Hi, welcome back to Eat Your Crest podcast. I'm Krystal and I'm Jeesu.
Today, before we dive into our topic, we do have a slang word to discuss.
I think today's word is pretty funny.
You and I actually use it a decent amount right now.
I hear it a lot, and I think its use has been pretty consistent so far over the course of like this year, and the word is glaze.
So, the way glaze is used is to actually mean to pile on compliments, essentially.
It kind of refers to a glazed doughnut, like you're adding the glaze onto a doughnut, to really just send it home that this is great.
And I think this word has especially been topical for Crystal and I since we've been playing fantasy, as many of you guys know.
Every week someone will be like, oh, this person's team looks so good.
but I'm so scared to play them.
They're racking up all the points.
Inevitably someone else would comment, like dude stop glazing this person's team.
So I think its usage is so versatile.
There's a ton of glazing going on in this world.
I feel like I've seen it refer to more serious issues as well.
Because you know, there's a ton of glazing, a ton of people making someone look or seem better than it might actually be.
And I think it's definitely used a lot in exaggeration.
But I think sometimes it's well deserved too.
So I see it a lot in like the gaming community or as you said in fantasy football because the app that we use has really good commentability features.
So every crazy play, people can make comments about it.
For example, this past week, there was this crazy game where someone played just an amazing in a fantasy game and scored like one of the highest points ever.
The comments are super funny, but they're also definitely like glazing.
So one of the top comments is literally like, I assume this is what sex feels like?
Those are examples of like well -deserved glaze.
But you're right, there's definitely also the other side where it's way more exaggerated And people like to call each other out like hey stop glazing this person or whatever Right and my personal favorite is when it might not be a glaze like you're not intending for it to be a glaze But the things happen and then in hindsight you realize it was a glaze So what example is like a football player pops off one week and you're like holy shit.
This guy's so good You're showering him with compliments and then a couple weeks later You've realized it was all foam and bubbles and he's not actually that good or just fantasy -wise He's underperforming to where your expectations were.
Yeah So then people would be like, yeah All you guys fucking glazed this dude a couple weeks ago And now he's putting out like one to two fantasy points a week So hindsight declaration of something being a glaze is just also hilarious.
Yes I see it a lot in the gaming community, too people make cool plays or if they you know play a game and they performed really well so very similar to like fantasy football and then maybe the casters or people who are watching or like twitch chat or whoever they'll be like holy shit like you're so good this person's crazy and then everyone's like w glaze or something dude it's so funny and this is actually my favorite type of slang word where it's like a real word. It's in the dictionary and has been a commonly used English word for a long time.
But this extra layer and dimension that the slang definition adds is just so funny.
Like w glaze is hilarious.
Yeah. Also, like another common way people use glaze is to add self in front of it.
Sometimes if you're like pumping yourself up then people will be like self glaze, like whether that's a good thing or bad thing depends on their tone of voice well all I'll say is that once you hear this word and once you hear the definition of it I feel like you see it more and more often so I guess if this is new to any of our listeners you'll definitely start seeing this everywhere it's a fun one well let's move into the topic that we actually have today which is tips we've picked up from former bosses so we are both, I guess it's around six years into our career, and I've had a handful of different
bosses. It's so funny because I think especially early on in your career, the mannerisms and the stylistic choices and the habits that your boss has, is a lot easier to pick up for us, I think as newbies, especially since we don't have our own specific working style developed yet.
So I am very excited to see what kind of tips that you've picked up from your bosses.
So you're saying we're glazing our bosses.
Honestly, it's not always a glaze.
I think you could go either way actually, but I will say even if you have a boss that you might not fit in with or prefer, there's always something that you learn from your boss.
Very true. To start us off, I did actually have a not great boss for a little bit and you're right.
I did learn a lot from that situation.
One of the most important things I learned in that situation was how to recognize a boss that didn't work well with me.
And why. I think the biggest reason was that I was still pretty young in my career and I just didn't feel like I was learning.
I felt very stagnant and my thought was this can't be everything.
I am so fresh in the workforce.
