Great leaders in the workplace help their employees become the best versions of themselves: skilled, passionate, and yearning to improve themselves and invest in their jobs. On the flip side, bad bosses and managers can snuff out any passion you have and make you wonder whether the money’s worth feeling anxious and stifled all the time (it’s often not).
Brigette Hyacinth’s post about the 10 worst bad boss behaviors has been going viral on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Imgur, and a lot of people are relating to it—at some point in their careers, plenty of people have had to deal with at least a handful of these. And anyone with a few entries on their CV knows that a manager can make or break your motivation to go the extra mile.
From micromanaging and overworking employees to being unable to give clear direction and constantly competing with their colleagues, and more, these are all the things that anyone in a position of power should avoid like Covid-19.
In order to learn more about good leadership and management, Bored Panda reached out to Eddy Ng, the James and Elizabeth Freeman Professor of Management at Bucknell University. Professor Ng said that a strong leader in the workplace is someone who is moral, principled, and “does the right thing,” instead of someone who dithers or aims to do only those things that make them popular. Read on for the rest of his insights below.
More info: BrigetteHyacinth.com | YouTube
Brigette detailed the behaviors that bosses and managers do that make employees lose their passion and motivation for their jobs
“The notion of servant leadership is gaining attention in the workplace. Although it is associated with many of the strong leadership traits such as empathy, selflessness, and humility, the focus is on the leader’s propensity to serve (or support) their followers. Servant leaders empower and lift up followers (employees) to motivate and fuel their passion,” Professor Ng gave Bored Panda his take on current management tendencies in the workplace.
The professor stressed that leader-follower relationships are based on the principle of exchange. “Employees can manage that relationship to have work satisfaction. In this instance, employees need to communicate what they need (tools) or work conditions (autonomy) in order for them to perform optimally when working with a controlling boss. Employees need to convey what they can and are able to perform,” he explained what colleagues can do to ensure that their workplace is optimal for their skills to flourish.
There are many different styles of leadership, however, and they all have their own place: one company might function better with a collective that focuses on compassion and calmly getting the work done while another might need an energetic manager who’s always motivating and inspiring others.
However, there are still certain traits that high-quality leaders share, explains Western Governors University. In other words, you can’t be a good boss if you lack these, no matter what other awesome qualities you might have. Being competent in your professional field doesn’t automatically make you a good leader. No matter how we spin things, not everyone is able to manage people well: they can be good leaders, but not everyone will be.
According to the Harvard Business Review, some of the top traits that great workplace leaders share include having strong ethics and high moral standards, great self-organizational skills, and being efficient learners. What’s more, they’re people who nurture growth in employees and foster connections and belonging.
Or, to rephrase things, good bosses unite their employees, are very flexible and orderly, and are (not to sound too cheesy) good people. Leaders all around the world find these traits to be the most important. And this leads to encouraged, inspired employees who see themselves as part of a greater collective, a unified mission that helps change the world, not just a drive toward a weekly or monthly wage. Good bosses help their coworkers thrive, not just make them survive.
HBR explains that the vital thing is to create a “safe and trusting environment” that’s fair for everyone. That involves clearly communicating expectations so that employees are never blindsided; when everyone’s on the same page and knows the rules of the game, they can relax and focus on creativity, innovation, ambition, and social engagement.
On the flip side, when we feel threatened, we’re stuck in a perpetual fight-or-flight state, constantly anxious, and we perform worse. Or, as HBR says, “From a neuroscience perspective, making sure that people feel safe on a deep level should be job #1 for leaders.”
Here’s what some people have been saying about the post. Some even shared their own experiences with bad bosses
Meanwhile, in a follow-up post, this time on her blog, Brigette explained that employees don’t leave organizations, they leave bad bosses. “The worst place an employee can be, is stuck in an organization with a micro-manager who doesn’t care about their development and there are no opportunities for growth and advancement,” she writes.
“No matter how great a company’s products and/or services may be, if management is dysfunctional, that company will have serious problems. The typical ‘bad boss’ spends their time directing and monitoring employees rather than empowering them. Micromanaging is oppressive, fosters anxiety, and creates a high-stress work environment. Eventually, employees will become disenchanted and quit to work for another company.”
