This month marks my 40th year in the American workforce. Over the course of those four decades, I have experienced good bosses, bad bosses and bosses in serious need of therapy. I have also been a boss, served as my own boss and witnessed many bosses in action. I am sad to report that, in my own experience, a little less than half of these bosses, have been simply terrible. It has always amazed me, that with so many courses and options available to them, they remained bad bosses; impervious to change and the clamor of their employees to improve. While suffering through their reign, I have noted the five worst traits that make for a terrible or bad boss. I could have expanded the list, but these five behaviors define what I have found to be the worst things that any boss can impose on his or her people. Any more would just be depressing.
1. Fear and intimidation Many of my worst bosses loved to use fear an intimidation to “keep their troops in line.” This fear was directed at everyone and almost always included public humiliation whenever possible. Many “closed-door” meetings occurred and everyone came to dread the words, “Come into my office.” These sessions would last for hours, without break, and included yelling screaming and ultimately the boss turning red from anger. Many employees were reduced to tears and almost all of us left after a short period of time. These bosses seemed to enjoy their “iron rule” and talked openly about how tough they were. Pictures of Rugby and Football players adorned their walls and almost always, their hero was either Attila the Hun or Vince Lombardi. As we all learned, and these bad bosses never did; fear is a short-term motivator and after a while, we all just tuned these raging bulls out, ignored them and laughed at them behind their back for their tactics. Fear never works successfully in the long run.
2. Death By Meetings– This tactic is used most frequently by bosses who are afraid to make a decision. I had one really bad boss who would hold meetings three times a week where he literally placed his in-box in the middle of the meeting room, pulled up a chair and went through everything in it, with all of us, paper by paper, memo by memo, ignoring the obvious fact that 90% of what was in his inbox had absolutely nothing to do with any of us. My personal record for longest meeting ever was set by this clown, who once led us through 10 hours reviewing his inbox. Other bad bosses have called meetings for one hour and then let them run for over four hours, while everyone in attendance simply wished these meetings would end. The happiest days of our lives was when we learned that the meeting was cancelled or postponed. We could not plan anything else after these meetings for these “one hour meetings”, since attendance was required and we never knew when they would end. The worst bosses casually set meetings to plan meetings and would then schedule additional meetings to review the past meeting and set yet additional needless meetings. These terrible bosses were either lonely or simply incapable of making a decision on their own. All I know is that we had zero productivity in these groups and we all found ways to be sick or out of the office for as many of these meetings that we could possibly avoid.
3. The Gossip- Many really bad bosses love to talk about their people, their bosses, other departments, rumors, possible changes and just about anything that shows they are an “insider.” Fortunately, many recent laws have restricted some of the worst gossiping, but these bad bosses continues to just talk and talk. They tell their people who is up for promotion, the latest news about the President and the latest rumors about the impending “reorganization.” Since their manager knows they are a gossip; real and honest information is never given to them and they are often wrong because of this. The worst bosses in this category also talk about the personal lives of their employees to other employees; providing information that was told in confidence and undermining any remaining respect you had for them. As a result, you tell them nothing and these bad bosses begin to make up even more bizarre stories to satisfy their egos. Not one of these bad bosses ever believed they were a gossip and were ultimately surprised when that “certain” promotion never came their way.
4. The Micro-Manager- These bad bosses may as well not have a team or group of employees. Everything you did had to “run through the boss.” No decision, not even the purchase of a paper clip,could be made without his knowledge or approval. Memos and emails were criticized and always had to be in draft form before they could be sent. Project plans were reviewed, revised, revised again and endlessly updated; often without ever being implemented. In every case, these terrible bosses would lament that no one on the team ever made a decision or that only he could do the job and get it right. He was always the first in the office and the last to leave. Employees were afraid to leave before he did, since he sat by the door and wrote down the time when you left. 14 hour days were the norm and these bad bosses lost spouses, significant others, friends and ultimately, all of their employees; all the while lamenting that no one ever cared about the job as much as he did.
5. The Seagull Manager- The definition for this type of bad boss is perfect, “They swoop into your area, drop their business on you and then fly away.” Some of my worst bosses were exactly like a seagull. We would never see her until just before the important meeting or project was due. She would jet into town,make impossible demands, promise the client impossible results, shorten our time frames, take up our valuable time with his meetings and then fly out-of-town; never to be heard from until the next important deadline came due. Deals were lost, customers were incensed, hours were lost and projects derailed, by this ineffectual ego-maniac who just had to show everyone that she was in charge. We all learned, that just like seagulls, you cannot feed one without a whole flock of them showing up. Our tactics were to keep her out of the loop,” never praise or encourage her for her “insights” and always try to be out of the office when we knew she was arriving. Unfortunately, our efforts did not always work and we were constantly faced with apologizing to the customer, redoing perfectly good work and laboring deep into the night to correct the problems she created with her short, yet damaging, foray into our territory.
So how do you deal with these bad bosses? Unfortunately, and contrary to many articles telling you how to deal with these nightmare bosses; I have personally found only two solutions. You can either leave them or wait until they leave you; which happened to me in all but one case. These bosses have to want to change, and like Robert Mager, the founding father of Adult Learning Theory has often stated, “They really have to want to change.” My experience has taught me that not one of these nightmare bosses ever wanted to change and have not changed to this day. The good news, however, is that these bad bosses are almost always discovered and either terminated or moved to a position where they no longer manage anyone. All but one of my past bad bosses have completely left the workforce and are now “consultants.” Unfortunately, it often takes a long time to be discovered and hundreds of other people suffer as a result.
Your other option is to leave the boss by either an internal promotion, lateral move, or change of office location. You can also choose to leave the company entirely, hoping that your new boss will not be one of the monsters listed above. Remember, my experience taught me that you have a 50% chance of working for one of these bad bosses. I also became my own boss twice and totally eliminated the problem as a result. The choice is yours, but remember, given time, a solution will always present itself. Work hard and be prepared to jump at that opportunity when it comes your way. These bad bosses will never change, but you can change your circumstances….and you must.