• When @theconnor tweeted that he’d just been offered a job at Cisco Systems and that he’d hate the job, but love the “fatty” paycheck, someone at Cisco was paying attention. Needless to say, @theconnor never got to see a “fatty” paycheck.

• Who knows what radio host and Mavericks fan Mike Bacsik was thinking when following a Mavericks-Spurs game in which the Mavs lost he tweeted “Congrats to all the dirty mexicans in San Antonio.” Apparently he wasn’t thinking at all.

• When Virgin Airlines employees created a Facebook page criticizing the company and questioning the cleanliness and safety of Virgin’s planes, they were canned. Status updates included things like planes were full of cockroaches and claimed the airline’s jet engines were replaced four times in one year.

• “OMG – I hate my boss!” – Don’t post that on Facebook when your boss is a Facebook friend. I’m not a fan of friending bosses on Facebook or Twitter in the first place, but if you do, do not give them a front row seat into how much you hate them. Read this unfortunate status update and her boss’ reply here.

Read more tweets that got them fired here.

The possible passage of this new law raises several questions. How clearly defined is the line between a bad boss who’s just mean and one who’s a bully? At times I’ve felt that my bad bosses behaved maliciously with the specific intent of causing mental distress.  And while I’d definitely classify one of my former bosses as a bully, the worse thing I could say about most of them is that they were absolute idiots. Mean, rude and incompetent idiots. A few of my colleagues who’d been driven to tears by these same incompetent idiots might beg to differ. In those cases, who decides whether the behavior was bullying or simply just mean?

It’ll be interesting to see what happens if the legislation actually passes. Will it have an impact on bully behavior in the workplace or will it be just one more thing employees, fearful of the repercussions, feel they need to keep quiet about?

Click here to read more about the pending legislation.

What the blogosphere’s saying about bad bosses this week…

• The only good thing I can say about a bad boss is that you can learn an awful lot from them if you’re paying attention. Bad bosses provide a roadmap of exactly what not to do as you’re progressing in your career. And over at TLNT.com, John Hollon tells you why it’s good to learn from a bad boss.

• Janlogie’s Blog shares a few opinions about bad bosses, bad employees and the rights of both.

• Over at the bnet blogs, Suzanne Lucas shares 5 Things to Do When the Boss is Wrong.

• On Work in Progress – Bad Boss Misery, Johni Siegel shares tips on improving and maybe eliminating a bad boss situation.

• Sonja Crider shares her boss from hell story and tells us how she learned to work for a control freak.

In every performance review I’ve ever received the boss had already, in fact, come to conclusions about my performance and any related increase in salary long before I’d ever sat down with them. My opinions and suggestions were rarely taken into place. It now seems that performance reviews in large part, exist to cover the employer from a liability standpoint. With written reviews, they’ve got documentation on file, accurate or not, on issues they’ve discussed with the employee.

What’s your feeling about performance reviews – worthwhile, or a waste of time? Share your thoughts in the comment section. You can read the full interview with Culbert on npr.or.

What the blogosphere’s saying about bosses this week…

Intern horror stories – Monica Lewinksy, Anita Hill, David Letterman’s former intern – what’s her name – all victims of sexual harassment as interns. This week’s installment of Deadspin.com’s intern horror stories is the sexual harassment edition. Check out the anonymous true stories here, and be grateful you’re no longer an intern.

“And the Meek Shall Inherit the Earth. The Incompetent Shall Run it. And ThatsMyBoss.com shall record it.”  That’s how the guys at That’smyboss.com describe their site. Visit, leave your own anonymous comment, read some of the other crap that others have had to deal with and then be grateful we live in America and can boldly (yet fearfully) litter the blogosphere with anonymous bad boss hate mail. Love it!

12 things good bosses believe, and a few things bad bosses know – Robert Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, has written Good Boss, Bad Boss and this 12 things post is a great look at the dynamics of both good and bad bosses.