I would add gaslighting to this list. It doesn't just happen in personal relationships but work ones, too. My boss would claim I did things that I knew with absolute certainty I hadn't done, but after someone repeats it enough times with conviction you can start to doubt your own memories. It's insane.
If this is still the situation, try to document as much as possible. Do keep in mind: HR works for management, not for employees.
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To keep good employees, you have to one of two things: pay them enough that they feel financially secure, or make them feel valued and respected. If you do both of these things, they’ll happily work for you until they die. I don’t know why these simple things are so rare in the workplace.
Going through this right now at work. Have a new store manager who has basically killed any enjoyment anyone had working there. Customers have complained to head office about him. Before the pandemic we had great sakes but our store is in a mall. With two shutdowns we aren’t getting the sales we used to. We were working with what was considered to be bare minimum hours and we struggled but got things done. He has come in and reduced pretty much every department's hours by 30 and is still expecting the same work to be done. He claims he wants to “help” but any time you talk to him you get looks like you are beneath him. It’s frustrating as hell.
Not listening to feedback was a big one for me. A director once demanded that a process be done entirely online rather than use a traditional paper form, while we lived in a rural area in which many elderly people do not even have email addresses. Once she left and paper applications were used, enrollment rates were incredible. She would get upset and begin long lectures defending her point of view, and she even once said something like, "Anyway, that's my whole tirade on the matter." It was a very authoritarian form of management that taught me to prepare data and observations that supported my reasoning beforehand, even if I knew my suggestions would likely be ignored.
Once, I determine you're a micromanager, I start looking for the exit. Been through it, will not put up with it again.
I don't geg the downvotes...your life, your choices AND it does not harm anyone doing so or telling it
Load More Replies... As a boss, the term "Like a Boss" applies to me. I need to be superior in all the talents that I ask of my help. Also in reply to #4, if one of my workers breaks a window, I will take credit for it. Every time. Only he and I will know the truth. And what I tell the customer is true...ish, I broke their window. I just don't tell them that it was by proxy.
I work with someone who is the biggest micro manager I have ever had. It completely suffocates me and my coworkers. She even micro manages the director of operations and she gets away with it because she is dating the owners son. I'm screwed!
yeah, but how do you avoid these bosses? it's not hard to spot a bad boss once you're working for him or her, but wouldn't it be better to spot one during the interview process?
A few options: Find a site with reviews from employees (Glassdoor is one); Ask others in the same industry; If there's a receptionist and other people around, how are they behaving? None of these are fool-proof, but they can help.
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I used to hate my bosses... Saying, if I ever get into that position I'll be different. Then I became a boss and learned quickly that those employees that were your friends will be the first to f* you over. I finally ended up talking management courses before I could become a boss that wouldn't be constantly be crushed between the upper management and the employees I was tasked to supervise. The job sucks.
It is easier if the promotion to manager happens in another department, division or company. Being promoted over friends can be very tricky. Training courses really do help, people shouldn't be expected to automatically know especially if they haven't had a good example to learn from.
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One of my friend started working in a takeaway, and she's had quite an experience in hospitality. She's tarted noticing some methods that were wasting employee's time and things that could have been done differently for everybody's benefit (even the boss's benefit of course) and she came up with a number of improvements to the boss. She was then told off to just shut up and do exactly how the boss says just because the boss has to he right. I don't understand people, the boss didn't even stop for one second to think if the advice is useful or not because of his pride.
The ONE good manager/boss I've had in my life was my first job when I was a teen - and I screwed that up, it's on me. Every. Single. Manager/Boss/Supervisor (directly involved in my position) since then has been a combination of *SEVERAL* of the above noted 'worst behaviors' - in fact, one egregiously horrible boss is the reason I left my last career-type job after being there several years. She was horrible enough that I got SHINGLES. I was in my 30s. Shingles.
It takes 10 things to recognize a bad boss? Some people are slow learners.
