The Many Species Of Horrible Bosses

Bosses.

Most of us have them. Some of us are them. Some are at the same time both bosses to their subordinates (read underlings) and are subordinates themselves (read middle management) to their bosses. Some (read the poorest damned bastards of all) reports to more than one boss at any given time.

They come with different names. CEOs, CFOs, Directors, Partners, Senior Managers, Head of Departments, Supervisors; but whatever their title may be, one thing is for sure: This is a select group of people who can make your life at work either a living hell hole, the paradise of Adam and Eve or anywhere in between.

The general belief is that only people of certain leadership caliber will be gain promotion to a position which puts them in charge of other people in an office, and to certain but progressively diminishing degree, this remains true. However, somewhere along the line, when people started rewarding borderline unethical behavior, passive aggressiveness, and Machiavellian office politic maneuvering to forward their own agenda, those with basic human decency started dropping out or was forced out of the corporate rat race, and those who have no qualms about asking about your pet dog Fifi, while concurrently plotting your downfall in his mind, ascended to positions of leadership.

The strange thing is, most of the bosses who are feared and loathed in office due to some flaws in their personalities, are actually quite nice, or at least normal, people out of the office. Men and women who are loved by their family and friends and are held in high regard among their community, suddenly mutates without reason into the worst versions of themselves when they step on the dull stained carpets of their offices.

 

Saying "Thank You": The Lost Art of Graciousness

The simplest example of bosses who could do with a little introspection, are those who sees expressions of gratitude or appreciation for their subordinates' effort as some deformed interpretation of weakness. Why teach pre-school children manners such as saying "please" and "thank you" when their parents are not doing the same in the office? The epidemic of this reluctance to say a simple "thank you" at the end of a meeting or discussion has reach such worrying levels that a boss who does utter these two words are often cited (albeit in hushed tones) as exemplary, when instead this should be the sort of normal behavior one would expect from a leader of an organization.

Rare also is the boss who maintains eye contacts with their employees while in a conversation with the latter. Some bosses attempts to intimidate their staff by not acknowledging the presence of a staff sitting in front of them, all the while giving instructions and not tearing his or her eyes away from the computer monitor.

Ajahn Brahm, a Buddhist monk, said in his book that "the person who is most important to you is the person who is in front of you right now". No matter who the person is, or what station in life is he is compared to you, if you give them the attention and attentiveness that is required, you will gain the respect and admiration of the person that you are currently engaged in. If you allow yourself to be constantly distracted, you will convey the message that he or she is not worth the time spent talking to them.

Which brings us to my next point.

Respect Other People's Time

You make an appointment with them. You wait outside their offices patiently waiting for your allotted time with them. Yet, when the time comes, suddenly something more important than you crops up and you are forced to reschedule.

Another example. You want to make an appointment. He makes you wait. And you wait till midnight, and that's when he says he will see you, and you know you aren't going to leave the office till the first break of dawn.

One more. You are having dinner with your family or friends. Suddenly, your Blackberry vibrates and you can see the dreaded red light blinking. You take your phone out of the casing and read an email from your boss asking you to call him right at this very moment for a very "important" discussion.

A boss may be gracious and humble to the core, but if he does not understand that his subordinates have a life beyond the office walls, and he expects that everyone under his line of management is to be beholden to his Outlook calendar, he has failed as a leader.

While having a good work ethic is instrumental in leading any organization, working late into the night or early mornings is usually an indication of poor time management skills.

 

Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say

Lying and hypocrisy used to be vices which are frowned upon by society. In the modern workplace environment, however, one can observe the rise of such traits amongst those who shove and elbows their way up the corporate ladder.

When one has been reached the pinnacle of their careers by such means, they will resort to such behaviors to remain there. Integrity is just a management buzzword that is spoken but not demonstrated through action. Such a pity. When the subordinates see the upsides such behaviors have on their bosses career, even the most idealistic of employees will raise their hands in defeat, and succumb to either the same behavioral trend, or as mentioned earlier, leave the organization. In the end, a company will be left with a culture not based on integrity, honesty and trust, but one which is toxic and will ultimately harm company a great deal in the long run.

 

Undiagnosed Bipolar Disorder

People who have bosses who are perpetually in a grumpy or foul mood is actually luckier than those who work for a boss with extreme mood swings. Unpredictable with how they might response to any given situation, employees often face extreme stress in having to interact with such bosses.

When a boss can buy donuts for everyone in the office in the morning, and yet scream at half the workforce just because his coffee was weak, right before lunch, you can be certain that there aren't many people who would be queuing up to work for him.

Such a situation will inevitably lead to the staff preferring to avoid the boss, to the detriment of teamwork and collaboration in an organization.

 

No Matter How Unlikely It May Seem, Bosses Are Human Beings Too, Like Us

In spite of the above, it will also serve us well if we remember that our bosses are nonetheless sentient beings with emotions and feelings - and although I have met my fair share of the boss from the deepest pits of Satan's dungeons - not all are hell bent on bringing misery and anguish to our working life.

Sometimes we afford our bosses too much leeway in the way they treat us. We put them on a pedestal surrounded by crocodile infested moats, and we fear them more they deserve to be feared.

Bosses. Most of us have them. Some of us are them. Whichever side of the wall you sit in the office, and whatever title may be engraved on your desk (or pasted on a piece of paper on your cubicle partition), we all end up on the same side of the ground in the end, with the same carvings on a tombstone. So why not be nicer to each other while we still can?