I can't just be like sitting here twiddling my thumbs.
I should at least be feeling I'm learning from even just watching or attending meetings or like seeing events just anything that I can learn from but I realized that I was just sitting there and it was comfortable to write it was like I could Sit there and like quietly read books in the corner of my screen And just like not even have to do much all day and I was realizing like this is not good Maybe I would want to be this chill later in life But at this age I should be trying to improve learning the ropes Really just like setting myself up for future successes and so I really started to contemplate
if it was time to leave even if it meant leaving early before the typical People suggested like stay at least a year.
Do you think there was anything that your boss could have done or was maybe not doing that could have helped your situation?
Because I think sometimes the problem is the work itself and then half the time it's like the boss, right?
Right. I think the boss had not been a manager yet.
And I'm just gonna blame it on like the chain of command.
I think that this company didn't have as much structure as Some of the bigger corporations that I've been a part of So I could really see through that very quickly that this person became a manager and they didn't really know What to do in terms of assigning projects career check -ins?
I don't know. I guess like general manager duties So I could see through it pretty quickly, especially because in previous jobs, even like internships, I could see this chain of command and my managers would have control and confidence in utilizing me.
And I think I noticed, I was like, oh, like, did I even need to be hired?
It just feels like I am sitting here doing nothing.
And maybe sometimes I get work, and then I provide my draft or whatever.
And then my manager couldn't quite express what they wanted changed.
So instead, they just redid the whole thing on their own.
Oh my God. From there, you don't learn.
You don't know why it had to be redone.
You don't know what you should do differently next time.
It's also frustrating because then you're like, oh, well, which project will get accepted?
Right. Which one is just gonna get like quietly redone with no explanation.
So it was like a very interesting situation That is interesting.
I think one being so green in your career.
You want to be Utilized as much as possible and learning and absorbing as much as possible So I can see how the lack of feedback and structure is so dampening in terms of like, oh, I'm a brand new 22 year -old I just want to learn everything It's interesting because I feel like what I've learned from a not bad boss but probably more of like an incompatible boss was almost the opposite.
So I have had bosses that are a little bit more helicopter - where they are constantly nitpicking on certain things or unable to like release you to be independent, kind of.
I think it was just an interesting contrast because one of the bosses that I've had a little bit more early on in my career was really someone who helped me be more independent in the workplace, someone who had full trust in me and would back me up when I needed it, but if he thought I would be fine then he would just let me run big meetings, speak to really big higher ups, et cetera.
So I felt like I gained so much confidence as well as these things that you pick up from communicating with leadership and what not.
I just felt very important and also useful.
In contrast, this other boss, who was nitpicking a little bit more on stylistic stuff and just had a lot of structure that I think benefited this boss, but maybe not so much me, I was just kind of like, whoa, this is a really big change.
So, I think it's always interesting to see what that sweet spot is in terms of what your personal needs are, and then trying to find that compromising middle ground with what your boss needs because everyone has different preferences and whatnot.
But I think at the end of the day it needs to be benefiting both of you and not just one person.
Definitely I think it's very interesting too.
Because in my example, because I felt so stagnant, I started to try to find ways that I could helpful to the company in other areas or how I could insert my skills somehow.
And so it's kind of funny because I ended up bonding with this other person in the company and basically working for them for maybe like 30 % of my work.
I also kind of like forced my way into creating some projects that my manager wasn't capable of creating, I ended up having to like, almost make a role for myself and like, you know, find myself another pseudo manager.
But as things were kind of starting to settle, I found a new job.
And then my manager was like, Oh, like, is there any way we can, you know, keep you at this company?
And in my mind, I was just like, no, no, because I had to work so hard just to carve out these roles but I still don't feel like I have a mentor figure or someone who I could be, you know, gaining more insight from, and this new opportunity would provide that.
And so it was kind of a choice between working through ambiguity, but maybe more ambiguity than what's typical versus going to a place with more structure and learning from that first before I enter, if I ever wanted to, another company that has less structure and more ambiguity.
