Tips To Deal With A Bad Boss

Life becomes happier if you get a good boss in your office. But life just happens and at times you may land-up working under vexing boss and struggling to meet expectations of problematic personalities he possesses. In such a scenario trying to manage your boss makes sense and calls for making conscious attempts towards the same. Dealing with it is not a ‘rocket science but a ‘delicate art’, and one which you can learn as well. If you imbibe below mentioned tips in your approach, you will be able to manage it well with much ease. 

1)    Don’t do what your boss dislikes

Preventing yourself from doing what your boss dislikes is a powerful tool to avert emergence of his fury towards you. Nishith Prakash, Data Analyst in a Software company aptly tells “My boss hates any report made in ‘Arial font’, list of any kind shown to him without a ‘serial number’, use of ‘yellow colour’ in review presentations and email without a ‘proper subject’. I always take care of these ‘simple’ and ‘doable’ things and ensure that he doesn’t harbour irritation atleast for these reasons.”. Likewise, there are variety of other things that your boss may dislike. Discover the same and try to avoid doing such things. Research says that by doing so we stop preferential activation of amygdala in the mind of people we are dealing with (here your boss) and preclude flaring up of aggression. However, ensure that you don’t do just ‘anything’ or ‘everything’ for this sake. Do it only if it’s simple, doable and within social and professional norms as mentioned in the case of Mr. Nishith.

2)    Don’t criticize your boss in public

Irrespective of the type of boss you have, never criticize him in public. If people criticize him, beware not to nod your head in acceptance. Discipline yourself to remain away from criticism, grapevine and backbiting happening in the company about your boss. Train your brain to turn deaf ear towards such things. Let people around you feel that you have no issue with your boss and are happy working with him. Also, don’t miss any opportunity to praise your boss in public whenever he deserves the same. Be liberal in appreciating whatever little support he provided you to meet your objectives. If you continue doing so, your feelings for him will definitely and repeatedly reach his ears through his confidants and other personal sources of information in the office. In such a scenario, his mind will subconsciously register positive behaviour towards you and propel him to follow the suit. Ultimately it will enrich your boss-subordinate relationship.

3)    Don’t let your boss do your job

Nalin Kumar, VP Finance of a leading Manufacturing company tells “I spend hours in making numerous corrections in MIS data sent by my executive. As given data is presented to the board, it has to be 100% accurate and I have to own it up”. Likewise,Amrendra Kumar, CPO of a digital marketing company states “Recently org announcement of our CMO was released with grammatical error and wrong credentials. The same was made by my subordinate and trusting him I released the same. Now I need to own it up. Post that I decided to minutely check all communication prepared by my team for its release to the mass.” You can imagine the level of frustration these bosses. They are not paid for doing your job. Hence if your boss assigns you a task, do it with utmost precision and wholeness. Go the extra mile and put your heart soul in it so that it gets completed exactly as per ask and on time. This will preclude your boss from getting irritated on doing ‘your task’ and cultivate positive bonding with you.

4)    Don’t try to transform your boss

Behavioural scientists opine that it’s real tough to change human traits hidden beneath the iceberg. Hence thinking of transforming habits, personal preferences, style, attitude and thought process of your boss is living in fallacy. Rather than attempting to change your boss, invest time and energy in effectively dealing with him within given limitations. Understand his preferred workstyle, blind spots, pressures, issues and strengths and weaknesses. Direct your action in tune with the same. Discover what propels your boss to give recognition to efforts put in by his subordinates. It’s more productive approach to build on strength than endeavour to be a reformer. However, while doing so always keep the aim of meeting the very objective of completing the assigned task within defined personal and professional boundaries.