Those 10 points cover just about *every* manager I've *ever* worked for .
Unfortunately I have suffered at the end of all Of these types of bosses. No growth, favouritism, micromanagement and downright hostility. A good boss is worth his/her weight in gold. Now I have a good boss.
Everyone of these I experienced in my last job. Worse boss I ever had out of working for almost 45 years
I'm very lucky that I'm living in a society where toxic employers really don't stand a chance. They either get shut down or get their businesses hauled into courts where a judge will tear them a second one. A lot of "employers" have experienced that Dutch labor laws aren't a joke.
Funny because a lot of these comments apply to my two ex boses from the Netherlands. And to my partners boss nowadays, also Dutch.
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I believe a person must have performed the job they are managing or supervising for at least 6 months.
Anyone else notice that all 10 items apply to the last American administration?
I am very lucky to work at a place without these types of issues. The only one that is starting to creep up is when someone says something could be improved or that there is a problem, it is more likely to be seen as simply complaining than as something that if the company fixed it would be good for the company. But I have stayed at this job because I believe in what I'm doing AND because of a great culture. I could have gotten paid a lot more going elsewhere, but having worked at toxic places, it's worth it to me to stay.
Think I was able to tick every one of these with my last boss. Being unemployed for months was still more enjoyable and less stressful than working with that manager for 18 months! You know at the time it’s happening that things are bad, but looking back now it seems even worse. So glad i’m out of that place 🙌🏻🙌🏻
In my last job, 14 people from a crew of 40 left in 6 months. When I eventually left after 7 months I made the mother of all complaints. 1 month later I heard that, she and the head of the entire global section were fired. Don't ever let bullying or bad management slide. They probably reacted to late but at least the company reacted eventually.
Also vexing are the bosses who minimize an employee's complaint against a coworker. I had one job where I was bullied and when I went to management, they brushed it off as my problem and didn't do anything. In another job, one of my coworkers kept taking my tasks and leaving me with nothing to do, but they were such personal buddies with the boss, I was again left on my own. Was actually glad when the business pretty much went bankrupt.
I know, its terrible. One of my ex boses was a nice guy but he was extremely passive against some of the coworkers. They werent working at all (you could see them in facebook at work) and bullyied all the employees that worked hard because they saw them as a threat. Because of that attitude he los several good employees.
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I worked for an egotistical idiot who was ten for ten... He saved up his anger and frustration stamps and justified a yelling tantrum fit about every six weeks. I documented this for a year and a half and got him moved. The company then retaliated and eventually got rid of me... that company had a defacto policy of getting rid of the staff that was motivated, self-starters, and typically did about double the work of the average employees. They never saw the extra work, only the extra problems that inevitably came up. The treated the third rate slackes well. They thought that if they were generous, patient, kind, and easy on these dumb bubbahs that eventually they would turn around and make good employees. It didn't work. The producers all eventually ended up at better companies. The slackers made a full career at that one company. The senior managers were too thick to see this was going on. What a horrible company.
Couldn't be that "horrible" if they're still in business.
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Or asking a fewdback about something and if you say you dont like it they are not sathisfied 😀 and youre the bad person t the end.
I've had people hate my designs for their websites. As long as they could tell me why, I could change it easily. For example, one client said, "It's cartoony - it's supposed to be edgy!" So edgy it became and she was quite happy. On the other hand, I had a boss who hated everything I and another employee did and all I could get was, "I'll know what I like when I see it." To my great relief, I was fired after a week.
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My previous boss, dear, I hope he's doing fine. When he was our manager, he was a good guy, standing up for employees and all. I used to admire him, and everybody else liked him too. Then he got promoted to a higher position and became the actual boss. And made everyone walking on eggshells. Throwing around McCarthist accusations, coming up with "it's not fair towards other colleagues" whenever there was something that annoyed him personally (and he was literally annoyed by people breathing), creating a drama out of nothing, treating grown ass adults his age as high schoolers, insisting on rules and going full dictator mode.... Incredibile what stress and sadness can do to an otherwise good man. He left the company and now we have a really good boss. I hope the previous one gets to become happy again, he wasn't really being himself. Literally so.
