How to deal with a boss who is causing you stress
Although a great deal of a manager’s time can be devoted to improving the performance of staff, bosses can also be difficult to work with. Like many other people, they too can be lazy, incompetent, bullying, or arrogant. Coming up with successful ways of coping with poor-performing bosses can tax the resources of the most talented managers. Here are some suggestions that will help you handle a boss you have a problem working for...
1. Recognise the problem.
There are a few perfect bosses in this world, but many are not great performers. If you have trouble with your boss, you can try to tackle the problem only if you know exactly what your problem is. For example, bosses can be:
Inconsistent - warm, supportive, and encouraging one day; aloof, rigid, and uncompromising the next
Inflexible - unable, or unprepared, to change when it is obvious to everyone that a new direction is required
Closed - reluctant to provide oral feedback, leaving others to translate a mix of non-verbal messages
Manipulative - getting people to ‘perform’ by resorting to carrot-and-stick approaches, and by making promises that they have no intention of keeping
Exploitative - continuing to assign tasks to those who never complain
Inactive - demonstrating a lack of control over people and over projects; even lazy.
In 'Never Work for a Jerk!', Patricia King identified the really difficult bosses: scoundrels and liars, slave-drivers and bullies, ignoramuses and incompetents, cheapskates and skinflints, blowhards and egomaniacs. Can you identify the problem (if there is one) with your boss’s behaviour?
2. Take your choice.
If you have a boss who's a liability, you have three choices: cope with the situation; try to improve the way you're managed; or look for another job. The choice is yours…
3. Consider coping with the current situation.
You can handle the current situation in two ways - by moaning and complaining or becoming stressed, even ill, and a martyr to the cause; or by making the most of the situation by being positive and using the following approaches:
- Keep things in perspective. Make it a practice not to take things personally. Remember, in the wash-up, your boss has the problem, not you.
- Keep your cool. Others, too, are likely to be affected by your boss’s actions, so let your responses to the boss's actions set an example for others to follow.
- Learn from your boss. Problem behaviours will identify for you the way not to do things, thus saving you from falling into similar traps.
- Get as much satisfaction out of your job as you can by doing your job well. Find other competent people in your organisation and work with them to try to absorb and cope with the most destructive influences of your boss.
- Learn to play the game the boss's way - grin and bear it, but take a stance against unethical or rude behaviour, harassment, or bullying.