I like that. This is like a two -pronged lesson then for you.
One, knowing what to do if you're not feeling fulfilled at work and not getting handed projects that you need, and also two, just knowing when to leave, drawing the boundary of when enough is enough.
Yeah, it was a little scary, because I don't know if this is still the narrative, but I remember when we were getting out of college, the narrative was always, try to stay at a for at least a year, right ideally maybe, like, a year and a half or two years, so that you could get a promo and then if you want to like hop around, go ahead, and I ended up leaving before 12 months, I think it was actually like only eight months before I left, so I was kind of like, I don't know this is like, maybe a little risky I don't know if I'll get jobs.
I don't know if the new job will pan out all that kind of stuff but and it ended up okay, so it all worked out.
I mean, I feel like at the end of the day there's going to be people who are more strict about that kind of, you know, one to two years rule.
But if you're able to explain why or address it promptly without having to go into the details, I feel like it's fine.
As long as you don't have like a pattern of like leaving every six months, I feel like it's also okay.
True. So how about those times when you had a really good boss?
Were there any tips or lessons that you learned from them?
Yeah, so one of the tips that I learned was kind of like a analyst staple and it's called the sniff test. I feel like it sounds a little bit nasty because the word sniff is like slightly gross to me, but basically what it means is as an analyst or a numbers person, you are often doing things like projections, and when you project something, you want to make sure that it makes sense and passes basic checkpoints before you start sharing these numbers out to people.
That's essentially what the sniff test is.
Does it make sense?
And I feel like it sounds kind of stupid because it's like, yeah, of course you want your project to make sense.
But when you're actually deep into the weeds, punching numbers, looking at things that are sometimes really big datasets, you're looking at each step making sense.
But when you come to the final product, which is like whatever your projection is, you also wanna make sure that it fits into the big picture bold.
So the sniff test is very important to be able to take a step back after you're done spending however long you have spent looking at the data and making sure that it all fits into this big narrative.
And I think part of what my job is, is very much like storytelling.
I think with whatever data set, you can pull out bits and pieces and kind of like cherry pick info as you want to, but the number itself is significantly less important than the actual actual story that you're trying to tell and prove.
so the sniff test is something that i actually think about like every day.
that makes sense and immediately what i thought of was you don't want someone in the meeting to be like, something smells fishy about this.
exactly. but yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
i think i have something similar, you know, if you're editing a video or like creating some graphic, you want to like, take a break and then look at it the next day with fresh eyes essentially so that you're looking at the big picture again, so very similar to what you're saying.
Yeah, the funny thing too is like doing the sniff test is sometimes very high level, you're just like, Oh, yeah, this number seems to make sense to answer this question.
But other times you're actually going in and looking at other KPI to see if this projection makes sense relative to each KPI.
So then when you do that, you're also walking through questions that other people might have. So then you're preemptively coming up with answers to those questions too.
Like, I know this relative to this other metric might seem a little strange, but it actually makes sense because x, y, and z like you're doing all that prep work too so sniff test in general I feel like is very, very useful.
Do you ever sniff test with fellow employees?
Actually, yes! I've done this with reports as well as with projections so like oh I ran this number can you guys take a look and see if it makes sense the other thing could be like okay I spent like five days working Looking on this report, can you like double check all the formulas and whatnot?
Sniff testing with other people is highly recommended as well.
Nice. I guess speaking of other people, I think another tip that I learned is it's okay to ask other people for help.
And I think this one's a little bit cliche, you know it's applicable to like work and real life and everything.
But I think it is a lesson that I'm constantly reminded of, especially when you have a good team surrounding you, people that you feel comfortable with that you're confident in their work, that kind of stuff.
It is really helpful to ask someone to even just like sit down and brainstorm with you, or put a second pair of eyes on the work that you've done, or sometimes even to just really help out like hey can you do this portion of the project and I'll do like this portion of the project that I'm stronger at and that portion that you're stronger at.
I'm gonna be honest I'm still not like the best at this.
