阿瑞克建议给自己设定一条最大负荷线。让你老板明白无误地知道，紧急的时候你能被联系上，但是平时你都会按时回家。如果他的态度不悦，向他保证你会在第二天清早处理好计划上被最先要求做的事。让他先规定好事情的轻重缓急，这样你就可以决定哪些任务可以先放一放。

If you have good rapport with the boss, says Mardy Grothe, consider discussing the problem openly. Your goal is to convince him that just as he needs to meet deadlines, you have personal responsibilities that are equally important.

如果你和老板关系融洽，马帝. 葛罗斯说，不妨考虑一下把这个问题拿出来公开讨论。你的目标就是说服他：就好像他需要在规定时间内完成工作一样，你的个人责任也同样重要。

The Jellyfish. “MY BOSS hires people with the assumption that we all know our jobs,” says a woman who works for a small firm. “Unfortunately, he hates conflict. If someone makes a mistake, we have to work around it instead of moving to correct it, so we don’t hurt anyone’s feelings.”

优柔寡断类。“我老板雇佣员工的时候总是以为我们对自己的工作了如指掌，”为一家小公司工作的妇女说。“糟糕的是，他讨厌冲突。如果有谁做错了的话，我们不得不围着它转，而不是去改正它，这样就不伤害任何人的感情。”

Her boss is a jellyfish. He has refused to establish even a rudimentary pecking order in his office. As a result, a secretary sat on important correspondence for over a month, jeopardizing a client’s tax write-offs. Because no one supervises the firm’s support staff, the secretary never received a reprimand, and nobody was able to prevent such mishaps from recurring. The jellyfish simply can’t take charge, because he’s afraid of creating conflicts.

她老板是个过于温和的人。他甚至不愿意在办公室里建立起一套最基本的等级制度。结果就是，一个秘书把一封重要信件放椅子上坐了一个多月，令客户本该注销的税金蒙受损失。因为没人监视这家公司的客户支持部，这位秘书从没有受到过训斥，所以也没人能阻止类似事件的发生。优柔寡断的老板完全不能掌控大局，因为他怕引发矛盾。

So “you must take charge,” suggests Lee Colby, a management consultant. “Tell the jellyfish: ‘This is what I think I ought to be doing. What do you think?’ You are taking the initiative, without stepping on your boss’s toes.”

所以“你必须担负起责任来，”管理顾问李·科尔比建议。“告诉那个绵羊式的老板：‘我觉得应该照这么来做，你觉得怎么样？’你这样就占据了主动而又没有凌驾于你老板之上。”

Building an indecisive supervisor’s confidence is another good strategy. For example, if you can supply hard facts and figures, you can then use them to justify any course you recommend—and gently ease the jellyfish into taking a firmer stance.

让懦弱的老板建立起信心是另一个好主意。举例来说，如果你能提供些确切的情报，那你就可以根据这些来佐证你各种建议的正确性，这样可以慢慢让你老板摆出副强硬点的姿态，而不觉得紧张。

The Perfectionist. WHEN Nancy Ahlrichs was fresh out of university, she landed her first full-time job, supervising the advertising design and layout of a small-town newspaper. On deadline day, the paper’s crotchety general manager would suddenly appear over her shoulder, inspecting her work for errors. Then he’d ask a barrage of questions, ending with the one Ahlrichs dreaded most: “Are you sure you’ll make deadline?”

求全责备类。当南希·阿瑞克刚刚走出校门时，她从事的第一份全职工作是监督广告设计和策划一份小镇报纸。在最终期限将至的一天，这位脾气古怪的总经理总会突然出现在她身边，给她的工作挑点毛病。然后他会问一大堆问题，而快结束时问的一个问题最令阿瑞克不爽：“你确定能最终完成吗？”

“I never missed a single deadline,” Ahlrichs says, “Yet every week he’d ask that same question. I felt belittled by his lack of confidence in me.”

“我从来没错过最后期限，”阿瑞克说，“而至今为止他每个星期仍问着我同样的问题。他对我这么缺乏信心让我觉得自己被轻视了。”

Ironically, the general manager was lowering the staff’s productivity. To paraphrase French philosopher Voltaire, the perfect is the enemy of the good. According to psychiatrist Allan Mallinger, co-author with Jeannette DeWyze of Too Perfect: When Being in Control Gets Out of Control, the perfectionist’s overconcern for thoroughness slows down everyone’s work. When everything has to be done perfectly, tasks loom larger. The nit璸icking boss who is behind schedule becomes even more difficult, making subordinates ever more miserable.

真是讽刺，这位总经理打压了员工的积极性。用法国哲学家伏尔泰的话说就是追求完美是把事做好的大敌。根据心理学家艾伦·麦林格，珍妮特·迪威兹《过于完美：当控制一切的能力失控时》一书的合著者的说法，求全责备者对完美的过度关注，使大家的工作进度都慢了下来。当事事都力求最好时，任务就显得冗余繁杂了。那些吹毛求疵，工作拖沓的老板就更难应付了，而他们下属的境遇通常也更悲惨。