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What to do if your boss is very forgetful?

B

baydude

Senior member
I report to a boss who i am sure is past his retirement age and is probably losing his memory. He's very forgetful and I constantly send him miultiple emails covering the same things over and over every single week. He says he will send an email to clients regarding my recommendation on projects and he never does and when I remind him, he'll ask me to email me the summary in which I did a few times.

Every meeting we have, it's like a new meeting giving him an overview of the same things I've given him a week ago.

What would you do if you were in this position?
 
i am not sure, since everyone else has a better memory than me

but luckily i know enough to use my bad memory as a reason to avoid be promoted to a manager
 
baydude said:
I report to a boss who i am sure is past his retirement age and is probably losing his memory. He's very forgetful and I constantly send him miultiple emails covering the same things over and over every single week. He says he will send an email to clients regarding my recommendation on projects and he never does and when I remind him, he'll ask me to email me the summary in which I did a few times.

Every meeting we have, it's like a new meeting giving him an overview of the same things I've given him a week ago.

What would you do if you were in this position?
Click to expand...

Stop being judgmental. The man has Alzheimer's and will likely die soon. Buy him a get well card and recommend to him some good assisted living facilities.
 
Resend the original e-mail. Also find a subtle way to make sure that he knows how to use the search function in his mail client.

Setting up a Wiki works well for this as well. I work with an older QA guy who tends to forget stuff, so I document everything in the Wiki that he needs to test.
 
Contact your HR department, request that he attends a fit for duty exam. Explain how his constant forgetfulness could be a serious issue and you have safety concerns for not only him, but your entire department.
 
homebrew2ny said:
Contact your HR department, request that he attends a fit for duty exam. Explain how his constant forgetfulness could be a serious issue and you have safety concerns for not only him, but your entire department.
Click to expand...

Fit for duty exam? Do they actually HAVE those outside of the police or the military?
 
homebrew2ny said:
Contact your HR department, request that he attends a fit for duty exam. Explain how his constant forgetfulness could be a serious issue and you have safety concerns for not only him, but your entire department.
Click to expand...

But then he passes the exam and gets you sacked.
 
Just create a reminder calendar entry for him on Outlook or whatever email system you use. Then he'll get a pop-up in a few days and won't have to remember to look for your email. You also need to include a timeframe with your request, such as "My clients were wanting that email sent regarding my recommendation on projects by COB Friday."
 
Have a conversation with him about you taking on more responsibility. E.g. directly talking to clients or something. Skip the middle man.
 
glenn1 said:
Just create a reminder calendar entry for him on Outlook or whatever email system you use. Then he'll get a pop-up in a few days and won't have to remember to look for your email. You also need to include a timeframe with your request, such as "My clients were wanting that email sent regarding my recommendation on projects by COB Friday."
Click to expand...


I sent multiple emails mentioning the clients requirements including the date and he seems to just ignore them. When I ask if he had a chance to review it, he'll ask me to setup a time to discuss with him. Then during the discussion he'll tell me to send the summary of what we discussed and he'll email the client. I'll end up sending him the same summary and nothing gets done until it's past due and more work requests starts coming in.

Me and my coworker speculate that he's just playing politics trying to milk his position until retirement but he's preventing all his staffs professional growth because when shit hits the fan, we get blamed on our annual performance evaluations.
 
baydude said:
I sent multiple emails mentioning the clients requirements including the date and he seems to just ignore them. When I ask if he had a chance to review it, he'll ask me to setup a time to discuss with him. Then during the discussion he'll tell me to send the summary of what we discussed and he'll email the client. I'll end up sending him the same summary and nothing gets done until it's past due and more work requests starts coming in.

Me and my coworker speculate that he's just playing politics trying to milk his position until retirement but he's preventing all his staffs professional growth because when shit hits the fan, we get blamed on our annual performance evaluations.
Click to expand...

how do you know he's even reading your emails in order to forget?
 
My boss hates email and has openly told me not to email her. I don't think she reads more than the first 15 words of any email.
 
Walk up to him and talk to him...

An old job of mine was filled with 55+ year olds phoning it in because the were retiring within months. They just don't give a shit anymore, probably stopped years ago but not really don't because HR probably won't waste the time to fire them.

On the other hand, it was filled with young assholes far from retirement who just didn't like replying to emails. I walked to their cubicles and sat inside them until I could talk to them in person. Waste of my god damn time but what you gonna do?
 
Glenn has it right . As a former manager , some of these suggestions could hurt you . He may well be " retired in place" , but that's his thing . You can keep personal docs that are hard copied only in your desk and locked . If things ever get out of hand you can then move forward .
 
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