An open letter to my boss

*Disclaimer: these really are more like friendly suggestions than angry rants for the most part. I promise.*

Dear Boss,

You are a Very Busy Man who runs a few businesses and does a lot. The occasional false expectation or forgetting of something is expected and okay, especially because you generally deal with these issues in a friendly, efficient way. Well, maybe not always efficient, but friendly at the very least. I do have a few pointers for you though:

-Try to keep names straight. In this office there are 3 people working for you (formerly 4), and then you've got a kazillion other businesses with other people working for you. Mix-ups are understandable, but I do like it if you call me by my name and not that of the manager of your pub.

-Try to keep an eye on the clock. You are a very busy, workaholic type who is in every weekend and every evening. I don't know if you ever see your family except when you take them on too-expensive vacations. Whatever, your wife probably knew what she was getting into. However, I signed on for 8:30-5 (or 4:30 in summer months). When you print off 3 tax returns for me to put together 15 minutes before I'm set to leave, please tell me if they're urgent and need to get done tonight, in which case I'll cushion my lunch tomorrow with the extra time I took today to finish, or if they can wait until tomorrow, in which case they will. I don't like rushing to finish a job, and then coming in the next morning to have it still sitting on top of my desk waiting for you to put in the mail... and then to see it there for three days after that.

-If you want me to file something, just tell me! Leaving random documents around the office will not lead to them being put away because I don't know if you're using them or not.

-If you want me to file something and you have the file it goes in, please mention that.

-This job has been done in the learn-as-you-go style, which suits me fine. I was taught the basics when I arrived, and then taught specific tasks, programs, whatever, as the need arose. Great! But try to teach me everything I'm supposed to do at the same time. If you don't tell me that I'm supposed to print off legal-sized copies of the GL and trial balance whenever a tax return is done, I won't. Then after three months when you ask my why it's not there, I won't know what you're talking about. Just the way it works. Thanks for not getting mad at me for not doing things I wasn't told to do though, my old boss used to do that a lot.

That's about it! Today is my last day working for you, and even though you're on a far-too-expensive vacation with your family, I just wanted to say thanks that these are my only complaints about you (the Lord of Accounting on the other hand... oh MAN you've got a rant coming!). I've had a lot of bosses and you rank right up there with the good ones. Not that I'm not incredibly excited to be leaving this horribly boring job behind. Let's be honest.

Sincerely,

The Receptionist