As I exchanged presentation slides with my boss in preparation for a lung conference in a couple weeks, I learned a curious thing. My boss has decided that I'm not assertive enough (ok, which I grudgingly admit is true), and so she spent the morning buying me books on Amazon on how to be more assertive. One of which, I might add, is a children's book written for 7 year old children. She pointed out that it had good examples (she bought it for her daughter), which is why she bought it for me. It's a weired feeling. I'm flattered that she obviously cares enough about me to worry about my future (she thinks that I'll be taken advantage of in med school if I don't assert myself), but I'm also a little unnerved, since she is technically my boss. I mean do bosses usually care so much about your well-being/future? It's a nice feeling I guess, but still weird.
On the other hand though, maybe if I learn something from the books I would be able to stand up to my demonic coworker, instead of doing what I did today, which was give her a look of confusion/disbelief every time she asked me something stupid, and then stormed around and slammed things on the lab bench for a while. So maybe it's a really good thing and I do have something to learn from all this :)
3 comments:
I just had to share this tidbit: I was telling my dad this story, and my dad told me to actually say this to my boss: "In order to practice my assertiveness, can I get a raise?" He said this with a laugh and the biggest grin, I might add :)
Yes... you definitely need to be more assertive, or the ridiculously career driven, extroverted, extra ambitious medical students will chew you up and spit you out like old gum. Cheers! ^_^
Seems like you have a really nice boss that actually cares about you, and wants you to be more assertive ;)
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