Whenever you finish something, they always have to go over
it with fine-tooth comb. They think they are the head spell-checker and grammar
authority, even when things look alright, they find a way to change it. You end up feeling belittled and annoyed that
they don’t trust your ability to do a job right. How can anybody ever do better if their boss
doesn’t even trust them with the simplest of tasks? This boss may not necessarily have a direct
judgment on you, instead they may merely be poor with assessing people, and
more task-oriented. Perhaps they trust
other employees and are still unsure or just too busy to make up their mind
about fully trusting your abilities.
Stand up for your talents and competency by speaking up to him/her. Ask for small forms of independence and
leadership with a task. Set a time frame
where you will be completely in charge of a task for example the week, and ask
that they assess your abilities then. A
good way to phrase this is making a firm, casual comment in your interest, then
segueing into asking for the responsibility, ex. “I’d like to try my hand at
writing the HR emails. Could I do it my way for the next week and we’ll see how
it goes?” Your boss gets the message
that you are ready to take on responsibility and you have a plan of action. He
or she also sees that they have a chance to still check up on you. They will probably be glad to lessen their
labor load (all that time they take staking out your work) and also be able to
focus on the great abilities you have at the end of the week. Don’t be confrontational, make this a natural
suggestion they won’t want to shy away from.
If they aren’t interested or are quick to dismiss you, try asking again
but more assertively to really bring across your interest.