Nearly Half Of Americans Report Having Unreasonable Bosses: OfficeTeam

Having a dysfunctional boss can ruin any job. And unfortunately for employees across the country, having a bad boss turns out to be a pretty common experience.

A recent poll by OfficeTeam, a leading staffing agency with 315 locations across the country, finds that 46 percent of employees reported having worked for an unreasonable boss. Employees often feel trapped by bad managers, too: 59 percent reported having kept the job despite having an unreasonable superior.

Still, there's a lot of American workers who know a bad working situation when they see one. Of those polled, 27 percent said they left their job due to a bad boss immediately after lining up a new job, while 11 percent were bold enough to quit outright without the safety net of another position. .

As the executive director of OfficeTeam says: "Friction between supervisors and employees can stem from differing work styles. It's not possible to control your boss's actions, but you can change how you respond to them."

If that simply doesn't work, Steve Tobak of BNET, who has written extensively on problem bosses, offers some other strategies. He writes that employees can put in for transfers, try to regroup with a vacation or fight back by either sabotage or appealing to a higher authority. However, he says taking your boss head-on can be risky and more often than not, it's best to just get over it.

"When you behave like a victim, wallow in self pity, or act like you're entitled to something better, not only does it do you no good, but you may end up getting yourself fired or doing real harm to your career," he writes.

Below are the poll results provided by OfficeTeam.

Comments

[AcademicFreedom]

08:19 PM on 07/08/2011

I worked at the Federal Reserve two different times during my career. Both times at Vice President levels. One of the people I indirectly reported to was Timmy G - a horrid boss; his concern is for Timmy G and only Timmy G. There is no room for disagreeing with him. Also, the Federal Reserve has no whistle blower protection, therefore employees who dissent or do not agree with the predominate thought or report fraud and abuse are summarily fired.

[Ordinary Citizen]

12:09 PM on 07/08/2011

they forgot the choice of "got fired for no reason" on the choices in the poll.

[tleb]

04:31 PM on 07/08/2011

The true sign of a dysfunctional boss!

[NevaforLeadership]

11:12 AM on 07/08/2011

Step One to Improving Your Organization:

Banish that archaic, Victorian, one-room-school practice of annual reviews that do nothing but create havoc, broken relationships, mistrust, resentment, disengagement, caustic work environments, absenteeism and turnover, let alone create an enormous dent in the corporate bottom line.

An HR make-work practice, rife with untrained reviewers, reviewers who themselves are incompetent at their jobs, even anonymous reviewers. I could go on. Open the door to criticism, and it will walk in: someone else's bad behavior landing up on your review or some insignificant action focused on, despite creating new revenues, savings or efficiencies -- that's what reviews are all about.

Any corporation that practices day-to-day inclusive, respectful communication does not need to engage in costly, dreaded annual reviews, even to document some misdemeanor for a future firing, which can easily be done another way.

[NevaforLeadership]

10:33 AM on 07/08/2011

This article is just so typical of the on-the-fence political correctness and conventional wisdom that creates massive, middle corporate mismanagement.

[ScottyD1982]

09:56 AM on 07/08/2011

How is this news?

[ljblinddog]

09:17 AM on 07/08/2011

Look who becomes boss, George Bush, Keating etc. I would have liked to see what qualities Jake up a good boss from employee perspective.

[cyeko]

08:06 AM on 07/08/2011

We were recently told at our company, after not getting a raise...again...that a job is a privilege.

Employers in general hold too much power and the war on workers has escalated under the GOP.

Stop voting Republican.

[bryanzth]

09:17 AM on 07/08/2011

Well, you tell people this, and they understand intellectually and then the GOP either touches an emotional hot spot or the scare the heck out of them, and then they vote their "gut" instead of their "reason" and there you have it again. And employers (the CEOs, the top management, and middle management) know this. And line managers know it. And we know it who experience the bullying and intimidation.

And why don't people organize? Read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" to see what happens when people organize. Occasionally getting organized works, but eventually companies find a weak spot and infiltrate. So people really have to examine the realities and take the risks.

For example, people are walking away from their mortgages. Yes, in one way it's bad. I would feel beaucoup guilty (the emotions), but then, like many others, upon examining the tradeoffs of default vs. paying an unfair mortgage on an underwater property) I would walk away (the intellectual analysis) from a mortgage in spite of the threats to my credit scores, etc. But that climate can change depending on just how many people do it. If too many, they win. They actually win. If not enough, they are criminalized, made examples of or worse.

Likewise with companies that reward bad behaviour. If enough employees fight back (slow downs, strikes, unions) they win. If just a few test the waters, they will lose.

So, my recommendation would be to organize en masse. Otherwise you will get stepped on over and over. Which side are you on? Seeger sings the song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N43Cm6ra0hY

BZ.

