Toxic Bosses

Have you ever had a boss that gives you a headache and a stomach ache all at the same time? The recent movie “Horrible Bosses” starring Jennifer Aniston, Jason Batement, Kevin Spacey came out just in time. It is gut wrenchingly funny and very timely in today’s competitive work environment. But what happens when you actually have a bad boss in real life and you can’t kill him/her as proposed in the movie? Going to work can start to make you physically and emotionally sick.

Toxic Bosses start to render you;

Powerless

Vulnerable

Depleted

How do I know all this? I worked for one for eleven years. Let’s first define what a bad boss is.

The Control Freak- This is the guy that is unable to delegate responsibility and unable to hold you accountable or treat you like an adult because he/she cannot let go. They go through your desk, tape your telephone calls, invade your personal space and generally have to be in control of everything. Does this one sound familiar?

The “I know everything guy/girl” and “I am so much smarter then you guy/girl”- Usually this is the guy/girl that didn’t finish college or did but just is insecure with his/her abilities. Their insecurity leads them Dailey. They are unable to rely on the abilities of their professional staff to work for them and must interject how much knowledge they have. They are deal killers if you are in sales. Don’t let these guys/girls anywhere near your client, customer or prospect as they are not closers like you are. Meet your potential deal at Starbucks if you have to, but don’t let the boss anywhere near them.

Hire the wrong people and keep inadequate staff too long- Often a manager can make a bad hiring decision. It happens all the time and is nothing to be embarrassed about. But when a new employee isn’t performing, isn’t showing up to work on time, isn’t pulling their own weight on a team, and is breaking rules and getting away with the rule breaking it has to be squelched. A manager must take responsibility to remedy the mistake. Often times a bad manager will make excuses hide their heads in the sand and not take responsibility for the mistake.

Bad bosses that linger are bad for the moral of the office, bad for productivity, bad for making money and seriously detrimental to the company as a whole. Unfortunately, most of these bad bosses don’t acknowledge that their behaviors or actions or wrong and no one ever calls them to the mat on it so as a result the problems are just quietly swept under the rug. Client surveys should be done frequently to let customers make comments on the leader of an office. After all the ultimate goal of any corporation is to have happy and repeat customers.


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