If you can’t say anything nice… Inc. Magazine talks discusses rudeness in the workplace and how that affects productivity.

Email your blog or post for consideration in the Really Bad Boss Blog Roundup to denised@reallybadboss.com.

The most recent and widely publicized example of a hostile work environment impacting employee concentration is the incident where two Northwest Airlines pilots who overshot their airport by 150 miles while in the midst of a “heated discussion.” The pilots, on their way from San Diego to Minneapolis with 147 passengers on board, were so involved in their argument over airline policy that they lost focus (and their way) until a cabin crew member alerted the flightdeck.

Flin’s study, conducted among college students, repeatedly showed decreased performance levels among those who had been subjected to rude comments or simply overheard rude comments. Reportedly one in ten U.S. workers witness rudeness in the workplace every day and researchers say that 48% of employees who are the targets of rudeness, reduce their work effort. It’s no wonder, rampant rudeness in the workplace, especially at the hands of a bad boss, demoralizes workers. And an unmotivated, unappreciated employee means decreased productivity for both employee and employer.

Read more about Flin’s study here at Inc.com.

How to Manage an Office Bully: Are You a Bully?

Denise Dawson, who runs the ReallyBadBoss.com blog, describes her first boss as “the worst bully,” a cursing and screaming type who preferred to rule by fear.  “We felt like prisoners more than employees,” she says. “Morale was awful. Attrition was atrocious.”
She worked at a small, family-owned company that made bikini wax products. The lowest point came when he asked another employee to model a bikini to give him a better idea of how they could improve their products. “And she wore it,” Dawson says. “None of us said anything. We were all scared of losing our jobs.”

What Dawson witnessed may be extreme, but the fear she described is not unique. Do your employees complain of random sabotage, harassment, humiliation or isolation? There’s a good chance they are being bullied.

OfficeArrow, an online community for office managers and small business owners, created a quiz to see if you are a bully. For those who fear they are in a bully’s bull’s eye, the Workplace Bullying Institute has a checklist of early bullying signs that includes an unreasonably demanding boss, “surprise” meetings designed to humiliate, retaliatory behavior, unfounded accusations of harassment, and extreme work-related stress that interferes with your health and personal life.

Read the complete article, including a definition of workplace bullying, online at Inc.com.

1. Bad mouth your boss to colleagues. It’s one thing to discuss specific tasks your boss has asked you to complete, but it’s another thing entirely to tell everyone in earshot that you think he’s an idiot. For one thing, you never know who you can trust. Some people’s answer to dealing with a bad boss is to turn into the office snoop. Trust no one.

2. Boss bash on social media. Lock your twitter account, guard your friend list with your life or just don’t post any disparaging remarks against your boss while you’re in her employ. The truth is, everything and I mean everything you post on the web can be accessed by someone else – even people you don’t ever want to see it. Leave the bad boss rants to in person meetings with friends you trust.

3. Steal from your employer – The temptation might be great, especially if you’re not being paid very well or you feel you need “hazzard pay” for putting up with a tyrant of a boss, but stealing from your employer is never a good idea. The big ones are easy, like not raiding petty cash or stealing money or products, but if you’re doing other work on the company’s time, photocopying your weekly church bulletin or stocking your home office with your company’s supplies, you’re stealing from your company and it will eventually catch up to you.

4. Bad mouth a former bad boss during an interview – It comes across as sour grapes and leaves your potential employer wondering what you’ll say about him when you get the chance. Instead, talk about what you learned from your former boss (which, if you’re paying attention can be a lot) and how you plan on using what you’ve learned in your new position.

5. Threaten your boss –It might seem as though it goes without saying but we’ve shared stories of bossnapping and slipping bosses drugs before. In both cases, employees ended up arrested and with hefty fines. No bad boss is worth that kind of trouble. If it gets to the point where you’re imagining doing your boss harm, it’s past time to go.

