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what would be the best way to tell your supervisor to stop inquiring about your personal life and mobbing you into opening up? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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my supervisor is an extrovert, whereas I'm an introvert. She feels insulted if I don't share my personal life with her and ridicules me before other coworkers because I separate private and work life and prefer to keep to myself.

I wrote mobbing because that's what it feels to me: a ritual of hers is to always eat together, a time she uses to ask me questions I don't want to answer. I usually answer very vaguely, which is not enough for her. If I eat alone, she'll complaint about why am I being so unfriendly.

She doesn't understand I need time alone to unwind.

She is convinced she is doing me a favor, but the opposite is true. It makes me dislike her even more.

I simply cannot win. It's tiring being blamed and shamed for preferring to read a book instead of talking about dogs or sex.

It makes me want to quit.

I don't know if I go to HR with an issue like this, because they may label me the odd one, the one who's not a teamplayer and use it against me.

Most people are extroverted and react angrily to somebody who keeps to himself and I've been bullied several times for this. Extroverts don't seem to understand that not showing interest in their sexual lives doesn't mean disrespect, but simply that I don't care about it.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

OP, I'd urge you to reconsider framing this whole thing as an "extrovert vs introvert" battle. Your boss is demonstrating poor boundaries and disrespectful and inappropriate behavior, and that has nothing to do with whether she's an I or E on the Myers-Briggs.

Whether or not you go to HR depends a lot on your company culture. Either way, you need to be documenting specific comments and specific behaviors that are inappropriate first. Every time she asks you an uncomfortable question, especially if it relates to sex, write down what she asked, how you responded (that you declined to answer and asked her to stop asking personal questions), who else was present, and the date/time. Keep this in a personal account, not company. Do NOT go to HR without documentation.

We don't know how big your company is, but odds are if she's a middle manager she's got people above her already who know she's a gossip and hate that. If you have any relationship at all with her supervisor, it's generally viewed as following the chain of command if you bring concerns like this directly to them, as well.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If you're in a reasonably sized company, do NOT go to HR. She might get fired for her behavior, you WILL be fired for starting a fire. HR does NOT like fires.

I had the good fortune to battle the CTO of a multinational who couldn't keep his hands off the employees. Everyone was too afraid to speak up, I was not. The CTO was fired. One day after he fired me with the full support of HR, because "you are incompetent in your job". Mind you this was after multiple stellar reviews of my local superiors

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

Like I said, whether you should go to HR will depend a lot on your company culture. In all the jobs I've worked, I've had HR departments that would've taken your complaint seriously and not allowed you to be retaliated against in that way. Btw, what you're describing does sound like retaliation, which is totally a lawsuit you could pursue

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

This is terrible advice.

OP needs to set boundaries in a paper traceable way after establishing then in person (an email of "dear boss lady, I want to eat lunch alone, kthxbye"), and track violations of those boundaries (dear boss lady, today you sat with me at lunch after I asked you not to, please explain why). (Obviously be more professional).

Then after a few violations, OP can go to HR because suddenly the boss lady is starting the fire; there is a clear history of personal boundaries not being maintained, leading to a hostile work environment.

This only doesn't work when the company is like 5 people and HR is your boss's cousin or whatever.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

For the record, Introversion and Extroversion have a scientific basis. The Myers-Briggs does not.