P.S. J.H. Blair, who was that? ;0) Read your current labour events as well as your labour history.

[NevaforLeadership]

10:40 AM on 07/08/2011

Did you miss that a democrat is president?

Seriously, though, I wouldn't say that a job is a privilege, but it is always true that we are paid by our employers. He who pays the piper, calls the tune. That always holds true.

Employers hold the power, only when we allow them to do so. Particularly now, with so much uncertainty, we must rely on only ourselves to provide our financial security. How? Next post.

[Vincent Boyle]

07:49 AM on 07/08/2011

In my experience there are only 3 necessary skills that need to be mastered to become a boss.
1. An overly grandiose view of self and your value to the organization.
2. A complete willingness to terrorize your subordinates.
3. Taking credit for successful projects in which you had no real role and conversely deflecting blame for failure.
If you master these qualities you are management material. But you have to lose your pride by ingratiating yourself to your superiors and earn the contempt of you former co-workers. Remember they actually know you!

[SmartladyDem]

08:59 AM on 07/08/2011

I'm a big fan Vincent, brilliant post-and truer than ever.

[Diggsdad]

09:08 AM on 07/08/2011

Brilliant!! F&F

[Qjersey]

07:49 AM on 07/08/2011

I would suggest that abuse is more prevalent in "small businesses." I worked for several "mom and pop" businesses and it's like being on another planet where labor laws don't exist.

[Vincent Boyle]

08:04 AM on 07/08/2011

Agreed. One of my first jobs was working for a landscaper. I made a mistake one day, and he told me I had to fix it off the clock or be fired.

[Vincent Boyle]

07:39 AM on 07/08/2011

I believe the culture of the organization creates the boss. Oftentimes, one incompetent boob is replaced with an exact replica. There is no other explaination for this other than it is exactly what upper management requires from their middle managers. Last year, my inept boss was finally exposed and fired. He was replaced by a kid 2 years out of high school, with no experience ( his mother is the executive assistant to the CEO). So this child emulates the only boss he ever had and as a result, is twice the idiot of the one they fired.

[motherofsons]

05:49 AM on 07/08/2011

Half of American bosses report dealing with bad employees.

[bryanzth]

09:26 AM on 07/08/2011

Let's get some research on your assertion, with some due diligence. Here are some questions to answer: 1) Define a shill. 2) What consists of cause and effect and how is it different from a corelation? 3) Define complexity and how cause and effect analysis is often done in spite of the complex factors that surrounds an event.

Three paragraphs and use topic sentences. Use references (no bagguer sites). You have 30 minutes. Pencils down when the bell rings. Start.

BZ.

[lrobb]

03:54 AM on 07/08/2011

I would question how much of the problem is a genuinely bad boss and how much is personality conflict. I once had a boss I liked and respected very much. He was effective at getting the job done on time and under budget--which was precisely what he was hired to do--and was quickly promoted taking me and several other staff with him.

This boss generated about a 50/50 love/hate ratio. What I noticed was the ones who hated him were mostly slackers, whiners and excuse-makers. He had no patience at all for people who showed up late, always wanted extra time off or constantly made excuses as to why they did not get their assigned work completed. He also had zero tolerance for office gossip.

Supervision should never be a popularity contest.

[MyrtleJune]

04:51 AM on 07/08/2011

Any boss who has a zero tolerance for bottom-line cutting office gossip, is by definition not a bad boss.

[NevaforLeadership]

11:19 AM on 07/08/2011

Zero tolerance for negative office gossip can increase the bottom line enormously -- and with no expense!

So easy, yet not done.

[Vincent Boyle]

08:00 AM on 07/08/2011

Yeah I know what you mean. I had a boss that was universally hated by his staff and underlings. When I first started with the company people had dire warnings for me about him. One day, he fired our supervisor and ran the shift himself. He treated everyone the same (no favorites) and accepted no excuses. He was tough but fair. That day was actually an easy day for me because the slackers had to pick up. I loved that boss! No nonsense, no bs. A true professional.

[ginger42]

03:14 AM on 07/08/2011

Greed and stress

[XME]

02:41 AM on 07/08/2011

I left a perfectly great job for one that seemed great, but I ended up working for the boss from hell. The result was them starting to write me up when I submitted paperwork to HR regarding a disability that required "reasonable accommodation". After they wrote me up multiple times for ridiculous things, they fired me. I received glowing reviews for nearly a year BEFORE I submitted the paperwork. Because of this, and our economy, I'm now on disability. Hopefully when the economy picks up I can again find a job where they are willing to take good people who have medical issues.

[Retrofuturistic]

02:07 AM on 07/08/2011

And that's why we need to support unions....