But I definitely try to keep it in mind and I think in each job that I'm in as I build a stronger rapport with my teammates it starts to feel easier to approach them for like maybe smaller favors at first and then like more bigger collaborative efforts.
Dude, I feel like this one – you mentioned that it might be a cliche, but I actually feel like this is a skill.
I say that specifically because it's often kind of shared as like, oh this is advice, like do this tip or whatever.
But I think you actually have to work and develop how to ask people for help.
Because you kind of have to carve out specific points that you need help on, which in itself can be kind of difficult sometimes.
And then you are mapping it to people who you think could help you best, finding the right timing to do it, seeing how you want to lay out the info or project or whatever to be able to ask for help.
So this is something that I need a lot of work on as well.
And I think the more you do it and the more you practice it, it gets slightly easier.
That's true, because depending on your career path, you could be like a individual contributor for a while if you don't want to become a manager or maybe the nature of your job is more like individual contributor esque so if you're not in a manager position, it's almost weird to like try and delegate and I feel like in my perspective it almost forces you to like write out a project plan and be more of a project manager in that moment And that might be a little different from the way you normally operate Like, for example, I don't really write myself project plans.
It's just kind of like a general checklist versus some other people, if you're asking for their help, might want to see the bigger picture laid out as well as the more minute details that they're helping with so that it all makes sense for them and that they know they're not wasting their time.
And you also have to practice the way to ask someone for help in a way that makes them want to help you.
That's so true. I think by default, most people are willing and happy to help you, but people don't always have enough bandwidth or they might see your request and be like, Oh, this is a lot.
So you kind of have to ask it at like the right timing in the perfect way with everything packaged neatly.
Absolutely. So this actually leads me to a different tip that I learned from a boss who I learned a lot of things from a very short period of time because this person had a lot of particular ways to kind of do their work in a way that is most effective essentially.
And this tip that I picked up was the CEO tip.
The essence of the tip is you want your work to be ready to be read by like a CEO and as it is frequently known, CEOs don't have much time.
So that basically means your work needs to be very clear, easy to read, and also the report itself needs to be easy to navigate.
So if If you're working on, like, BI software where the data is already kind of easy to read and navigate, this might not apply to you as much. But if you're, like, a very Excel -heavy numbers person, Excel needs to be, like, manually kind of formatted so that it's pretty and easy to read.
And one of the things that this boss taught me was to always put your mouse cursor on In cell A1, the topmost and leftmost cell for each sheet, go back to the tab you want the report to open it and then save in that way.
And it sounds very particular and kind of strange, but it makes a ton of sense because when someone goes and opens an Excel sheet, it will automatically open at the tab that it was saved on.
When you click through different tabs, if you left your cell cursor on the bottom most cell or like all the way on the right or something like that and saved it that way, it'll always open that tab in that same way.
So by putting your cursor in cell A1 on everything, you're basically like reorienting the spreadsheet to look exactly how you were intending it to look.
It just saves a couple seconds of people's time but makes a world of a difference in terms of professionalism, how it looks, how it can be read, etc. etc, so when I first heard this, I was like, damn, that's a little strange.
But the more I started doing it, I was like, well, this actually doesn't take me that much time.
And it's very easy to do and saves other people time.
So I still try to do this to this day, especially when I send out like reports and stuff.
Honestly, that's a really good tip because sometimes I open random Google sheets, and it's just open on like some random tab.
I'm like, oh my God, where's the info I'm looking for?
And then I have to like scroll through all the tabs and like figure out what's going on But yeah, if it were to just land exactly on the tab that I wanted It would be so much more helpful because you're right It does save a lot of time and sometimes it's not even just a couple seconds Maybe it's like a whole minute or two where they're figuring out the datasheet as a whole Then they can be like, oh, okay like this is where I need to be, this is where it connects.
I've also seen some people get really creative and they have like maybe the first tab just set as instructions, like how to use this data sheet.
Go to like this tab to do this and like that connects to this tab.
Of course that's like much more complicated and might take a lot of time.
But I do think it's also kind of good practice just to like exercise documentation.
