Hi everyone,
I’m a bit confused about something at work and wanted to see if this is normal.
My boss has recently started randomly asking me if I’m okay or if I’m happy at work. It’s not during formal check-ins, it just happens out of the blue in conversation. This went on for about a week straight, so at one point I asked why they keep asking and they said they’re just checking that I’m enjoying the job.
I even once asked back if they are ok and they just chuckled and said yes, after that they stopped for a while but now it has started again. It’s actually making me quite anxious as now I feel like something is wrong.
They are also a lot older than me and I’m not sure if they are trying to manipulate me in some sort of way. They also randomly tell me about their own struggles with work and I just feel as though they are trying to act fake relatable so that I open up, but there’s really nothing I can open up about.
I haven’t had any negative feedback and nothing specific has happened, so it’s starting to make me overthink a bit. I’m naturally quite focused and not very expressive at work, so I’m wondering if that might be part of it.
Is this just a boss trying to be supportive, or could there be another reason they keep asking? And is there a good way to respond so it doesn’t keep coming up?