Under no circumstances must you ever say to me "You have to know these things." I will be forced to punch you in the face. At the last two jobs I've had both of my bosses have told me "You have to know these things" whenever there was something I didn't know. Well, duh, tell me something I don't know, like what "these things" are? Excuse me if my psychic abilities haven't fully developed because the last time I checked the only way to "know these things" was for someone to actually tell me "these things" so then I would know them. It's incredibly irritating to know that it would be far simpler to just tell me "these things" outright than to say "you have to know these things." I'm not stupid, I already know that there are lots of things I'm supposed to know but until you actually tell them to me I'm not ever going to know them now am I? If people took a second to think about that you could be a more effective boss and your employees would actually know more about their job. I mean, you wouldn't send a first year med student into an OR to perform open heart surgery and then tell the kid "You have to know these things" when he/she asks you what to do. Why should it be any different at any other place of work? Most employees are at least smart enough to know that there are things about their job that they are supposed to know, like where we keep the extra things, particulars about the products they sell, what to do at opening/closing... Unless they're told what they are they aint gonna know, and to just say "You have to know these things" is simply a cop out. Maybe they say it because *They* don't know the answer... /shrug