Posted by denised in 
Every day I get emails or comments from people suffering under the burden of a really bad boss. I feel the frustration and powerlessness in their words and it breaks my heart. If you’ve never had a really bad boss, your tendency might be to downplay their concerns, but as someone who’s been in the exact same position as most of my readers, I know all too well what they’re feeling.
A reader from Australia commented yesterday about an employer who’s gaining a reputation as a company who mistreats its employees, and has the high turnover rate to prove it. She talked specifically about a director who took “great pleasure in bullying her employees.” Reading her comment dredged up old feelings of anger and sadness I felt in the days when I worked for people just like that. It’s a lonely, oppressive feeling. You want desperately to get out, but the reality of needing your job outweighs everything else.
My really bad bosses have run the gamut from domineering men who were sexist, verbally abusive and just plain old offensive, to women, much like the one my reader alluded to, who ran their offices like a boarding house, bullying everyone just to make them feel better about themselves. But regardless of the type of boss, or their gender, the resulting outcome was the same; an office of demoralized, demeaned individuals, desperate to get out. And maybe the most disheartening part of having a really bad boss, is the eventual realization that neither Human Resources or upper management is coming to the rescue.
As a really bad boss “survivor”, I’d encourage those of you currently dealing with one to hang in there. If your situation is anything like mine was, leaving right now might not be an option. I’ve always said, you can’t always change the way people treat you, but you can change the way you react to them. The justifiable anger and frustration you’re feeling, is only eating you up. Trust me, your tool of a boss is sleeping like a baby and not spending one second of his self important life worrying about you. The fact of the matter is, worrying about the worse case scenario never prevented it from happening. But preparing for it can.
If you’re someone who’s gotten out from under a really bad boss, share your experiences and lessons learned in the comment section. You never know how many people you might be helping.
