Our resident corporate Agony Uncle, CEO Ken Cheng, tackles business challenges – so you don’t have to.
Dear Ken Cheng,
There is a biscuit jar in my office kitchen and my manager constantly puts his whole hand in it, rummages through the biscuits touching all of them, before taking one out. How do I call him out on it?
– Suzy, Warrington
Ken Cheng:
Sorry to say this, this is simply his right as a manager.
I will say this is a completely unnecessary move by him and likely some sort of power move. However, who am I to judge how a boss exerts dominance over his workforce?
You have only a few options, none of which involve confronting him directly or denying him access to the biscuit jar.
Firstly, you can check if your boss’s hands are clean. If they are clean, then what are you complaining about? They might even be cleaner than your own hands, in which case you’re better off having him feed them into your mouth.
Secondly, you could go out and buy your own freakin’ biscuits. You’re an adult woman who earns a salary, and really, you should be doing the adult thing of buying a pack of hobnobs and hiding them in your desk so you can have them all to yourself/
Lastly, you can suck it up and just eat the same biscuits. What’s so bad about your boss touching them. I’ve had people’s whole fists in my mouth – not a sexual thing, it was a trust exercise on a staff training day. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, or complain that it’s full of germs of whatever.
The man has worked hard to get to where he is. He can fondle as many biscuits as he likes.
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