Small issue with 2 up boss - talk or let it go?
New job. In an intro session big boss said her door is always open best to ask.
I said " thank you teams been great very welcoming and the guys just took me to lunch. "
Then I got slapped. She said "You haven't accepted my invitation to the team lunch.
Of course I said I would go
I checked. I had accepted. But I don't think I sent a response (not wanting to spam ppl and they can look at tracking). This boss obviously likes to get responses.
I feel like it's important because it's about being 'one of us' and the assertive thing would be to talk to her. And I don't want a tiny miscommunication creating a bad impression that sticks.
The danger is she could think I m wasting her time with trivia. And if it goes badly my boss might say why didn't I go through him.
My lesson: always send a short, personal response at the end.
For example:
"Thank you Alice for your invitation, I'll be there."
"Thank you Alice for your help."
I used to believe that bosses are super busy so I should not spam their inbox with short response without material information. However, the reality, in my humble opinion, is that the sense of being a human, the sense of staying power, and the sense of being highly respected >> material information.
- If you don't reply them, then the situation is you have the choice of whether or not to reply, they have no choice. You are in power.
- If you do reply, then they have the choice to read it or not. They are in power.
- If you do reply them for small things and asking them for opinions for small things, they will felt highly valued and highly respected
Moreover, checking this short email will take them less than 2 seconds, but the reward is a big smile for them. Everyone wants to felt appreciated and highly valued and she will want to spend way more than 2 second on a thankful email by her heart! I've once seen a boss staring at an one-sentence appreciation email for a couple of minutes, smiling like an idiot!
This is a hard lesson that I learned. Of course this is just my own subjective belief and by no mean perfect.