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Do You Work for a Difficult Boss?
Of all the problems people face on the job--difficult customers, a heavy workload, ringing phones--what is the one that drains the most joy from life? The answer is a difficult boss, or, as many people say, "a crazy boss."
The classic crazy boss is a bully, but difficult bosses can also be belittling, burned-out, controlling, insecure, micromanaging, namby-pamby, or paranoid. The real question is, what kind of boss do you face when you get to work? And what can you do about it? In this new forum, we will tell our stories and share the solutions we have found.
Let me go first. I once had a boss who made a big show of giving my team complete authority over our work. His management mantra was, "You people handle it. Just give me one last look before the project goes out the door." Yet each time he took that "one last look," he demanded a complete redo and kept us working past midnight.
He was an insecure supervisor who needed to prove that only he knew how things were supposed to be done. He was always "saving the day" at the last minute and that made working for him demeaning. Some of my colleagues actually began to feel incompetent. I finally started pushing our work-in-progress under his nose so he had to tell me whether we were on track. Even if he didn't want to look and said, "No, you are in charge," I asked questions until he made suggestions. His last-minute "crises" all but vanished and the quality of my work life improved.
Now it is your turn to share your stories. Together, we can discover some effective strategies to make your working life better.
The classic crazy boss is a bully, but difficult bosses can also be belittling, burned-out, controlling, insecure, micromanaging, namby-pamby, or paranoid. The real question is, what kind of boss do you face when you get to work? And what can you do about it? In this new forum, we will tell our stories and share the solutions we have found.
Let me go first. I once had a boss who made a big show of giving my team complete authority over our work. His management mantra was, "You people handle it. Just give me one last look before the project goes out the door." Yet each time he took that "one last look," he demanded a complete redo and kept us working past midnight.
He was an insecure supervisor who needed to prove that only he knew how things were supposed to be done. He was always "saving the day" at the last minute and that made working for him demeaning. Some of my colleagues actually began to feel incompetent. I finally started pushing our work-in-progress under his nose so he had to tell me whether we were on track. Even if he didn't want to look and said, "No, you are in charge," I asked questions until he made suggestions. His last-minute "crises" all but vanished and the quality of my work life improved.
Now it is your turn to share your stories. Together, we can discover some effective strategies to make your working life better.