This week I’m featuring a couple of my favorite blogs, plus a link to Really Bad Boss in Inc. Magazine…

• eBossWatch uses an evaluation form to let people anonymously rate their current or former bosses. The site’s founder also runs GreatPlaceJobs a source that helps job seekers find jobs at award-winning great workplaces.

• The Earmark always manages to wrangle up a great list of really bad bosses, mostly of the political kind. Here’s the most recent.

• Workforce Management Today asks the question; Has the employer-employee relationship changed for good? A quote from someone they interviewed for the article pretty much sums it up, “Let them fire me. I don’t even care what happens anymore. I’ll just go work somewhere else and be totally unhappy in that job too.”

• On her blog A Meaningful Existence, Karen shares The top 5 reasons to leave your job – no surprise here, a bad boss is number one. And while this economy might have you staying put for a while, it’s important to note her suggestions, particularly about doing something everyday to move towards finding a better job, and a better boss.

• Over on Inc. online, Raven Hill offers advice on managing bully bosses and guess who was tapped for the piece. Check out the story and Really Bad Boss’ mention here.

Dear Denise,

I report to the Bus. Dev. Manager – a lady with 23 years of experience in her field of expertise and good at her job when she focuses on it.
Why is she the boss from Hell ?
a. She gets angry when she has to do actual WORK because it interrupts her extra-curricular activities – CHURCH & CHARITY. Screaming, shouting are the highlights of the day.
b. All her staff are bullied into supporting her Church Charity Organisation – coerced into buying books, donating money  etc. If we dont, we are ungrateful, stingy, godless creatures.
c. She lies to HR about her activities in the field – urgent meeting with client actually means church meeting to disscuss fund-raising) etc…. you catch my drift.  All employees are required to lie blatanly saying that she has a meeting with important clients.
d. Her entertainment claim for company’s clients is utilised for taking pastor and his family, church board directors for big lunches and dinners, wooing potential contributors for her charitable organisation.
e. Her petrol card provided by the company is used for ferrying various church members to and fro. Collection of donation in kind from existing company’s clients all in the name of charity.
f.  Personal remarks she has made to me – I’m not blessed by God that’s why I dont own a car, cant carry a designer brand handbag, have no husband. Your personal life must be an open book to her.
g. Personal remarks she has made to me – I’m a negative personality that’s why I don’t go to Church. She (Boss) is very blessed and that’s why God has given her a Mercedes.
h. Personal remarks to me and others – If God has blessed you, you have no money problems, you will not be sick etc. Only Christian people are honest and do good work.
i.  Personal remarks to me and others – She is a happy person because God has blessed her for her passion in doing charity work. Because we dont support her charity, we will not be blessed hence no bonus and no increment.
j.  I was never told that handling the paperwork for her Christian Charity org. was in my job scope during the interview. Her pet charity home was launched in 2009. During my recent appraisal, I asked her for an incentive as this was extra work.  Her response was that I was ungrateful, did I not realize this was GOD’s work?, she also threatened me saying that she would fire me, make sure that I would be disciplined by HR for insubordination.
k. Her tirade went on for an hour whereby she stated that she has tried to counsel and instill CHRISTIAN VALUES in her staff but I’m ungrateful, extremely cold person and resistant to change and need to be taught a lesson.
l.  Her statement “anyone who goes against me will end up badly.” By the way HR Manager is deadly afraid of her because my boss is on very good terms with the CEO of the company. All complaints, protests by me and other employees to HR have been squashed. Instead, HR liberally issues disciplinary action letters upon request by my boss for our department.

Suffice to say this is the last straw for me – after 3 years of enduring her personal remarks and abuse; I am actively seeking a position elsewhere. In my department when my boss joined in 2007, there were 7 of us. Now only my boss and I remain in this department. I tolerated and swallowed this abuse for years. Nobody deserves this sort of treament.