And I don't know about you but I feel like that's a huge word in, like, work.
Don't forget to, like, document what you've been doing and, like, templatize it for the future, like, all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, I feel like it's kind of funny that you say that because with every boss that I've had, the way their templates work and, like, the way their species are structured are very different.
And then I feel like when you work under a boss, you start to like morph into that kind of person.
So I really like the way my career boss templatizes her work, and being under this boss for a little bit.
It's like second nature to me now.
But it is interesting kind of looking back at the spreadsheets of my various former bosses, and see how it differs.
The evolution of your templates.
Yeah, exactly. I thought of another tip that I've learned, but it's not necessarily related to what we've talked about.
I think maybe you can relate where, somewhere inside me there is a perfectionist and that perfectionist wants to do everything to 110 % Everything must be perfect.
The ideal is you turn in this project and everyone's just like, wow, perfect, no notes on to the next.
And I think that can often lead to like procrastination too, because you're stuck thinking, what do I need to do to make this perfect?
So there was this one time my manager at the time, told me just straight up, she was like, I think your 80 % is already plenty.
It is more than enough for everyone else.
And I was like oh, that might be true.
Because there's a reason why you're in your job, right?
And it's because that you're an expert at it, and that means the people around you are not always experts at it.
So if you just like trust in your expertise and bring forth good work, that's usually enough.
And then it saves you a lot of time from like nitpicking at yourself into making these like probably good But like extremely minor and like niche adjustments that maybe no one else would even notice Like I'm moving like these things pixels over and I'm like, yes, it is perfect now But literally everyone else is like there's no different Like it looks good to me So I think it was a really good tip and reminder that sometimes it really is worth it to save that extra 20 % of effort for another project or for handling feedback or whatever.
And maybe, you know, in that moment, the more important part is to get the project out.
Dude this is such a good tip and it's something that I grapple with as well.
We obviously work in like slightly different fields of work, but I feel like anytime you put out a project, at least for me, I am like, damn, what's the kind of feedback that I'm gonna get back.
I feel like I'm always trying to think about that, and then make tweaks to my numbers or my methodology or whatever, to get to the perfect number, so that no one can ask any questions about it.
But it's like, that obviously doesn't exist. And the important part is not to not get any questions about it, but to be able to like clearly explain the work and the reasoning.
If tweaks need to be made, you just make tweaks.
But I feel like I'm so scared of that, like potential feedback.
Sometimes that I like spend so much time honing over my work, which ends up just being unproductive in the long run, could have just pushed it out, gun feedback, tweaked it, and then we would have been done like two days ago.
Yeah, so true. So true.
I still grapple with this for sure, as well.
It's hard sometimes to let go of that perfectionism, especially when you don't even realize it's like you're just being a perfectionist, and I think it was like pretty eye opening when my manager just told me straight up.
And I was like, oh my god you're so right.
I'm spending hours here like changing these tiny pixels when I'm totally forgetting that the big picture already looks fine.
I feel like I would hear this feedback and be like, So you're telling me my B minus is an A plus to you.
I think all of this goes to show that so much of what we do in a career standpoint is relative to other people, which is something that I learned from one of my bosses as well.
I feel like this point was hammered into me, but this is the lesson of know your audience.
As broad as this tip could be, I think in my field of work it has very specific meaning which means that anytime you are communicating to cross -functional partners, every cross functional partner has a different goal that they're trying to hit, a different metric that they're measured by, different interests that all come together into this big corporate pie, right?
Even though I might just have one set of numbers to share to people, I am trying to convince these people that my number makes sense based on what metrics that they are looking for essentially.
So, simple terms, for example, I might be saying, guys we need to set this product to cost $5.
But there might be one team saying, $5 isn't gonna get us enough profit.
We need to up the price.
But the sales team might be like, oh, $5 is way too expensive.
No consumer is gonna buy that.
So, being able to convince different audiences that my number is legit and a way that makes sense to them and their goals I think is something that I am always working on.
Dude, this is why they made us write persuasive essays in school.
So true, actually. Oh my god.
And I think this goes to like other factions too.
