Tag: bad boss

The Competitive Boss: My Crazy Office Overtime, Season 8

Kathi and Katherine talk about competitive bosses on this week’s My Crazy Office Overtime show.

How do you handle working for a competitive boss?

Listen to this week’s podcast here.

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#14: Skipped For a Promotion – My Crazy Office, Season 7

Kathi and Katherine talk about promotions on this week’s episode of the My Crazy Office podcast.

First we give advice to an employee who puts in labor for a promotion only for it to go to their boss.

Then we discuss what a manager can do if an employee doesn’t get promoted and it’s their fault.

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Best Of: Are You Working For a Narcissist? – My Crazy Office Overtime, Season 7

Kathi and Katherine talk about narcissism on this week’s My Crazy Office Overtime show.

How do you work for a narcissistic boss?

Listen to this week’s podcast here.

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#38: Paranoid Boss – My Crazy Office, Season 6

Kathi and Katherine talk about paranoid bosses on this week’s episode of the My Crazy Office podcast.

First we give advice about how to look for a job without your paranoid boss finding out.

Then we discuss what to do if you discover your employee is job searching.

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#37: Avoidant Bosses – My Crazy Office, Season 6

Kathi and Katherine talk about avoidance on this week’s episode of the My Crazy Office podcast.

First we give advice about how to deal with an avoidant boss.

Then we discuss why managers shouldn’t avoid giving feedback – good or bad.

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The Exploder: My Crazy Office Overtime, Season 4

Kathi and Katherine talk about the workplace exploder on this week’s My Crazy Office Overtime episode.

What are the signs and symptoms of an “exploder?”

How should you deal with an angry boss or coworker that goes from 0 to 100 in a matter of seconds? Listen here.

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What Not To Do When You Have a Bad Boss

  1. Avoid – you will come off as uncommitted and uncooperative
  2. Sulk – others will view your conduct as childish and petty
  3. Wish for the boss’s demise – toxic thoughts take up mental space and psychic energy
  4. Gloat over the boss’s failures – you will look like the lesser person
  5. Bad-Mouth – you will come across as the gossip
  6. Confront – a frontal attack will leave you vulnerable to being misunderstood and attacked back
  7. Retaliate or act out – striking back could hurt your reputation, burn bridges, and even get you fired
  8. Shut Out – giving your boss the silent treatment makes you appear unreasonable

5 Tips For Working with Difficult People

  1. Don’t react in the heat of the moment

    It’s so tempting when dealing with a difficult person to let them have it, but that never works. You know what happens, you end up getting in trouble because you were heard fighting with a co-worker. So, take a few minutes or even a day to cool off, exercise, do some deep breathing, put the issue in perspective before you say anything.

  2. When speaking to a difficult person address the facts, not their personality

    Once you get personal with a difficult person you are in for a battle. For example, if a difficult co-worker does not deliver their report to you when it’s due. Never say “you always deliver your work late, you are such a problem” instead say, ‘I may have misunderstood something, but I expected that report yesterday, when can I expect it?”

  3. Set clear boundaries with this person and then reinforce those boundaries as needed

    A difficult person has a tendency to not respect boundaries, whether it’s your personal space, being late, or simply not having manners. Whatever it is, if you do not set boundaries they will not set them for themselves. For example, if a work with someone who arrives 15 minutes late to every meeting with you, instead of being mad you can say “ I have limited time to meet with you and it’s important that our meetings start on time, so the next time you are more then 10 minutes late I would like to reschedule” I promise this works for a while then you may have to say it again.

  4. Don’t take their behavior personally

    I know this is easier said then done. But, you have no reason to take this persons behavior personally, because they treat everyone this way. They treated people before you arrived like this and they will treat people after you are long gone this way, IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU.

  5. Learn to detach

    Detaching is when you understand that you cannot change this person. Understanding this should give you great relief. How they behave is not your responsibility.