At one time or another, we’ve all likely had a bad boss. And while that connotation can include bosses who intimidate employees and play favorites, those who aren’t qualified to lead, and even those who inflict emotional and physical abuse, there are several steps you can take to insure your bad boss doesn’t jeopardize your good career.
First, analyze how your bad boss acts with everyone in the workplace. You may find that your boss is bad to everybody, not just you and, if so, don’t take it personally. Keeping your head down and making sure your boss’s actions and attitude don’t affect your performance is a key technique that plenty of people, from athletes to architects, use to survive on the job.
From there, analyze how your bad boss manages. If he or she is a micro-manager, learn to get ahead and provide information and updates well before it would be required or requested. It may take a lot of work initially, but it can save your sanity and improve your productivity. If your bad boss barely manages, do everything you can to make sure your contribution stands out from your supervisor’s shadow.
Next, analyze the effectiveness of your bad boss. If he or she isn’t achieving what they were hired to do, make sure you keep records at home of your contributions and the challenges you’ve conquered. And, if you haven’t done so already, start your search for a new job pronto!
Finally, analyze his or her ethics. If your boss takes credit for your ideas or accomplishments, maintain your own records at home for use when you create your new résumé. If your bad boss is breaking or bending laws or even violating company policy, and your previous analyses listed above have provided negatives at every turn, then it’s definitely time to update your résumé, brush up your interview skills and jump ship. If it gets to that point, you may be leaving a sinking ship to the rats, but in the long run, your career will still be afloat!
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