The Most Effective Way of Keeping Your Boss in the Loop
How to remember a mountain of narcolepsy-inducing work
Sunday Night Dread
"Twas the night before Monday, and all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The briefcase was packed by the door with care, In hopes that the workday soon would be there. The alarm was set for the crack of dawn, And the to-do list was written and drawn. The coffee was brewed, ready to brew, And the office attire was ironed and new. With one last check of the emails and news, I settled in bed, ready for snooze. For tomorrow is Monday, the start of the week, And the hustle and bustle, the tasks and the peak. But for now, goodnight to the world and its cares, I'll tackle them all come Monday morning, with stairs."
Thank you ChatGPT for that one. I gave it the idea, and it executed it perfectly in seconds. Most of you have day jobs and there’s a good chance you’re dealing with a boss who’s either constantly pestering you for an update on a million tasks or outright micromanaging you. To be frank, I’m not sure there’s really a difference.
You’re probably wondering:
“What’s the best way of keeping my boss off my back?”
Most people make the mistake of giving as little information as possible to the boss. They think that the more details that are given, the more questions that are raised.
Nothing could be further from the truth…
Over the past 25 years of my working life, I discovered an interesting problem that I could never overcome. I was notorious for writing long emails, and admittedly, some of those emails should have never been sent, but that’s a whole different topic all together.
I thought that if I were to send properly structured emails with lots of detail, my boss would read them! Boy was I wrong. The only long emails that were ever read were the inflammatory ones.
I tried an experiment to see if it would work. Instead of writing out a long summary email, I thought to myself:
“What if I wrote a Friday update in the style of a newsletter, complete with ‘Upgrade to a paid subscription now, to get the FULL EXPERIENCE’?”
Enter: “Fast Forward Fridays @ <insert department>”
I had “borrowed” the formatting style of a well-known newsletter, with the heart-shaped “Like” button, share button etc. at the front of the email, making anyone taking a casual glance believe that it was a newsletter of some sort.
I used this format and received many positive comments back from my colleagues:
Fast Forward Fridays @ <insert department>
FRIDAY MANAGER UPDATE
BY <INSERT NAME>
INSERT DATE
PASTE IN HEADER BAR WITH LIKE, COMMENT SHARE ICONS
Welcome to the Xth issue of Fast Forward Fridays @ <insert department>. We are a weekly manager’s newsletter released every Friday afternoon, covering the latest developments in the <insert department> at <insert company>. Insert any other humourous text you want.
TL;DR
“Too late; didn’t read…just like everything else”
Short bullet point #1
Short bullet point #2
Short bullet point #3
Everything that happened this week ending January 20th, 2023:
State of the Union
Decrees from Above - What the boss wants the boss gets
Mission Impossible: Missions Accomplished
Missed Opportunities
Monday Madness
This Week’s <insert humour>
Read on for more…
State of the union
“Where are we really?“
insert bullet points
Decrees from above - What the boss wants the boss gets
“Directives directed by the director to directly do”
insert bullet points
Mission Impossible: Missions Accomplished
“Things you asked us to do this week that we could actually do”
insert bullet points
Missed Opportunities
“Things we couldn’t do…framed in a more positive light”
insert bullet points
Monday Madness
“What’s on tap for next week?”
insert bullet points
Humour
“A Haiku on <insert topic>” but really it can be anything you want that’s funny that encourages the reader to get to the end.
You’re a FREE subscriber to Fast Forward Fridays @ <insert department>. For the FULL experience, become a paying subscriber now.
If you really enjoyed this post and know of someone who would benefit from it, what’s stopping you from sharing it?
So that’s it! I sent a draft version of this to my colleagues one one of them said he read it three times because it was so funny! Also, my colleague said that you can’t forget anything either. The trick is to write each preamble in copywriting style, instead of business style.
For example:
THINK OF THE CHILDREN: Received request as to whether any of the encumbered lands belong to the School District Board.
Every so often, write a bullet point in a blatantly funny tone. Instead of saying, “This proposal was rejected” write, “This proposal was presented and enthusiastically dismissed…”
Epilogue
The truth is, your boss is too busy to care and only follows up with you when something is on fire. If you give your boss less reason to drill down on to everything that you’re doing on a day to day basis, your life becomes easier. The end result is that if your boss does ask you for an update, you can point to your newsletter and ask them if they read what you know was there.
When that happens, they stop asking you what you've done all week.
THEN YOU ARE FREE.
Happy Sunday!
Rex del Tenebrio