Dealing With Bad Managers

There is a common thread in the behavior of lousy bosses; whether sitting behind the CEO desk, like Iacocca, or your supervisor stationed in the corner cubicle.  They seem to delight in belittling you in front of co-workers, other managers, or even customers.  They appear to gain their strength by celebrating your weak points, with haughty, arrogant behavior.  They pray on your insecurities.  The more you try and defend yourself, the more they cut you into little pieces and the more power over you they obtain – and the happier they become.  Jeff Skilling, President of Enron, used public humiliation of his subordinates to always prove he was the smartest person in the room – and feed his gargantuan ego.

If you have concluded that your manager is not out to make your life miserable, but definitely lacking in managerial skills and will limit your growth potential in the company, you should develop a plan.  First, I would suggest that you find someone you can trust for a reality check.  If they agree you are caught up in negative environment, you might want to start with a ‘positive’ confrontation with your boss. Perhaps you can come to an understanding about how you can both work better together.  If this backfires into a ‘negative’ session, with no meeting of the minds, and the issues are serious enough to damage your productivity, set up a meeting with your human resources department to discuss the issues. They may have heard these same complaints from others and this will push them to take action. You should also be learning how to perfect your own supervisory skills by experiencing the “how not to do it” first hand. You may also want to put feelers out within the company to see what positions are available in other departments or even outside the company – especially if things are really rocky between you and your manager and you don’t get a sense they will improve.

You can’t soar like an eagle if you work for a turkey – so be proactive and prepare to make a change before someone does it for you – in a direction your don’t want.