Moral in the office

Is it just your manager? Or does it appear to be part of the "corporate culture"?

If it looks to be a problem with just your manager, it could be that your department is over budget, or is not meeting performance goals.

He also may have pushedto hire you over objections from others involved in the hiring process. If so, your performance needs to be "stellar" or he looks bad.

If it seams to be part of the culture, I would start looking for alternate employment.

Chalk up the situation to experiance, and do a background and history check on any prospective employeers.

Things that should raise concern include:
Significantly higher than average employee turn-over rate.
Labor board actions.
Excessive legal actions. A companyI used to work for shows up in a nummber of Law School curiculums as a case study of how not to litigate.
Slow to pay suppliers.

Ideally, you want to talk with a few former employees who left the firm recently, and find out why they left. Keep in mind, that they may have a negative bias towards the firm, but this should offset the positive bias from any current employees that you get to speak with.

Chas

Moving to another job would be my first thought as well. However, jobs are usually in abundance until you are looking for one. At that moment it may be wise to stay where you are.
Anyhow, I would suggest that you put more on paper. Perhaps even send your boss an e-mail, stating that you have understood that you would have to do this and that. Just to avoid confusion ad superfluous work. So, make sure these e-mails are very positive and cooperative in tone. Keep, however, printed copies of every mail you sent or received in this respect. Probably save these copies at home.
Another issue is: many bosses who are not as bright as they are supposed to be are afraid of employees who are very talented. However, the role of a boss should not bethe guy [or gall] who knows everything better than anybody in the office. A good boss should stimulate the people, deal with (important) external contacts, set (or amend) policies, be involved in (long-term) planning. As such the co-workers should not be a threat. They are the valuable assets which may even help to raise the star of he boss. A boss who is heavily involved in daily issues will never become a big shot. Perhaps you might occasionally refer to a few of these organization principles. See if it helps.
Good luck

I would suggest:

1) Communicate;
2) Communicate; and
3) Communicate.

If you have had conversations with him to such a depth where he opens up the question of where your loyalties lie, that is a perfect opportunity to express the difficulty in demonstrating your loyalties to a moving target--but then follow up with suggestions on how to improve relations. If you and her were talking frequently, then you would find out what new obligations he had taken on, and could proactively offer to assist. "How can I help?" is a question you need to tattoo to your forehead when dealing with your boss(es) your clients, and your own career. When frustrated, it is easy to sit back, nurse your emotional wounds, and do nothing: but that is not useful to you, him, or anyone else in your work relationships.

You can always do everything asked with a cheerful heart - it boils down to obedience - which is doing what you are told to do, when you are told to do it with the right heart attitude. If you are already doing that sincerely, and it's a situation where you are being set up - and it isn't just a cultural or financial thing, then maybe you should consider leaving. Maybe you should view it as an opportunity.

Couple of questions (and some comments):

Is this a small or large business? I get the impression from some of your comments that this as a small business with maybe the "Boss" and a couple of worker-bees.

Is there an Admin or Human Resource Department (or person) that you could address your contract and superannuation (I'm assuming this a type of retirement account) questions to? If not, ask him the direct question. If he evades or refuses to answer, maybe he is trying to hide the factthat he is breaking the law in this matter.

Does the "Boss" treat all employees like he treats you? Does Australia have any type of anti-discrimination laws like the US? If so, is there any basis on which you might claim discrimination?

Werethe incentives he offered in writing as part of your contract? If not, you probably have no legal recourse in this matter.

Is the ?Boss? also the owner of this business?

What I see (taking your question at face value) is a manager who uses the ?management by intimidation? management style, who treats employees as slaves, who uses employees to cover up his own ineptness, who fails to follow up on promises, who possibly tries to set up his employees for failure (or take the fall for his failures), and who possibly is breaking labor laws. This is not a good environment for positive career growth.

(continued)

I have sat down with him and explained to him many times where my loyalties lie after recieving emails saying I dont do enough, that my creative director is doing all the work so forth, I dont put enough in. I asked my creative director about this and his reply to me was "ahhh I really doubt that, your usually asking me if you can take work off my current work schedual and you work very very hard"

When I questioned my boss about this he rebuted everything he said and he praised me. The emails he sent were demoralising, and lowered my confidence

I am a firm believer in 'if you keep your employee's happy you will get more out of them'
keep moral and confidence high and your on your way to success

he has failed to do this, when I started 8 months ago I was promised a laptop after 6 months. To which I busted my arse working to make sure that I have gotten it. 8 months later I have not recieved my laptop and it took them 7 months for them to draw up my contract.

Alot of the work I have been doing at the moment has been cutting and splicing the jobs that my boss has taken under his wing becuase "he wants to get back into design" sorry but print designers rarely have the ability to design for web (no offense) and these arejobs that he has said he would finish in his own time. However he has palmed them off to me, usually with not tech spec, site map, properly formatted concepts, sometimes its just a jpg and he uses mac fonts as we are all pc users here except for him. I am covering up for his blunders and poor work ethics.

frankly I am becoming fed up I quit my last job because of feeling like I was just a gimp in a process line and its starting again here. I dont like having to quit because of that I try andsort things out before it gets to that, but now, it just goes in one ear and out the next what do you expect from a boss who is younger than the majority of his employee's.

Sorr

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