How to survive working for the worst kind of manager

Management is not a science because working with people defies science in an age when everyone is different. Great management is an art. You not only have to know which buttons to press to motivate people you have to be willing to listen to what’s really being said and understand why the person saying it is speaking up. However what I have found is that Scott Addams was right “management is the perfect hiding spot for incompetence” in a lot of organizations.

The worst kind of manager is someone who knows that there are problems, either with people or processes, and refuses to take action because he/she doesn’t want to make waves. This person of inaction can petrify an organization and cause a lot of problems. Here is a great example; you talk to a Director about a person working for you only to find that others have also complained about this person yet nothing has changed and more importantly nothing has been documented. This means that a new manager is going to have to deal with someone who is known for causing problems while the Director keeps his/her hands clean of the whole situation because he/she just wants to ensure that deliverables keep on date. What would you do in this situation ?

The other worst kind of manager is someone who plays good cop/bad cop. They tell you what you want to hear but then they also tell others what they want to hear so problems don’t get addressed. I have seen this more than once as office politics trumps personal job satisfaction and even what is best for the company.

Of course there are micro-managing managers, managers who change projects and priorities on a dime and managers who act like they are your best friend but come review time they pounce on you leaving you to ask “what in the hell just happened?”

Here are some ways that you can deal with the worst kind of managers:

(1) Document everything: including emails and always send an email summary of private conversations you had with your manager. Keep a personal file and never let it out of your site.

(2) Keep pressing forward.” Don’t let the past keep you from achieving the job of your dreams. Learn to manage up and make your job YOURS.

(3) Be positive toward yourself.” Choose to be happy if you know that what you are doing is the right thing. Don’t let a bad manager bring you down to her level because you’ll regret it later in life.

(4) Be careful about complaining to others who “pretend” to be confidants. Like in the movie Goodfella’s “those people who are going to whack you come to you with a hand and pretend to be your best friends”. There are a lot of people who are business colleagues but very few who are friends.

(5) Always tell the truth: Never be afraid to say you screwed up and never ever cover for a bad manager because in the end they will be found out and it will cost you in reputation.

(6) Change jobs: Don’t give me the BS about how jobs are hard to find they are out there if you’re willing to take the time and effort to look. Forget about the job title and to a certain extent the money. Ask yourself “which job is going to let me live the life I want to live and allow me to really contribute to my companies success?”

(7) Learn how to manage up: Understand what communication is best to send to your manager and which communication is only going to cause more problems for you.

Life is too short to work for really bad managers and directors. You have a choice to improve your situation or continue to take the torture of working for someone who just doesn’t understand that people like to be treated like people not just employees.