A Victim

Sounds like ‘A Victim’ works for a real lunatic. I hope her job search goes well and she’s able to get away from this woman as soon as possible. I wonder if the lunatics pastor knows she’s stealing time and resources from her company to care for the church? Something tells me he/she’s got to have some idea about what’s going on. And if so, they’re just as bad as she is.

Send your bad boss story to denised@reallybadboss.com.

9. Are you married? What’s your religion? What are you anyway? I touched on illegal questions last week in sign#2 when I talked about the interviewer who, without asking outright, was fishing around to find out whether I had kids or not. In the case where an interviewer comes right out and asks illegal questions, run, don’t walk to the nearest exit. Any interviewer worth their weight knows that certain questions are off limits. If they’re asking you these questions, they either are trying to intimidate you, or have a hard time hiding their biases. Either way, it’s not a place you want to work. Some examples of illegal interview questions include:

• Do you have a visual, speech, or hearing disability?
• Are you planning to have a family? When?
• Have you ever filed a workers’ compensation claim?
• How many days of work did you miss last year due to illness?
• Would you have a problem working with a female partner?
• Do you have children? How old are they?
• What year did you graduate from high school? (reveals age)

For a list of additional illegal interview questions, click here.

10. The final sign you might end up with a bad boss isn’t based on research or scientific fact, it boils down to following your instinct. If you sit through the entire interview with the feeling that something isn’t right, then you’re probably right. Be careful not to confuse that instinct with nerves, but if you don’t have a good feeling about an interview, it might be a sign that you shouldn’t take the job. I’ve ignored that instinct several times in the past and regretted it each time. You never know, your gut might be telling you to let this one go because there’s an even a better one waiting in the wings.

If you’ve got some suggestions for things to watch out for during an interview, share them in the comment section or email them to denised@reallybadboss.com.

The ruling came in the case of The City of Ontario v. Quon. Sergeant Jeff Quon sued the city, the police chief and the police department in 2004 claiming his supervisor’s search of his text messages violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Quon had been using his government issued pager to send sexually explicit messages. When Quon went over his allotted 25,000 character limit per month, his supervisor reviewed his pager use to determine whether the limit was enough for official purposes. That’s when Quon’s sexually explicit messages to his wife at the time, and his mistress were discovered.

Quon sued claiming that the city didn’t have a text-message policy in place when the pagers were issued. The city did have official policies about computer, Internet and email use that limited the use to official purposes.

While I typically come down on the side of the employee in many matters, I can’t side with Quon on this one. If Quon had been using his personal pager/cell phone to send messages, that would be a different story, but I think any adult who’s spent any time in the workforce should know that employers typically monitor the use of any equipment they’ve issued, whether that’s a laptop, cell phone or pager. And, while I might get a lot of heat for this, I think that it’s within their right to do so – particularly if there are limits on the amount and type of usage they allow. As an individual, if you want to send sexy text messages until the cows come home, by all means do so, but do it on your own phone, on your own service plan where your expectation of privacy is legitimate. Read the full story on Quon and the court ruling here.

Do you agree with the court ruling? How do you feel about privacy issues in the workplace? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

There are some bosses who never, ever admit when they’ve made a mistake – Even when faced with indisputable evidence that they’ve messed up royally, a really bad boss will go to his grave before admitting to making a mistake. It’s one of the worst and most common mistakes bad bosses make. Why? Many bosses feel as though admitting to a mistake reduces their credibility and thereby their ability to manage effectively. In fact, the opposite is often the case. A boss’ ability to admit to making a mistake says to his employees, “I’m not perfect, I know I’m not perfect, and now I’m going to show you how someone who’s really in control handles a crisis.”