If you are a very technical person, but you're talking to people who are not technical or not doing these things on a daily basis, being able to kind of word things in a way that they would understand without all this like extensive back knowledge that you have. Or same thing when you're speaking to executives.
I am seeing the daily nitty gritty on all of these things.
But the executives are not just reading my emails.
They're also reading other people's emails.
They have a billion things going on through their brains.
So, they might not remember things that to me I call this out like eight weeks in a row.
So, being able to cut through that noise in their brain and jog their memory a little bit of like, oh yeah, remember how I've been calling out this thing for two months.
It's the same issue now But wording it in like a polite way, I guess is also part of the skill Right, right.
Yeah, I can totally see how this applies to Any work with cross -functional teams?
I can even see how it could apply to like my position Like you said not everyone's gonna know the nitty -gritty of your job So sometimes people might ask me like, hey, I want like all this fancy stuff in this graphic or like video is that possible and i'm just like okay lowkey no it's like not possible and they don't know that so you have to like explain it to them and give them the rundown they're not gonna sit there and like listen to you, give them a 30 -minute lesson about like so these are all the things that i've been doing and this is why it's not possible you just kind of have to like give
them it really basically like oh it's like not so possible because of this or like whatever yeah and it kind of reminds me of this like corpse speak thing that i feel a lot of executives tend to say, which is like, Oh, I don't know what I don't know.
And it's like, I am not the biggest fan of this phrase.
Like I feel like I'm always just like thinking of that drama, it's okay not to be okay.
But I think it is very true.
And sometimes when you're doing your own work in a silo, you're like, oh, how come no one else knows this shit like the so obvious.
Yes. But then you realize that all the other teams are working on their own things in a silo too.
So this is why kind of communication is key.
For sure. And speaking of communication, I have also kind of learned low key at work.
You just have to treat everyone like they're toddlers not in a demeaning way or a diminishing way.
But it's similar to what we've just been talking about.
Like not everyone's going to know the nitty gritty of your job.
They're not going to know all the technical aspects you pick a random person off the street They're not going to know all the ins and out of like Excel or a Photoshop or whatever Sometimes you just have to remember that you can't be too technical and maybe you should try to explain things You know that like sub reddit Explain it like I'm five.
Oh, yes So kind of in that similar vein try to be able to explain things really simply so that anyone could understand it that also entails being clear and concise, which you also mentioned earlier too.
Dude, I feel like this is totally something that you pick up on during meetings or all hands or like presentations, you can always tell people who can do this skill and people who can't and I feel like the people who can explain things very clearly, but promptly, are the ones who like really deliver their message and like get their point across and the people who kind of like waffle about you're kind of left wondering like okay, what was the point of what you were saying?
Like you only have so much brain capacity Yeah sometimes meetings move fast so it's always nice when people are very concise and clear and I think the people who are really good at Cutting through the noise and like being able to communicate these things are always the people who would interject and they're like okay I think what you're saying is that the takeaway is well, they like summarized.
Whatever the person just said.
I think they're just like, let me just save everyone's time, clarify.
I mean, there's definitely been moments where I send out an email and then I'm like after it's sent, I'm like, oh my god.
This is the most convoluted email I've ever typed out like immediately follow -up.
Oh my God. I'm so sorry.
Just to clarify, like one sentence.
Yes, I know. I think this is my problem too.
I'm not a very concise person.
I like to present all the info, detail, everything, and I'm especially bad about this in emails.
What I started doing is if you have an internal AI tool that you can use, I started putting my shit into the AI tool and be like, okay, can you make this more concise, or can you simplify this or whatever?
And then it really helps me weed out the things that I need and don't need.
Yes, it's very smart.
I've definitely been testing that out a little more here and there as well It also works when you just can't think of anything to write, and yeah, can you help me like come up with a paragraph about those I?
Feel like the more I use our internal AI thing the more I'm like damn in like ten years.
I'm just gonna forget how to start an email from scratch But that means we'll be able to use our brains for more complicated tasks mm -hmm Um, so true, but I kind of fear that we've been glazing our, our former bosses and like the tips we've picked up from them for the last like 20 or whatever minutes.
