Dealing With A Bad Boss- The 4 Types That Make You Want To Quit

Jun 11, 2018

Bosses, in general, are the center of the working universe in a daily work environment. They set and sustain the level of morale and the type of aura that envelopes and office environment. According to an article published in U.S. News, a boss’s words carry the greatest weight and can make or break any one employee from one day to the next, destroying morale in an instant and making everyone head for the employee exit. There are several types of bad bosses that prompt this type of response from workers: 

Playing it safe seems to have become the name of the game for many people in management positions. They defer to the powers that be when they should be defending their employees all for the sheer sake of self-preservation. They are veritable marionettes whose strings are wildly moving to the manipulation of the CEO or a board of trustees that says be loyal to us or else. This exudes an utter lack of integrity on the part of this type of boss and leads to any employee who is under their management to lose interest in their job performance very quickly. 

The person may even love their job, but they hate their boss even more. According to a report in U.S. News, there are even some companies that will hire individuals into management positions on the basis of knowing they can manipulate them to do whatever they want. Ultimately, this type of boss loses all respect from their employees and never had respect from the CEO or board in the first place. 

There always seems to be that one person who began their career at a company at the virtual bottom of the ladder, made it to the top of the employee heap into upper management, and immediately forgets where they started. They have a King Kong mentality that says to everyone that they are the king of the pack and spend most of their time reminding everyone of it. They even go as far as to make very specific distinctions between management and everyone else when it comes time to designate duties and give orders. This is someone who is a major chore to work for and don’t usually get the best work out of their employees because they don’t remember the adage that the leaders who are the most productive are the ones that show everyone that they respect each individual and make them feel they are as important as they are to the company and to them. 

As Jennifer Borba von Stauffenberg, the CEO and founder of Olive PR Solutions, says “Leaders run with their team and empower them. They share a vision and strong values where everyone works together and excels.” 

Once some people are made managers, they start to believe that they are so good at what they do and that the powers that be agree with them, that they even feel they are the only cog that turns the wheel at the company. They even equate themselves with the actual owners of the business and act like they are making decisions on their behalf or that they are them. This shows in actions such as making decisions without consulting others, not considering other employee feedback, or running with someone’s idea on their own and then when it works, taking the credit. When someone tries to be the smartest person at the cost of ignoring all others and their wealth of knowledge, then employees that work under this type of boss who thinks they are Superman tend to want to make that boss look bad and try all means necessary to make them fail as opposed to helping the team to succeed. 

According to Terri Hockett, the CEO for the career website What’s for Work?, “ some bosses believe that they are entitled to own everything their team produces …and they will showcase something positive as their own even if another employee did the work.” 
What they don’t realize is that they will gain a world of respect from their employees if they show their lack of knowledge about something and defer to a team member that knows more about something. Employees respect that type of vulnerability and will work harder for someone who shows it. 

This is a manager that employees have come to realize is void of caring about anything besides boosting the company’s bottom line. They don’t care if you have kids at home waiting for you; they will still insist that your job requires that you stay hours after you were supposed to go home to finish that all-important project that isn’t even due until next week. They act like a taskmaster and constantly berate employees into feeling guilty about what they think is not that person’s best efforts at their job simply because they want to have a life outside of their job. They are also the bosses that watch your every move and micro-manage you into submission and relentless anxiety about every move you make at work, leading to demoralization and destroying your passion for the job any amount of creative juices you had for your work. 

Tina Fox, a regional manager at a large consulting firm, describes what it was like working under this type of manager and says she literally “winced” each morning before she walked into work knowing that boss was there, “Whenever someone would come in a few minutes late, she would…go up to them in the middle of the floor and say, ‘Why are you late? Her demeanor was to manage them like middle-school students." 

The robotic nature of this type of boss is manifested in a lack of empathy that if shown, would turn morale around and boost performance dramatically.

Many employees work daily under these types of bad bosses. If you are a person that endures any of these types of managers, your comments about how you deal with this type of behavior and still remain in your job are important to others so let us know and pass this on so that your friends and loved ones know they are not alone in their struggles.