Pretending you’re infallible, even as everyone around you recognizes there’s a problem, says “I’m unstable and probably shouldn’t be trusted to lead.” I once had a boss who made a serious error in calculating some figures. When confronted with her mistake, rather than admit to it, she tried to explain that she’d used a different method for calculating her figures.  Not different information or data, a different method for adding and subtracting.  Ridiculous, but true.  Other than arithmetic, I was, and still am unaware of any other method for adding and subtracting numbers.  We never looked at her quite the same again, referring to her as the manager who rather than admitting a mistake, created her own private system of mathematics.

After a couple of hours, my knowledgeable friend restored my site to its former glory. The fact that you’re reading my mea culpa today means that fortunately for me, fatal errors in the blogosphere aren’t terminal, and neither are my mistakes. Bosses, do us all a favor – admit when you’ve made a mistake. It’s the only way to begin the process of fixing what went wrong in the first place.

What the blogosphere’s saying about bosses this week…

• “In the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue.” I couldn’t agree more. On the site flameofhope.net, a guest post by Dr. Zimmerman falls in line with what we’ve been saying all along, bad bosses are bad for business. Check out Zimmerman’s insights here.

• Call center staff in Britain say their bad bosses are treating them like caged animals – battery hens to be exact. The Mirror’s report found that some staff were allowed only eight minutes for bathroom breaks during an eight-hour shift. Read the whole story here.

• I called it. Remember Debrahlee Lorenzana, the woman who was way too sexy and distracting to keep her job with Citibank. I smelled a reality star wannabe and it’s begun! The Frisky’s reporting that Ms. Lorenzana is now starring in a promotional video for Long Island Plastic Surgical Group in which she touts her second breast augmentation surgery and says she wants to be “tits on a stick.” Wonderful – she’s just set sexual harassment causes back a decade. Read the full story here.

• Over at the Worcester Business Journal, the article Boss Management 101 offers advice on ways to make working with a bad boss less stressful. Some of the tips include; identifying your boss’ management style and asking the right questions. Read the full article here.

The 29 year old teacher and 17 year old football player who came to her for “tutoring”, allegedly carried on a six-month affair that included rendezvous in the classroom, viewing of pornography and underaged drinking. Although stories like this have become unfortunately more common, in a surprising twist, the student complained to administrators after he says Hall gave him a failing grade when he refused to get her pregnant.

In another twist, although Hall could lose her teaching certificate, despite having sex with a student, she could avoid becoming registered as a sex offender. While sex (even if it is “consensual”) between teachers and students in Georgia is treated as sexual assault, a loophole in Georgia law that was only fixed after this case came to light, made 16 the cut off age for the offense to be chargeable. At the time of the relationship in question, the student involved was 17.

Gwinnett County Public School officials are still investigating Hall.  During a human resources investigation into her conduct Hall resigned citing medical reasons. We think she’s got a strong case for insanity.  Photo – AJC: Keenon Hall

Read the full story here.

You might be getting a bad boss if during your interview, the interviewer…

3. Is rude – As with all good-bad boss stories, this one is personal. I’d applied for a job online and the instructions stated that upon successful transmission of the application, a confirmation email would be sent. Well after submitting the application the first time and waiting 24 hours, no confirmation email ever showed up (yes, I checked my junk mail folder.) When the same thing happened with the second submission, I submitted the application a third time. This time I did receive a confirmation email, and a week later a phone call requesting an interview.

During the interview (that took all of about 15 minutes), the interviewer snared “Did you know you submitted your application THREE TIMES?!” When I explained that I hadn’t received a confirmation email for the first two submissions, she actually tsked, tsked! If that weren’t enough, she and the other woman who interviewed me, spent much of the 15 minutes acting as though I was wasting their time. I left the interview feeling disgusted with them and discouraged about my job search. So imagine my surprise when a couple of weeks later, after first sending a letter stating that I hadn’t gotten the job, the same interviewer called to offer me the position. Although I was currently in a job I hated, I felt I had no choice but to decline. If the women who would have become my colleagues couldn’t muster up enough “niceness” to be cordial during the interview, I couldn’t imagine what they’d be like to work for.

