‘In your neighborhood,...in your neigh• bor• hood!’ There’s a furnace-cleaner in your neighborhood... Isn’t that the song they used to sing on Mr. Rogers or Sesame Street or one of those shows like that? Just got a call from furnace-cleaning company (Castle - something or other) and decided to have a little fun with them. My conversation went something like this with them…

In the previous entry,The Best Way To Deal With A Bad Boss, we were beginning to discuss the things that make up our ability to deal with a bad boss like our driving needs, communication styles (which we’ll get into shortly) and whether or not we’re a Master or a Victim. All these issues need to be considered before we can best handle, deal with, stomache, work with a boss who’s less than ideal. We covered driving needs and maintain that one must remain detached from the process that satisfies those needs (intimacy, control, achievement, passion, love, etc.). We also suggested that based on intuition and faith, a person must sincerely choose or give the needs they want met to either themselves or to someone else in order for them to receive a satisfactory result. It sounds almost contradictory: give yourself what you need? Absolutely! A self-actualized person (a successful person) knows how to meet their own needs - consciously or unconsciously. They are a Master of their life. But what if we’re not Masters, rather we’re Victims. What if we resist taking responsibility for the results we get? Let’s talk about this.

Have you noticed something lately? If you’ve been working for longer than a month, you’ve likely encountered a bad boss or a boss from hell in your career. Why is it such big news these days that there are bosses from hell out there? Seems like there’s a lot of boss stuff being written on the internet (How To Handle The Boss From Hell), in magazines and in newspapers regarding the bad bosses out there. Now it could be just because of Ken Lay of Enron, or the character Meryl Streep plays in the new movie The Devil Wears Prada giving bosses a bad name, or it could just be that the bad boss cycle has come around again in this hot economy and people are looking for something better from their work environment. And employees are complaining to anyone who’ll listen. Seems like companies aren’t listening much on their way to their bank accounts. So how do you, a lowly employee (the key cog in getting all the real work done), deal with a socalled boss from hell? You know the one everyone’s talking about, the micro-manager, the meanie, the can’t make a decision guy, the brown-nosing gal, etc.? Well, the real issue at play in any boss-subordinate relationship is “control”. Seems obvious doesn’t it? They have it and you don’t. But the truth is—we all have control—we just need to learn how to give it so that both ourselves and the Receiver can benefit from it. Let me explain.

Many times over the last 15 years or so I’ve been asked by friends, acquaintances, clients and employers ‘how do you know your relationship is working?’ Or, ‘if we hire you, how will we know that you’re committed to our firm and that you won’t just leave in a few months when something better comes along?’ Good questions! Tough questions that require some introspection and self-analysis to determine their answers. Perhaps you’ve had these same sorts of questions leveled at you? Perhaps it’s been a struggle or you’ve been confused for some time now as to what to do: “should I stay in this dead-end job or should I leave?” Maybe you like the work you’re doing but you still don’t feel quite right, happy that is? Maybe you’re in a relationship with someone where things seem to have gone stale over the months or years you’ve been together and you don’t know whether to stay or go. Honestly, the way you view and handle your relationships with yourself, your significant others or your work are all essentially the same. You need to do some personal work and come up with some answers for yourself that will be the foundation for your relationship approach.  For myself, putting it quite simply, I typically look these unsuspecting Questioners in the eyes and say “as long as I’m winning!” Let me explain in more detail what sounds like a self-centered answer.

Came across a great little tax-related book written by David Voth for Canadians. It’s not a long book (just over 130 pages) and doesn’t take the place of your personal tax Adviser but it’s chock full of great tax saving tips any taxpayer or entrepreneur should take advantage of if they aren’t already. Especially if you don’t like paying taxes - I mean, who does really? And the tips Mr. Voth talks about are legal and simple. Take for example the tip on the “reasonable expectation to make a profit” test.