other one whose hours have been slimmed down. By the way the owners are Greek. I also have the most seniority.

i didnt not accept the companies terms but didnt say “i quit.” got denied for unemployment?

so i recently left my employer due to a “management reduction” that was taken place. ive worked as a manager at this movie theater for about 5 years as part-time. about 2 months ago i get a call from my boss saying that he needs to talk to me about the “management reduction” process. according to my boss, the decisions that were made aren’t up to him instead corporate will make all the decisions (due to lawsuit reasons). so i come in and my boss tells me that he is forced to demote all the part-time managers to floorstaff and most of full-time managers to part-time. i was getting paid around 11.50 an hour as a manager and demoting me to floor staff would be 7.25 an hour. he did mention that some of the highest paying employees here get paid around 9 an hour but didn’t say i was going to get that much, just mentioned it. this was all oblivious to me and all of my coworkers at the time. the only information we got from the “management reduction” were from rumors from other theaters. all of that being said, i told my boss that “i do not accept the terms.” he didn’t ask why or anything else just an “ok” i did NOT say i quit or here’s my 2 weeks notice. i ended up working as a manager for the remaining week and was not put on the schedule anymore after that. i went to the unemployment office turned in all my paper work to find out that i the corporate guys claimed that i “quit” so now the unemployment office is looking into my case and i gotta answer a few questions for them to find out if im eligible for unemployment. i answered most of their questions but one main question that im stuck on would be “why did i not accept their terms in being demoted to floor staff?” the main reason i didnt accept it is because i go to school full time therefor i only have time to work during weekends. at the time i was a part time manager i was only working friday and saturday and going to school during the week. getting paid as a manager i was able to get by paying off rent, bills, and etc. but now only making 7.25 many things will need to change. thats why i feel claiming unemployment would be the best option for me to continue school full time and still make ends meet. i got back a determination letter from the unemployment office stating i will be getting 158 a week if my claim goes through. 158 a week is enough for me to keep my life on track without making any changes. but anyways i feel like my answer to the question “why did you not accept their terms” is not enough or its too weak… any suggestions on how i could answer that questions? any help would be much appreciated!
also: only managers were effected by this decision. no employees were laid off,quit, or etc.