We’ve all worked with the boss from hell.  There are lots of types – the incompetent chair warmer, the obstructor, the ice cold backstabber, the teflon coated blame shifter, the psychopathic manipulator, the game player, the obnoxious person who is lacking in common decency or basic social skills, or combinations of these nasty traits.  There is one thing in common – their ability to inflict misery on you at work.

Most organisations would rather pay the price for the boss from hell than throw them on the corporate scrapheap where they belong.  So how do you deal with the boss who makes turning up to work something that you dread?  Read on to find out what I did.

The first thing is to understand the motivation.  Why is the boss from hell like that?  The person who is highly competent, and confident isn’t the boss from hell.  It is the person who got their job through nepotism who feels unstable.  They lack the social, leadership and technical abilities to keep them in a position.  They feel the need to compensate for this lack by lashing out at others.

I haven’t had a boss from hell for quite some years.  If you read my book (on this site under the Book category), you’ll read about my story and understand why I don’t tolerate such people anymore.  

My last boss from hell got his position through nepotism.  He lacked any leadership ability, strategic understanding or charisma, in fact anything that anyone would reasonably expect of a manager.  He was one of the most arrogant, stupid and incompetent people I have ever worked for.  Watching him trying to understand something was (to quote Neal Stephenson) like watching a lower primate trying to fly an aeroplane.

Back then, I stuck around hoping things would get better by themselves (they don’t).  He hated me but wouldn’t do anything about it.  I wondered why, but it was because he needed me.  Bosses from hell will throw you to the lions if it suits them, so if you are still around, it is because they are getting something from you cheaply, or they have no power to act.

The boss from hell has no competence of their own, and offers no leadership, so is unable to recognise that in others.

I was too willing to stay in the position, in my comfort zone.  I became comfortable with the pain of having to see him bumbling through each day.

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Tags: boss from hell

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Living free. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.