So I do want to ask, is there anything that you've picked up from your former bosses that might be a negative or neutral habit?
Yes. And I think luckily I haven't really picked it up into my own routine, but I do sometimes noticed that people can have not as good work -life balance and I definitely take note of that and it's a reminder to myself.
For now, I'm very capable of being able to finish my things within the workday, so make sure I don't force myself to have to work outside of my normal hours.
Just because to me, I think work -life balance is very important and sometimes it works for other people to like work at a little bit of an off hour or whatever.
But I think ultimately it would not be good for my happiness.
Yeah, that's a great point.
I feel like this kind of stuff really seeps into your personal lifestyle too.
And it's not always just like direct stuff.
It doesn't have to be your boss piling on a ton of work or forcing you to work past five.
But I think it can come in the form of like comments made in passing.
my friend told me a story about how her boss was like, oh so strange working for a company where people actually leave the office before 7 p .m. And I remember when she told me the story, I was just like dude, what the fuck?
If my boss told me that, I would forever be stressing like, oh does this person expect me to stay past 7 p .m.?
Yeah, oh my God. Yeah, I don't like that.
It's like very encouraging, yeah, it's just like too much I think.
Very, very luckily my, Org and the people I work with generally don't force that onto other people Even if they themselves might work past their regular work hours occasionally We try not to like force that onto each other It's healthy in the sense where it's like if I'm working past my normal hours.
It's probably my own fault It's like kind of keeping yourself accountable Very luckily We don't have a culture where we expect people to like be on in the middle of the night or any of that sort of thing.
Yeah, totally. I think I've had either bosses or cross functional partners that did sort of prefer that lifestyle of being always on and it's a huge stress.
You might be done with the work and you log off but you see urgent Slack messages or like texts or phone calls come in and you're like, Oh, okay.
Time to reboot my laptop.
I know we've said no more glazing, but one useful tip that I learned was someone likes to put in their email signature I log off at, I don't know, like 6 p .m. PST. So please don't expect me to answer until the following day.
If you email me past that time, you know, something more concise than that.
But I thought that was a really helpful tip, especially if you.
work with people who are maybe international, sometimes they forget.
You're on a different time zone.
So it's a friendly reminder or nudge that can be helpful here and there.
Can you imagine if we all just set our like Slack emoji to the ghost emoji after five year?
Like you can Slack me, but I'm going to ghost you until tomorrow.
I actually just always set my status as a way or invisible.
So people don't know if I'm actually online or not That's wild I think it sets the precedent that like I don't know if she'll respond Oh My god, I just have you know, the slack you can set it to not give you notifications Past a certain time or something.
I think whenever you see that like zzz at a certain hour You know, like okay, this person is probably not on so I just have that on auto every day that's smart, but Slack is actually something that I feel like your bosses preferences also seep into your work habits so I've had a boss who is very like email is the way to go and then slack is like for very urgent needs or whatnot so then I was very into like emailing for a while and then I feel like with other bosses they're way more on slack and then email is only for like specific more formal forms of communication or maybe reporting or cross
functional communication.
So then getting used to that was definitely a little bit more interesting.
It's like I became an email expert, and then I had to become a Slack person.
And I think it doesn't sound that big of a change if you're only emailing a couple people at a time, and then only slacking a couple people at a time.
But I'm talking about going from emailing 100 people and then slacking 100 people.
It's like very scary.
and kind of like a completely new world.
Not to make it sound like a huge deal or anything, but it kind of is.
That's a lot. I think in my work chat, the biggest group that I actively talk in for work -related stuff is eight.
Usually it's all just one on one chats.
That was like when I was used to, too.
Occasionally there would be a specific project group chat or whatever, but it was never that big.
And I feel like even each group chat has its different culture like some group chats are very you know You put a lot of emojis and like gifts into it and whatnot and other group chats are very like formal, you know true So all of this stuff in slat you kind of have to like move and adapt to yeah You're like, is it appropriate if I react to this with a silly Jif?