It's what's mostly the case. People taking on more than they can handle.
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I've certainly encountered most of these and in developing, have also demonstrated some I'm sure. This is a really helpful post and succinct enough to retain interest. Makes a novel change from more bloody posts about funny pets!! Thank you.
Why don't you make a post on a topic you are interested in
Load More Replies... My last job was of 19 years. Last five spent with the kind of boss in the ten. Every one of them he did but couldn't see it. Super truthful post
I had to be guilty of micromanaging -to poor-performance employees. I don't see it that way really, but they did. Well...if they did their job I would not get on them, but I was just verbally reminding them or leaving a sticky saying ro get something done. I did not write them up and I had no firing abilities. Staff who did not need that level of babysitting and hand holding did not get that and it pissed staff off. They did not understand why they had to comply with rules. Rules I did not create, rules the company did not create but had to abide by. Horrible employees. (This is childcare-following a set of licensing rules. Parents paid for curriculum and the staff did not create or implement. One staff refused to clean or let her school-agers clean as she was scared parents would get mad at her for having their children help out. her room was FILTHY. I tried creative solutions, got staff out of the room to do curriculum, etc. They complained to my boss and I look like the bad guy.)
Well, judging by what you're telling that whole environment was toxic. It happens when a culture of being unmotivated becomes the standard and certain people attract others that are like them. If you look at the organisation upper management is probably reinforcing the behavior (by setting up childish rules for instance, which just invoke childish behavior). It can be changed, but that would start with new management. But remember if micromanaging seems necessary, it's the last thing you should do. Start to actually talk to people to find out what is truly bothering them and give them back their responsibilities and challenges to make their ownership grow.
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I had a boss with all of these traids. Learnd to cover my ass and get everything in writing. Never been happier than when I got away from her.
100% agree - can see all these signs within my current workplace!!
A boss can be a leader, but a true leader is a servant first. President Franklin Roosevelt, President Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sun Tzu said, “Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons and they will follow you into the deepest valley.” The way you know you’re a good leader is when you ask your followers how they’re doing, and you actually care about the answer. You take the time to learn about the people that have been placed in your charge, love them, care about them, recognize them, and, when the time calls for it, roll up your sleeves and jump into the task alongside them. You should, to use the battlefield metaphor, be the first in every advance and the last in every retreat. Your goal should be not your own gain, but the gain of others, the gain of those who surround you. You sacrifice as a leader, and only then, are you truly a great leader. When you stop seeking greatness for your own sake, that is when it comes upon you. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.
Dunno where this fits, but had a boss (engineering) that would give me a vague description, then pick away at the results until he got what he wanted: "I need 2 numbers that add up to 4." Me: 2+2. Him: I had something else in mind (!!!). Me: 3+1. Him: Closer, but try again. Me: 4+0. Him: Better, but I was after 0+4. This kind of thing would happen over several days worth of start-over-from-scratch work.
How about bosses who have poor time management and and organizational skills and would rather work 20 hours days because they were trained in the corporate equivalent of a sweat shop and also want to avoid their family (seemingly) so they have no value for your time and no problem with dropping a 3+ hour task in your lap at 4:20 when your day usually ends at 4:30
This is Phoenix st lukes hospital to a tee. All of them. It's like someone went there for a week and created this list
My last manager scored 10/10 on this list and it took such a toll on me professionally and personally
This is a great list which can be used to label your bad boss after the fact. I was hoping for something that could help me spot a bad boss before going to work for him or her.
Search for truly happy staff while waiting for the interview. At least one person should not be too stressed to have a smile for you or a nice chat with a colleague.
Load More Replies... Sounds awfully familiar... like I lived through this for four years.... starting in January 2017....
AP, feel free to use me as a resource. I am willing to listen to you, and I swear upon my life, my honor, and my family, that everything you say will be kept 100% confidential to the fullest extent of my ability. If you ever need someone, don’t hesitate to reach out.
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Never heard of him. Sorry. Is he specific to your country?
