Difficult Bosses Revisited

This was first written in 2009...has anything changed?

Interesting reading in last weekends Sydney Morning Herald (Feb 21-22 2009) in 'the big chair' column - and thanks Georgie for passing this onto me - about what made people angry, frustrated or upset at work.  Lack of recognition (a simple 'good morning' and 'thank you' can go a long way to help morale), poor communication and unmet expectations are the main reasons people hate work and hate their bosses.  Reading this lead me on to thinking about 'bullying bosses' and how these people can severely affect the well-being of people they manage. Most of us, at sometime have worked with 'the boss from hell' - or at the very least we know someone who has.   

Professor Cary Cooper, an Organisatonal Psychologist in the UK, describes two sorts of bully bosses.  One who puts others down because of a need to enhance their own self-esteem.  Its very difficult to deal with this type of person because they have very deep-seated drivers of the behaviour.  The employee has two choices here - either escalate the matter, or get out of there and find another job. 

For most bullies, however, the behaviour is driven by the fact that they are so overloaded they can't handle their work. 

The second sort of bully is someone who is frustrated because they haven't the skills to handle their own work and they end up taking this out on the people they manage.  This sort of bullying boss may not be able to handle the pressure in their own job; they may be unwilling to delegate; they may always look at blaming others when things go wrong rather than looking at themselves.  Although this sort of 'bully' would benefit from the right support (eg. coaching, increased self awareness, support from the organisation), the employee in this situation can also think about - 'what are the triggers for this behaviour' and 'how can I become a source of support' rather than contributing to their boss' stress and bad behaviour.   

So it goes....Susan