First of all, see yourself in a positive light. Remind yourself of all the good things that you achieve – you don’t want your manager’s negativity rubbing off on you. And ensure that you learn from those rare occasions when things don’t go according to plan.
If you’ve been given objectives to meet in order to be awarded a pay rise or gain a promotion, are these realistic and achievable? It’s unfair to expect everyone to be 100 per cent perfect (after all, you’re still training) so, next time those objectives are set, ask to be involved. Stress that you want to work hard to get promoted and take on more responsibility – so that you can be of greater value to your boss and the organisation. Say that you therefore want to feel that the objectives you’ve been set are motivating and stretching, not demoralising and impossible. Left to think about it, your boss should realise that, while staff who ‘go nowhere’ may not place an additional burden on the payroll (or threaten his position), it’s a poor long-term strategy to deliberately thwart progress – from everyone’s perspective.
By agreeing a minimum threshold, you stand a greater chance of those errors that he focuses on creating an obstacle to your progress. However, that doesn’t eliminate the issue of negativity in the workplace. So if your boss doesn’t focus on your achievements, why don’t you? When you deliver work over and above what’s expected – such as coming in under budget on a certain project, or beating a difficult reporting deadline – express your satisfaction to your boss and relevant colleagues. Publicising your successes is a good way to both restore your reputation (if that has been damaged) and remind yourself of your worth. Should events persist and you decide to move on, your self-confidence should remain intact.