How much do you argue with your boss?

[SpringSpringTime]

I work for a small company. This means that a good proportion of my energy at work is spent managing up - either actively trying to get my boss to let me know their ideas/wishes/instructions, or trying to steer them in a more sensible direction when they come up with mad shit from time to time. Sometimes this latter point can be quite high conflict.

How do you pick your battles at work? Do I keep throwing energy into talking my boss out of silly ideas, which create loads of extra work and get us nowhere, operationally? Or do I just accept my job is to do what I'm told, do it within my hours, and go home again thinking 'it's the bosses problem whether this works or not'. And should I fight for us to do the things I really think are good ideas? How much?

Reflections and advice very welcome...

Never. I get paid the bare minimum they legally can, if they require emotional labour from me, or to indulge them with arguing/suggesting/reasoning, I would need more money for those services. It’s his business, he can tank it if he wants, I don’t give a fuck.

I'm a PA to a CEO, I never argue with my boss, but spend most days gently guiding him to my way of thinking - it definitely works!

I tend to assume my boss has a bigger picture than I do and there's method to his seeming madness! Usually that's proven correct.

Never! Even when we get bollocked because we "shouldn't be doing" the thing the boss specifically told us to do two days before, or we are required to literally be in two places at once, or do two things at once that are illegal to not do individually, or we are required to move faster than Usain Bolt to complete tasks in the given time frame. The boss is scary.

Oh Pom that sounds like hard work!