Load More Replies... I would add gaslighting to this list. It doesn't just happen in personal relationships but work ones, too. My boss would claim I did things that I knew with absolute certainty I hadn't done, but after someone repeats it enough times with conviction you can start to doubt your own memories. It's insane.
If this is still the situation, try to document as much as possible. Do keep in mind: HR works for management, not for employees.
Load More Replies... To keep good employees, you have to one of two things: pay them enough that they feel financially secure, or make them feel valued and respected. If you do both of these things, they’ll happily work for you until they die. I don’t know why these simple things are so rare in the workplace.
Going through this right now at work. Have a new store manager who has basically killed any enjoyment anyone had working there. Customers have complained to head office about him. Before the pandemic we had great sakes but our store is in a mall. With two shutdowns we aren’t getting the sales we used to. We were working with what was considered to be bare minimum hours and we struggled but got things done. He has come in and reduced pretty much every department's hours by 30 and is still expecting the same work to be done. He claims he wants to “help” but any time you talk to him you get looks like you are beneath him. It’s frustrating as hell.
Not listening to feedback was a big one for me. A director once demanded that a process be done entirely online rather than use a traditional paper form, while we lived in a rural area in which many elderly people do not even have email addresses. Once she left and paper applications were used, enrollment rates were incredible. She would get upset and begin long lectures defending her point of view, and she even once said something like, "Anyway, that's my whole tirade on the matter." It was a very authoritarian form of management that taught me to prepare data and observations that supported my reasoning beforehand, even if I knew my suggestions would likely be ignored.
Once, I determine you're a micromanager, I start looking for the exit. Been through it, will not put up with it again.
I don't geg the downvotes...your life, your choices AND it does not harm anyone doing so or telling it
Load More Replies... As a boss, the term "Like a Boss" applies to me. I need to be superior in all the talents that I ask of my help. Also in reply to #4, if one of my workers breaks a window, I will take credit for it. Every time. Only he and I will know the truth. And what I tell the customer is true...ish, I broke their window. I just don't tell them that it was by proxy.
I work with someone who is the biggest micro manager I have ever had. It completely suffocates me and my coworkers. She even micro manages the director of operations and she gets away with it because she is dating the owners son. I'm screwed!
yeah, but how do you avoid these bosses? it's not hard to spot a bad boss once you're working for him or her, but wouldn't it be better to spot one during the interview process?
A few options: Find a site with reviews from employees (Glassdoor is one); Ask others in the same industry; If there's a receptionist and other people around, how are they behaving? None of these are fool-proof, but they can help.
Load More Replies... I used to hate my bosses... Saying, if I ever get into that position I'll be different. Then I became a boss and learned quickly that those employees that were your friends will be the first to f* you over. I finally ended up talking management courses before I could become a boss that wouldn't be constantly be crushed between the upper management and the employees I was tasked to supervise. The job sucks.
It is easier if the promotion to manager happens in another department, division or company. Being promoted over friends can be very tricky. Training courses really do help, people shouldn't be expected to automatically know especially if they haven't had a good example to learn from.
Load More Replies... One of my friend started working in a takeaway, and she's had quite an experience in hospitality. She's tarted noticing some methods that were wasting employee's time and things that could have been done differently for everybody's benefit (even the boss's benefit of course) and she came up with a number of improvements to the boss. She was then told off to just shut up and do exactly how the boss says just because the boss has to he right. I don't understand people, the boss didn't even stop for one second to think if the advice is useful or not because of his pride.
The ONE good manager/boss I've had in my life was my first job when I was a teen - and I screwed that up, it's on me. Every. Single. Manager/Boss/Supervisor (directly involved in my position) since then has been a combination of *SEVERAL* of the above noted 'worst behaviors' - in fact, one egregiously horrible boss is the reason I left my last career-type job after being there several years. She was horrible enough that I got SHINGLES. I was in my 30s. Shingles.
It takes 10 things to recognize a bad boss? Some people are slow learners.
Those 10 points cover just about *every* manager I've *ever* worked for .