5)    Be wise about your battle

Don’t argue with your boss on trivial issues. Ignore things that don’t matter much and be astute in selecting the ones to confront. Before you plan to confront, ascertain that the given issue is urgent and critical and needs immediate attention. Also, ensure that you yourself have understood the subject in details and have all the facts and figures related to it on your fingertips. While putting your points before your boss be clear and honest on what you believe, share your own perspective on the matter, give examples to corroborate facts and view-points presented by you. Don’t give vague statements. In short, support your argument with concrete logic and data. Handle the conversation with utmost grace and tact. Always keep some viable solution or alternatives to the issue handy. Articulate how the issue is serious and in what way is it impacting your work and the system as a whole. Don’t encounter with an aim to win anyhow but to enable your boss to look into the issue with a different perspective. If these efforts don’t produce any result, at times it’s better to let it go and move on with a satisfaction that you did your level best.

6)    Become a trouble shooter for your boss

Problems are critical element of everyone’s work life and your boss is not an exception. Your boss’s problems may range from planning outbound training within constraint budget, immediate demand of making presentation for unplanned management review meeting, preparing a data when his data analyst decided to go on unintimated leave, to meeting targets and pressure of profitability. In such cases put down your harsh feelings for a while and move ahead with positive mindset to collaborate with him in getting the needed solution. Before approaching him, you should do concrete homework on understanding all aspects of the issue so that you are able to effectively connect the dots and map-out a plan of action for its remedy. While discussing on the issue, showcase that you have mastery over the subject and are competent to handle it effectively. Such support provided to your boss in the need of the hour will remain emotionally lasting in his heart and brain and will prove to be a great enabler of your relationship building with him. 

7)    Keep your boss informed 

Don’t assume that your boss knows what you are doing and wait till annual review to showcase your achievements. Keep informing your boss about the tasks you completed and efforts and innovative approach you put in completion of the same. Make sure that he knows the status of each of your major projects, special achievements and the way you manage your stakeholders to meet assigned objectives. Vimal Vibhakar, Finance Executive in a leading financial services company states “Before leaving for the day, I ensure to update my boss through text messages about major tasks done by me during the day”. Likewise, Shashi Ranjan, HR Executive responsible for employee engagement in a software company never forgets to WhatsApp his boss snaps and brief writeup of even the smallest of employee engagement activities conducted by him. If your boss is aware of your efforts and contributions in achievement of department’s goals, his approach towards you will be positive and will not bother you much.

8)    Deliver results 

Above all the most important tool is to keep focussing on delivery of results. Remember all bosses be it narcissist, micromanager, toxic or unreasonable, care for one thing – and that is – result. Hence the best way to deal is to work relentlessly towards meeting assigned objectives. If you work with perfection, meet timelines and maintain good conduct, your boss will not get a chance to be against you. Further try to bring creativity and innovation in your job. This will result in reduction in cost and cycle time and increase in customer satisfaction and profitability for the organization. With this your boss will not have a scope to point finger at you atleast on ground of deliverables. Rather your continuous outstanding works may renew your relationship with your boss.  

9)    Build your network

A strong support network is critical when all above tips show little signs of improvement. Surround yourself with colleagues, seniors and subordinates who recognize your hard work and pad words of encouragement on your back. Establish good connect with them by being courteous, nice and helpful and showcasing your outstanding contributions for the organization. Take their support to establish your identity in the organization. When your boss is busy in finding your faults, let them appreciate your good work, conduct and behaviour infront of one and all. When you are fenced with positive environment, criticism of your boss will lose its relevance. Also, it will reduce the chances of your boss being unreasonable to you. Further good friends and supporters at work will enable you to reduce your level of stress. Here remember to build your network without telling anyone anything against your boss.

10) Don’t quit 

At times above steps may not produce desired results, but it will definitely act as a survival technique. Hence don’t quit. Think of your long-term goals, way beyond this job, and how this position will enable you to meet the same. Also, the more you deal with tough and vexing bosses, the more you develop your competency to manage tough situations coming in your life. This very competency will be of great use once you move up on the ladder of hierarchy. Hence focus on your job, learn whatever best you can learn out of your current job and continue till you feel your learnings are over and it’s time to move on. If you realise that maddening behaviour of your boss is affecting your mental health, opt for meditation and other relaxation techniques. Quitting the job means accepting defeat and remaining in the job connotes winning and moving ahead in your life.