5 WAYS TO DEAL WITH A RUDE BOSS
Credits: Farah Siddique
Bosses must effectively manage, lead and inspire employees. Good managers bring tangible benefits to a company, including the ability to motivate employees and align them with the company's vision. Bosses who fail to effectively manage employees may create an environment susceptible to conflict and unsatisfied workers. Disrespect and condescension are at the top of the list of attitudes that make a work environment feel hostile. It’s bad enough to feel like your colleagues don’t take you seriously, but that feeling can be amplified many times over when your superior is the one being rude. Here are five ways to move forward and with calm and professionalism:
Make sure you are dealing with a “Bad Boss”
Observe your boss for a few days and try to notice how many things she does well versus poorly. When she is doing something “bad,” try to imagine the most forgiving reason why it could have occurred. Is it truly her fault, or could it be something out of her control?”. bad boss is a big problem, and not easily fixed. In fact, front-line leaders are the primary drivers of employee engagement (or lack thereof) and apparently there are a lot more of them out there than we realize.
Identify Your Boss’s Motivation
Understanding why your boss does or cares about certain things can give you insight into his or her management style. If the rules are totally out of control, try to figure out your boss’ motivation. Maybe it’s not that he really cares about how long your lunch break takes; he actually cares about how it looks to other employees and their superiors.”
Don’t Let It Affect Your Work
No matter how bad your boss’s behavior, avoid letting it affect your work. You want to stay on good terms with other leaders in the company. 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 built a case for your boss to blame you and be ruder to 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. If you reply, ‘I actually already left a draft of the schedule on your desk for your review,’ enough times, you’ll minimize the need for their reminders. She’ll realize that you have your responsibilities on track and that she doesn’t need to watch your every move.”
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 behavior and it’s important to learn how to distance yourself from that behavior. As Robert Frost said, ‘Good fences makegood neighbors.
Are they leaders who create an environment where people are inspired and supported to work hard, or do they incite fear about what will happen if people don't? It’s you who needs to decide that you want to come out of the situation or stick to it for the sake of the job. If you wish to remove yourself, do so with no hesitation.