Unfortunately I have suffered at the end of all Of these types of bosses. No growth, favouritism, micromanagement and downright hostility. A good boss is worth his/her weight in gold. Now I have a good boss.
Everyone of these I experienced in my last job. Worse boss I ever had out of working for almost 45 years
I'm very lucky that I'm living in a society where toxic employers really don't stand a chance. They either get shut down or get their businesses hauled into courts where a judge will tear them a second one. A lot of "employers" have experienced that Dutch labor laws aren't a joke.
Funny because a lot of these comments apply to my two ex boses from the Netherlands. And to my partners boss nowadays, also Dutch.
Load More Replies... I believe a person must have performed the job they are managing or supervising for at least 6 months.
Anyone else notice that all 10 items apply to the last American administration?
I am very lucky to work at a place without these types of issues. The only one that is starting to creep up is when someone says something could be improved or that there is a problem, it is more likely to be seen as simply complaining than as something that if the company fixed it would be good for the company. But I have stayed at this job because I believe in what I'm doing AND because of a great culture. I could have gotten paid a lot more going elsewhere, but having worked at toxic places, it's worth it to me to stay.
Think I was able to tick every one of these with my last boss. Being unemployed for months was still more enjoyable and less stressful than working with that manager for 18 months! You know at the time it’s happening that things are bad, but looking back now it seems even worse. So glad i’m out of that place 🙌🏻🙌🏻
In my last job, 14 people from a crew of 40 left in 6 months. When I eventually left after 7 months I made the mother of all complaints. 1 month later I heard that, she and the head of the entire global section were fired. Don't ever let bullying or bad management slide. They probably reacted to late but at least the company reacted eventually.
Also vexing are the bosses who minimize an employee's complaint against a coworker. I had one job where I was bullied and when I went to management, they brushed it off as my problem and didn't do anything. In another job, one of my coworkers kept taking my tasks and leaving me with nothing to do, but they were such personal buddies with the boss, I was again left on my own. Was actually glad when the business pretty much went bankrupt.
I know, its terrible. One of my ex boses was a nice guy but he was extremely passive against some of the coworkers. They werent working at all (you could see them in facebook at work) and bullyied all the employees that worked hard because they saw them as a threat. Because of that attitude he los several good employees.
Load More Replies... I worked for an egotistical idiot who was ten for ten... He saved up his anger and frustration stamps and justified a yelling tantrum fit about every six weeks. I documented this for a year and a half and got him moved. The company then retaliated and eventually got rid of me... that company had a defacto policy of getting rid of the staff that was motivated, self-starters, and typically did about double the work of the average employees. They never saw the extra work, only the extra problems that inevitably came up. The treated the third rate slackes well. They thought that if they were generous, patient, kind, and easy on these dumb bubbahs that eventually they would turn around and make good employees. It didn't work. The producers all eventually ended up at better companies. The slackers made a full career at that one company. The senior managers were too thick to see this was going on. What a horrible company.
Couldn't be that "horrible" if they're still in business.
Load More Replies... Or asking a fewdback about something and if you say you dont like it they are not sathisfied 😀 and youre the bad person t the end.
I've had people hate my designs for their websites. As long as they could tell me why, I could change it easily. For example, one client said, "It's cartoony - it's supposed to be edgy!" So edgy it became and she was quite happy. On the other hand, I had a boss who hated everything I and another employee did and all I could get was, "I'll know what I like when I see it." To my great relief, I was fired after a week.
Load More Replies... My previous boss, dear, I hope he's doing fine. When he was our manager, he was a good guy, standing up for employees and all. I used to admire him, and everybody else liked him too. Then he got promoted to a higher position and became the actual boss. And made everyone walking on eggshells. Throwing around McCarthist accusations, coming up with "it's not fair towards other colleagues" whenever there was something that annoyed him personally (and he was literally annoyed by people breathing), creating a drama out of nothing, treating grown ass adults his age as high schoolers, insisting on rules and going full dictator mode.... Incredibile what stress and sadness can do to an otherwise good man. He left the company and now we have a really good boss. I hope the previous one gets to become happy again, he wasn't really being himself. Literally so.
