WHAT A NASTY BOSS

what you can do

Bosses. I've had many. One was fun, another quite brilliant, and the third I always call ‘the jerk’. That was a woman by the way, which made jerk sound even funnier, I think. The question “Do you feel like a nice coffee?” was the smartest and most fun thing I ever heard her say. Furthermore, mostly this kind of text came out of her painted lips.

Another ‘manager’ took immense pleasure in making us work on a project for weeks without bothering to understand what we were doing, only to then change everything at the very last moment. His deadly conclusion was: “It's all so simple, guys. It's all so simple.”

‘Sick leave due to a nasty boss costs the United States 20 billion dollars a year. Every year.’

Leadership can do strange things to people. And the tricky part is that it's hard to complain about a supervisor. Your boss's boss will probably take their side rather than yours. There's a good chance he hired that person and keeps them safe just for that reason. Moreover, your direct boss regularly consults with the person above them and manipulation won't be foreign to them, which likely puts you 2-0 behind.

Still, it's important to tackle nasty bosses. Because nasty bosses lead to nasty employees, as American research shows. And nasty bosses cost money, a lot of money. Sick leave due to a nasty boss costs the United States 20 billion dollars a year. Every year.

And when employees are not sick, they will at least work less hard. And less well. So be careful not to become a victim of a nasty boss.

You recognize them by:

You see that they disdain the staff.

An unhealthy sense of self-aggrandizement. Jeffrey Skilling, you know, the CEO of the now-bankrupt Enron, proclaimed in every interview how ‘fucking brilliant’ he was.

He or she is unhealthily arrogant. Did you know that they don't hire people at Google who show arrogance?

He or she loves one-way communication, is really not waiting for your feedback, and certainly won't occasionally give you a pat on the back or a shoulder to lean on.

He or she always assumes the worst in you, not the best.

Do you recognize this? I would say: pack your bags and run. You deserve a nicer boss, they do exist.