INTIMIDATION AT WORK

[spurs12345]

Hi Im new here so Im feeling quite shy and nervous. Started work last September and supervisor is intimidating me. When its just me and her and I make a mistake she will talk to me in a really "scary" one-tone voice. If others are around she is really nice. Only does this to me. Also there is no-one higher up than her to go to. There is no area manager or Head Office either.

Does she own the place? If not there is always someone higher.

She doesnt run the place but she is in charge of everyone but there is no-one higher that I know of to go higher to. Even if there was and I did go higher because I really want the job she would make it harder for me there.

Hey, do u get on with her otherwise? Does she talk to u outside this? No chance of saying to her something? Anyone else in the office made a joke of her scary voice? Someone else must have heard it, she can't have developed it just for u, it's got to be winding someone else up too.

Also u say whenever u make mistake, I find it hard to believe u make that many. Be careful of creating a vicious circle for urself or u will create more thru being nervous. Ur intelligent, nice, and plenty of people who know u like u already and don't think u r stupid. Don't let this one blip shadow u.

Typing while feeding, hard to write properly, hope intention makes sense!!!! :)

Try not to be alone with her as she just intimidates me but I also try to be around others when I can. Others sometimes hear her but dont say anything and I dont want to say anything incase I make things worse for myself.

What about talking to her along the lines of "Yesterday you wished to talk to me about x. You considered it to be a mistake and your tone of voice indicated to me that you considered it to be a serious issue. I am now working on strategies to ensure that this mistake does not happen again. I propose that I do xxx (give her a v. brief summary of how you want to avoid it happening again - I don´t know what it was - "In future on subject x, y and z I will consult with you before deciding on a course of action" Do you think this would be a good strategy?"). I want to discuss with you how we can work together in future with such issues where you consider there to be a problem. I propose we plan a regular meeting to assess how well my strategy xxx is working, I´d like you to give me feedback on my performance so that I can maximise the things which I am doing well and so that we can catch problems like this at an early stage. I think like this we´ll be able to avoid unpleasant exchanges like yesterday."
Please tell me what you think of such an approach - as I have similar issues and am trying to come up with ways of dealing with it which will show that I am assertive and not happy with aggression but where I hopefully can earn the respect of my boss by being proactive and making a serious attempt to improve things??