4. Is late – I understand that things happen. Meetings run late, emergencies arise and sometimes lateness can’t be avoided. But, if an interviewer keeps you waiting for half an hour or more, and is unapologetic upon his arrival, that might be a sign of someone who takes his employees for granted. In general, people who are perpetually late don’t value other people’s time as much as they do their own. And while there’s no way to tell from one late starting interview if you’re dealing with someone who values his time more than yours, if they’re unapologetic, that’s a sure sign that you are. Working for, or reporting to someone who’s always late often means working in an environment where there will always be a lack of organization and a lot of last minute rushing.

5. Is unprepared – I once sat through the first 10 minutes of an interview watching my interviewer shuffle through papers. Once he was done with that, he proceeded to read me someone else’s resume. In another interview when I asked about critical details of the position, my interviewer was unable to respond and didn’t offer to get the answers for me.

Unpreparedness, much like a perpetually late interviewer, points to a lack of planning and organization on someone’s part. If you’re being interviewed by someone in HR, who you won’t be reporting to, you might be wondering what’s the big deal? The big deal is, management that hires unprepared, unorganized people is equally unprepared and unorganized.

Just like we’ve got to put our best face forward for the interview, if the company’s best face is a late, unprepared or rude interviewer, then regardless of how good things may look on paper, if you accept a job offer, you might be in for a bumpy ride.

Next week: The conclusion of “You might be getting a bad boss if…”

So how can you be sure about what you’re getting into? The answer is, you’re never really completely certain about the company you’re joining or the boss you’re about to report to. But if you pay close attention during the interview process, you might pick up on a few signs that may indicate you’re headed for rough waters.

In part I of You Might be Getting a Bad Boss, I list the first three of ten indicators that might suggest trouble ahead…

1. During the interview, the interviewer contradicts him/herself frequently – When you first inquire about why the position is open, you’re told the company is expanding. Later on the interviewer reveals that you’re replacing someone who’s no longer with the company. Whether the person was fired, or left by choice, the interviewers contradictory response could indicate either a predilection to, let’s just say, being fluid with the truth, or general confusion on their part. Either way, it’s not a good thing. Other contradictions I’ve experienced during interviews is waffling about turnover rates, the length of time the average employee stays with the company, and surprisingly enough, something as simple as office hours.

2. The interviewer begins a sentence with “Family is important, but…” – I once had a promising first stage interview with a Human Resources manager who ended the interview by asking me how important family was to me. I thought it was an odd question since most people I know would reply that their family is very important.  And that’s exactly how I responded. She responded that although it was important to her too, her job was more important. That response set alarms off. Although she hadn’t come straight out and asked me, I believe what she really wanted to know was whether I had children, and if they’d interfere with me doing my job. I didn’t and so they wouldn’t have, but that kind of inflexibility and probing on her part was telling.

Later on I found out that a friend who had accepted the position, routinely worked 70 hour workweeks, resulting in a nervous breakdown six months into the job. Would you believe that same HR Manager didn’t want to give her sick leave for the days of work she missed, and later terminated her for “lack of professionalism”? Be wary of illegal interview questions in disguise. Click here for examples of illegal interview questions.

3. The job has been open for a long time, or been filled and emptied in a short period of time – This happens in the hospitality industry pretty frequently, but if you’re dealing with a more stable industry, this kind of volatility might be a sign of bad management on a corporate level or a really bad boss on a more local level.  At one of the previous companies I worked for, the customer service manager position had been open for over a year. In a period of less than six months, they hired two candidates. One left after being unable to tolerate the level of unprofessionalism showed by her manager and the other was terminated for repeatedly falling asleep on the job. Either way, bad management was at the root of the problem. The problem in this scenario was management, and no amount of experience, talent or skill could make up for what they lacked.