Like how crazy can I go?
Oh. And then I love how like sometimes in some spaces a certain emoji or GIF is used so much and you're like, okay, this is like the go to safe option.
Oh my god. So true.
But I do think in terms of learning negative or neutral things from bosses, kind of what I mentioned in the beginning of the episode, when I had a not as great boss, it really help me pinpoint what are some things that are not too great that I should be on the lookout for.
So yeah, lack of feedback, lack of communication, maybe the general sense of a company's structure too.
Looking at that and recognizing if it's a structure that you'll be able to thrive in, or if it's one that maybe you don't fit into as well.
Yeah, that's such a good point.
I feel the structured thing is interesting too because oftentimes when you're a junior -level employee, the structure doesn't really feel as visible or like impactful to you because you're kind of a cog.
But the more you go up your chain of command, they are the people who are contributing to the structure and helping to form it.
So I think if you look up and you don't feel as much faith or trust in what is happening or like their powers or capabilities, it could be assigned to leave too.
So I think that's a good point.
So I have a final question for us.
Do you think the first boss you ever have is more impactful than any future boss?
Low key yes. At least for me, I think this rings very true.
I did work with my first boss for a very long time and he was like a fantastic boss.
Yes. So I feel like for me I can confidently say yes but I also wonder if it's kind of like your first real boss.
You know, like if you don't consider someone a real boss, they might not be your first. My answer to this is yes to a certain extent because in the beginning, we're so ignorant.
We don't really know what's going on in the work world.
So I think the first boss leaves a big impression whether they're there to build you up and and help teach you and show you the ropes of what a good boss looks like.
It's a pretty deep impression.
I'm just imagining like what if I was really unlucky and had a terrible boss to begin with?
I think if that would kind of dampen my mood, maybe it would make me look in the future with a more negative or like Debbie Downer kind of attitude.
This is just how work is.
You just have to suffer through it or something.
exactly but if you if the stage is set with more positive vibes like oh wow I'm learning so much this boss taught me like the career ladder and like gave me tips and like now I know I feel prepared as I go into these next stages of work life I think that definitely can be very effective.
Yeah I think you're right in that your first boss definitely sets the tone for how you even view bosses or like work in general but I wonder if it's kind of like the concept of a first love where it's like you know you see a multitude of different people and then you're kind of like yeah this person is cool whatever but then it's not real until you find someone who you're like yeah you are my first love and you like give them the crown so that's what I You should choose your first boss, you know?
That just sounds like you're choosing the first boss that was good Okay fair fair But you know not every boss is worthy of being called your first boss, right?
Like this one was just a fling yeah Exactly.
That one's not real because they were just my boss for X amount of months.
You have the power to legitimize your first boss.
I guess that's fair.
You chose your first boss to be someone from post -college.
But I consider one of my first bosses during college.
How empowering is this message guys?
The power within. You choose your own fate.
But I do think, similar to a first love, as time goes on it fades because you eventually find your partner for life.
Wait a minute... Now I'm getting all confused.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that in the beginning the first boss leaves a big impact, But maybe as you get older and like gain more experience and start to feel more confident and comfortable in yourself That first boss's impact starts to Fade a bit because you've like Ascended it if that makes sense.
Yeah. Yeah, that's already makes sense But now I'm thinking like who is gonna be my final boss like the boss that I married It's you oh Wow this episode has taken a crazy turn Well, I think that's quite a hopeful way to end the episode actually.
But it definitely has been interesting to sit down and talk through some of the tips that we've retained from our former bosses.
It's interesting to see that a lot of our tips that you and I have collected are quite similar.
So I'm interested to see if any of our listeners have any tips that they've retained from their former bosses if you do and you have similar ones or different ones from us, definitely Feel free to hit us up.
We have email, eatyourcrispodatgmail .com and we also have Instagram, at EaterCrispod.
And don't forget to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts.
We upload new episodes every Wednesday morning.
Thanks for listening.
And don't forget to eat your crust.
