I know you have a lot of work to do, don't worry, is not my intention to waste your time here, here's the essence of what I want to tell you, if you get interested about the subject I invite you to read the following paragraphs:
Your boss might exert a power over you by the fear you have from loosing your job. There's a simple solution to it, just save 6 months of salary as an emergency fund and this is going to change the way you approach the job and your relationship with people.
Power is not something you have, it's an influence someone can have over other. An easy example is the power by force, it is a domination in this case. To avoid the pain some will please the desire of who can inflict pain. To avoid the pain you avoid to let the powerful upset.
The same relationship happens inside a company, but instead of being afraid of pain we are afraid of unemployment, to get fired. And to avoid the unemployment we avoid letting our bosses upset.
What would be another solution? Why do we need a boss? Boss usually is the person that tell us what we need to do. Sometimes because she has more experience or she knows better the goals of the company and is managing multiple people towards that.
In the beginning of the capitalized world it was clear the fight between employer and employee, the first wanted to maximize the profit by making employees to work more and paying less and the second wanted to work less and earn more. But things have changed a bit since then, we (should) work as a team towards a common goal. Both employer and employee wants to sell more to profit more.
When we think like this our process to make decisions change, you don't need to only accept what your boss tell you, you can think with her about what's better for the company. You can, more comfortably, present your point of view so you can agree why something should be this way, not that one. You can refuse to work under a tight deadline because the team doesn't have enough people to deal with the work load, or there was a mistake during the planning. If your boss knows you'll be always there when needed, she might be planning the work counting on it. And what about if I get fired?
Well, there's a simple solution for it (for some people not an easy one). You save 6 to 12 months salary, ideally enough to buy you time to find another job. If you have this emergency fund you simply don't need to be afraid of getting fired, having this fund can change how you interact with people in your job, how you approach your tasks and how to think by yourself about what's better for the company.
[é melhor citar o Júlio Pompeu, ter poder é fazer com que o outro acredite que o q é melhor pra ele também é melhor pra vc mesmo]
A note for the bosses who might be reading, here is a good summary of what's authority by Julio Pompeu.1
To have power is to make the other believe that what is good for him is also good for yourself.
If your authority comes from the fear that your employees have to lose their jobs you are doing it wrong, you must create infinite game that is worth playing 2. And let this game be about money, personal growth, stability or even better, let it be about happiness.
What are your thoughts about it?
Bibliography References:
1 - "A Filosofia Explica Grandes Questões da Humanidade" [Philosophy Explains Big Questions of Humanity] by Clóvis de Barros Filho and Júlio Pompeu.
2 - "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber.