to want to poke my boss in the eye every time they say this?

[PlumpPartridge]

'As I mentioned...'
'As I said earlier...'
'I did mention this....'

Ok, he is correct. He did mention it. Once. In amongst other things in a long, detailed email. I am a trainee and trying to remember a lot of things and SOMETIMES I need items of information to be repeated. Not everything, just some things. Using phrases like this makes me feel embarrassed and resentful and frankly does not help my productivity as here I am. I make a particular effort not to use phrases like that myself as I am very conscious about making people feel small.

Argh. I HATE IT.

The thing is where I work, people get irritated if you e-mail "too much" and frankly I do expect people to file things that might be important. They can't proclaim innocence then moan that I have already told them. So I'm with your boss here, sorry!

Sorry, if he has to say "I did mention this..." earlier maybe he's getting fed up of you (in his eyes) ignoring his requests. YABabitU

YABU You work for him. I's up to you to filter his emails to extract his instructions and to act on them.

He shouldn't need to spoon-feed his employees.

I'm sympathetic to the whole issue of being a trainee, but at some point you have to try to drag it out of your memory. That said, I worked with someone once who had a poor short term memory as a result of a brain hemorrhage so that needed different handling. Could you speak to your boss to clarify things you are unsure of?

I'm not debating that he has right on his side and that my standard of work needs to improve. I agree with that and am trying to do so. But it's just plain rude and not helpful!

I think I take more issue with the mode of delivery than the message. The message I agree with, the mode not so much.

At the risk of telling you something you already know, are you taking notes, making yourself step by step instructions and to do lists?

Don't be self conscious about it, it's a really good way to get stuff to stick in your head and to have something to refer back to.

Your office might already have some task guides - if they don't offering to develop them along side your training is a good idea, and makes any future new starter training so much quicker.

Personally I would put the time in out of hours for the (relatively) short time it'd need doing given the benefit it me personally.

trying to remember a lot of things

I think the key point here is what systems are using to remember things. Are you just relying on memory or do you have written/electronic systems in place?

I have written 'to do' lists - today/tomorrow/this week/next week.
Electronic files for ongoing projects.

Reminders in Microsoft outlook
Regular meetings with project members to keep updated.
If someone asks you to do something by email, confirm back to them the individual points so they can confirm you've not missed anything.

If you're a trainee, I understand it can be daunting (is this your first job?). What type of company is it?

It sounds like you're getting annoyed because you're defensive about the mistakes you're making, in which case the only way to resolve this is to check every email thoroughly, make notes if you need to and ensure that you have completed every task.
The reason I say this is because I used to work with someone who would only ever read the first point of any email I sent, even when the items were all related, so I used to make frequent use of phrases like this to try and subtly remind him that he needed to read everything I wrote and act on every item rather than pushing it all back to me after completing a single task. It was incredibly frustrating for me to constantly have my day interrupted by questions about things I had already told him, sometimes several times.
If your boss is emailing you this information, there really is no excuse for not having it to hand so YABU, but I'm sure it will get easier and hopefully you won't have to hear these phrases for much longer.

I think he is being nice.

I have worked with/for some managers who would be more industrial in their use of language and snippy

How many do you need (Fing) told.... etc

Keep a very detailed list. Deliver the things on it, on time. And then he won't have to use those phrases.

Why don't you just read the email rather than posting here ?

You know what things you forget, he's not psychic or your slave

You have my sympathy, even though I can see I'm in a minority of one! I understand it's probably a bit irritating for him to be repeating himself, but constantly reminding you that he's already told you everything is demeaning and makes you scared to ask questions which can lead to mistakes being made.

How long have you worked there?

How does your boss know what you need to be constantly reminded to do? I think he put it quite reasonably. Would you like him to wipe your arse, point your eyeballs at emails he sends you and just generally drive your brain like a tank driver?

It's up to you to manage and organise your own workload. This is pretty basic stuff!

Take notes, make a to-do list, get off the internet and do the job you're paid to do. Of course you'll make a few mistakes when you're new. Just fix 'em and move on - no need to have a conniption about something so insignificant.

It sounds like you're the one with the problem...I think you should try harder to remember or maybe you are in the wrong job?

I'm with your boss I'm afraid. Not only has he mentioned it, but he's mentioned it in writing which you can re-read at your leisure as many times as you like rather than asking him again.

I know all the things I'm meant to be doing in order to combat this and am, in fact, doing them. It's just taking some time - I am much better than I used to be, in fact.

I was under the impression that I was allowed to read my email AND post on here, AchyFox....

I am just venting. I know he's correct, I just find his attitude obnoxious and hard to warm to. Also, I suspect that he won't actually stop using that fucking phrase because I've heard him use it to other, competent members of our team as well. They don't like it either.

Another minority view here.

I used to be really crap at managing my staff because my instructions were not very clear (obviously they were to me) as I gave far too much detail and micro managed sometimes.

Luckily, after being on the receiving end myself from another senior manager, I realised the error of my ways and changed my methods.

as here I am

Just quoting you.

If he does it to everyone, I would think he's not completely sure he has mentioned it already! So he's making you all feel crap instead of himself.

I do it myself (but I'm an SAHM so not to any employees!).

Meh. I know I need to improve so thank you for the helpful tips given here.

This is my first office job after a long stint of a) academia and b) SAHM-ness. I am finding formal diplomacy to be hard work! Both of the above thrived on a certain 'We need thing. You do thing. Why you no do thing?' bluntness :)

Sometimes it's not what they say it's the tone in which they say it.

I could punch my employees the majority of the time, needs anger management course they get right on my tits. Think it's time for a job change.

That's it exactly Randy!! I have a slightly higher-up boss who can tell me I totally suck but does it in such a nice way that I am eager to improve (and have in fact done so on the points he's flagged). I just like a bit of personability on my criticism.... oh FGS, I've just read my own post and it's pathetic.

OP - I had a boss like this. She's send me stream of consciousness emails from the states and then phone me and scream down the phone, and expect me to remember everything I'd ever been told ever - 'but boy, I DID mention this....'. Yes, she did in passing. But she mentioned so many things in passing, that I couldn't keep up, or refind the particular thing she wanted in her many, many, long emails that were not at all clear. I ended up having to leave that job as the boss was so crazy and mean, and I wouldn't put up with being shouted at for things that simply weren't my fault - tone is EVERYTHING. However, what I did find helpful was reading the email, forming a list and sending it back for confirmation. While your boss may want you to improve, management has to be more than simply issuing instructions.

Agree with making lists and if necessary getting confirmation that you've understood the requests.

I dunno if you have regular points with your manager? It may just be that he can't really see what you're up to, so doesn't know you've forgotten something until its too late.

I tend to make several lists:
My own to do lists
Lists which I send to manager and my team with ongoing subjects/subjects that need to be started etc. - along with who does what (as I manage 2 people)
Lists of what I'm expecting from other people (so I can remember who to remind)

I also do mini-minutes of any complicated phone calls. One person I work with is all over the place and uses several different terms to say the same thing. I always email him after our calls with my "action plan" just to make sure I've understood what he actually wants!

"While your boss may want you to improve, management has to be more than simply issuing instructions."

I agree. I have had some experience training undergrads in lab work myself and went out of my way not to make them feel ignorant (even though they often were), so it galls me a bit that my boss doesn't seem to feel the same.

Anyway. I will just grit my teeth and try to improve, I think. Thank you all!