When your boss says "I hope ..."

The fired ex-FBI director Comey, in his hearing said that when the President (his then boss) told him "I hope you'd ...", he took it as an order that the boss actually expects him to take that path. There has been a fascinating debate on how to interpret it. This article gives what bosses "usually" mean when they say things like:

• "I hope you'll do this" 
  
  • “I expect you to know well enough on your own to take care of this. Please don’t make me ask you directly.”
  • “You should really stop doing that other thing and do this instead.”
  • “If you don’t do this, I’m going to be disappointed—and there might be consequences.”
• "Let me see what I can do about it" 
  • “Yeah, no—never gonna happen.”
  • “This is me politely telling you that’s a terrible idea.”
  • “I’ll do the absolute bare minimum to be able to say I looked into that for you.”
• "We are going in a different direction"
  • You messed up with that one, and the grown-ups are taking over from here.”
  • “We’re eliminating your role, sorry. Your last day will be Tuesday.”
  • “Nice work on that pitch—it bombed.”
• "I'll take that into advisement"
  • Uh huh, I know - I already considered that
  • I haven't made up my mind yet, and that idea if yours isn't helping me
  • I hear you, but I;m still not taking your advice
• "Lets table that for now and revisit later"
  • I'm done discussing this. Don't bring it up ever again
  • No hard feelings, but that idea is dumb
  • I'm going to let that proposal die a slow death by ignoring it indefinitely

There are a lot of different tones, phrases, and grammatical moods in which bosses deliver orders and express their wishes. If you have a boss (come on, everyone has a boss), make sure you are interpreting the intentions correctly and if you are the boss, please be aware how your words could get interpreted.