WAYS IN DEALING WITH A DIFFICULT BOSS

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In a perfect world, we would all have fantastic bosses who assisted us to succeed, who made us feel valued, and who were just all-around great people. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. But, whether the person you work for is a micromanager, has anger management problems, shows favouritism toward one person, is a flat-out workplace bully, or just isn’t very competent, you still have to make the best of the situation and get your job done. To help out, we’ve gathered the best advice  for dealing with a bad boss:

Don’t Let it Affect Your Work

No matter how bad your boss’ behaviour, avoid letting it affect your work. You want to stay on good terms with other leaders in the company and you also want to keep your job.  Don’t try to even the score by working slower, or taking excessive ‘mental health’ days or longer lunches. It will only put you further behind in your workload and build a case for your boss to fire you.

Stay One Step Ahead

Especially when you’re dealing with a micromanager, head off your boss’ requests by anticipating them and getting things done before they come to you. A great start to halting micromanagement in its tracks is to anticipate the tasks that your manager expects and get them done well ahead of time.

Set Boundaries

Working with someone who seems to have no boundaries means that you have to go ahead and set them. One of the challenges of unlikable people is that they come with equally unlikable behaviour and it’s important to learn how to distance yourself from that behaviour.

Stop Assuming They Know Everything

Just because someone has a managerial title doesn’t mean that they have all the right answers, all the time. Just because someone is in a position of authority, doesn’t mean he or she knows everything.

Identify Triggers

If your boss has anger management problems, identify what triggers his/her meltdowns and be extra militant about avoiding those. For example, if your editor flips when you misspell a source’s name, be sure to double and triple-check your notes.