Wednesday: Part II – Rude, late and unprepared

What the blogosphere’s saying about dealing with bad bosses this week…

• Your diploma is a passport to nothing – So begins an essay in a Canadian Newspaper by Rick Spence. Caitlin Kelly follows up with Eight Lessons That Might Help – a lesson for new college grads. I’m sure if I’d had some of this knowledge before accepting my first job, I wouldn’t have ended up with the horribly bad boss I suffered under for the first two years of my career.

• Employers, don’t take your employees for granted! And now there are even more reasons not to. On his blog SandersSays, Tim Sanders offers great insight into why employers should treat their employees with more respect. My favorite quote from the site – “By the time you realize your company’s culture stinks, it will be too late to turn the ship around, and when the economy totally improves – you are toast.”

• Over at The Working Girl blog, the working girl tackles the age old question about who makes a better boss – male or female. Check out her honest observations here.

• Over at Brainzooming, Mike Brown shares 5 things you can learn from a bad boss. No, intense hatred isn’t one of them. But he does point out that you can learn what a boss shouldn’t do, and I completely agree with that.

Moore’s story was featured on ABC’s “20/20” which investigated the sexual harassment of teens in the work place. Moore, who was 16 at the time of the alleged harassment, claims that her 24-year-old supervisor Tim Horton repeatedly summoned her for sex. When asked if she couldn’t have just said “no” when she was propositioned by Horton, Moore told ABC, “I didn’t feel like I could.” And that is why it’s always a bad idea for management to have sexual relationships with subordinates.

From David Letterman on down, the organizational power structure exists because for the most part, when people are told by their managers/bosses/supervisors to do something – even when they don’t want to – most of the time they’ll do it, no matter how ill advised. Why? They fear recrimination and they fear losing their jobs.

As a 24 year old working for satan’s first cousin, I experienced the effects of a sexist, racist, bully boss. And I put up with it for 2 years, not just because I was young and dumb (which I was) but mostly because I was afraid of losing my job. Now imagine the thought process of a 16 year old girl. It’s not a big stretch to understand that fear and naiveté played a big part in her decision to “do as she was told.”

Although Starbucks claims the pair was involved in a consensual sexual relationship that went against company policy, the coffee giant settled just weeks before the suit was set to go to trial. Neither side has discussed the terms of the agreement or whether Starbucks will now institute a policy protecting teens from sexual harassment. I’m willing to bet a vente latte that they will, and soon.

Image – Kati Moore. Source: ABC News

My most stressed times dealing with bad bosses came in anticipation of the things I feared they would say and do.  After “disobeying a direct order” (more about that in a future post), I spent an entire weekend tossing and turning, worried that I would show up to work on Monday, only to be unceremoniously escorted out the door by our offices version of high level security. But after spending my entire weekend worrying about Monday, on Monday my bad boss never even mentioned the incident.  In fact, she never brought it up again.

Then there was the time I totaled the company car.  Yes, I totaled the company car…during my second week on the job.  Giving my really bad boss at the time, a man who never required a legitimate reason to scream and curse, the legitimate reason to top all legitimate reasons.  As he screamed and cursed at me at length in his office, I tried to defend myself – citing the helium balloons in the back seat of the car I’d hit, the full moon, and the questionable chicken salad sandwich I’d had for lunch, as possible causes of the accident. It was terrible – the sandwich and the meeting with my boss.  So terrible in fact, I thought my job and career were over.  They weren’t. I survived that bad boss’ verbal beat-down and every one that came after that for the two years I worked for him.

The point is, we typically can’t control the actions of our bad bosses, but we can control ours.  No matter how bad our bosses are, we work for them, and work we must. We can either do that work in anxiety and fear, or we can choose to take the high road.  By taking the high road – the road less travelled – we live above the noise and the nonsense.  If we work at it, we’ll be able to see a lot more, learn a lot more, and experience the phenomenal personal and professional growth not readily found elsewhere.

What lessons have you learned from working with a bad boss? Share them in our comment section or email them to denised@reallybadboss.com.