It's what's mostly the case. People taking on more than they can handle.
Load More Replies... I've certainly encountered most of these and in developing, have also demonstrated some I'm sure. This is a really helpful post and succinct enough to retain interest. Makes a novel change from more bloody posts about funny pets!! Thank you.
Why don't you make a post on a topic you are interested in
Load More Replies... My last job was of 19 years. Last five spent with the kind of boss in the ten. Every one of them he did but couldn't see it. Super truthful post
I had to be guilty of micromanaging -to poor-performance employees. I don't see it that way really, but they did. Well...if they did their job I would not get on them, but I was just verbally reminding them or leaving a sticky saying ro get something done. I did not write them up and I had no firing abilities. Staff who did not need that level of babysitting and hand holding did not get that and it pissed staff off. They did not understand why they had to comply with rules. Rules I did not create, rules the company did not create but had to abide by. Horrible employees. (This is childcare-following a set of licensing rules. Parents paid for curriculum and the staff did not create or implement. One staff refused to clean or let her school-agers clean as she was scared parents would get mad at her for having their children help out. her room was FILTHY. I tried creative solutions, got staff out of the room to do curriculum, etc. They complained to my boss and I look like the bad guy.)
Well, judging by what you're telling that whole environment was toxic. It happens when a culture of being unmotivated becomes the standard and certain people attract others that are like them. If you look at the organisation upper management is probably reinforcing the behavior (by setting up childish rules for instance, which just invoke childish behavior). It can be changed, but that would start with new management. But remember if micromanaging seems necessary, it's the last thing you should do. Start to actually talk to people to find out what is truly bothering them and give them back their responsibilities and challenges to make their ownership grow.
Load More Replies... I had a boss with all of these traids. Learnd to cover my ass and get everything in writing. Never been happier than when I got away from her.
100% agree - can see all these signs within my current workplace!!
A boss can be a leader, but a true leader is a servant first. President Franklin Roosevelt, President Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sun Tzu said, “Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons and they will follow you into the deepest valley.” The way you know you’re a good leader is when you ask your followers how they’re doing, and you actually care about the answer. You take the time to learn about the people that have been placed in your charge, love them, care about them, recognize them, and, when the time calls for it, roll up your sleeves and jump into the task alongside them. You should, to use the battlefield metaphor, be the first in every advance and the last in every retreat. Your goal should be not your own gain, but the gain of others, the gain of those who surround you. You sacrifice as a leader, and only then, are you truly a great leader. When you stop seeking greatness for your own sake, that is when it comes upon you. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.
Dunno where this fits, but had a boss (engineering) that would give me a vague description, then pick away at the results until he got what he wanted: "I need 2 numbers that add up to 4." Me: 2+2. Him: I had something else in mind (!!!). Me: 3+1. Him: Closer, but try again. Me: 4+0. Him: Better, but I was after 0+4. This kind of thing would happen over several days worth of start-over-from-scratch work.
How about bosses who have poor time management and and organizational skills and would rather work 20 hours days because they were trained in the corporate equivalent of a sweat shop and also want to avoid their family (seemingly) so they have no value for your time and no problem with dropping a 3+ hour task in your lap at 4:20 when your day usually ends at 4:30
This is Phoenix st lukes hospital to a tee. All of them. It's like someone went there for a week and created this list
My last manager scored 10/10 on this list and it took such a toll on me professionally and personally
This is a great list which can be used to label your bad boss after the fact. I was hoping for something that could help me spot a bad boss before going to work for him or her.
Search for truly happy staff while waiting for the interview. At least one person should not be too stressed to have a smile for you or a nice chat with a colleague.
Load More Replies... Sounds awfully familiar... like I lived through this for four years.... starting in January 2017....
AP, feel free to use me as a resource. I am willing to listen to you, and I swear upon my life, my honor, and my family, that everything you say will be kept 100% confidential to the fullest extent of my ability. If you ever need someone, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Load More Replies... Never heard of him. Sorry. Is he specific to your country?
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