Manage A Bad Boss

Bad supervisors come in a variety of models. For example, there’s the Micromanager who nitpicks about the font size in your e-mails, there’s the Royal Pain who treats you like a personal assistant, there’s the Office Politician who takes credit for all your hard work, and there’s the Lead Grunt who was only promoted because of seniority and shoots down any attempt at change. When you manage a bad boss, it pays to know which model stands before you. No matter what the specific flaws are, bad bosses all have one thing in common: they can’t be ignored. Complying with your supervisor’s abusive behavior or working around incompetent decisions is tantamount to saying that these poor management techniques work on you, and it’s only a matter of time before this affects your health and self-esteem. Here are five tips to help you when you manage a bad boss.

Always keep your cool

No matter how frustrated you get when you have to manage a bad boss, it’s important that you remain calm and composed at all times. Getting angry in front of your employer or your colleagues makes you look like the bad guy, and it may affect your professional reputation. Keep in mind that people usually don’t realize that they’re being bad bosses; a simple, non-confrontational observation is often all that’s needed to make them reconsider their approach. If your supervisor is of the Royal Pain variety, try casually repeating his or her unreasonable request as if to confirm it: “You’d like me to find your daughter a camel for her birthday before six o’clock tonight?”