5 Telltale Signs Of a Horrible Boss

Believe it or not, but some bosses don’t have your best interests at heart. They would rather see you suffer during the day than see you happy, and even though your work is good they’ll never tell you. The problem is many people don’t know how they ended up working for a horrible boss; they don’t come in and introduce themselves as the horrible boss on day one. For many it’s a gradual process, the horrible boss manipulates and plays mind games with its victims, most employees don’t have a chance, that’s why it’s important to realise the signs right at the start. Mistake Outing Everyone makes mistakes, and a good boss understands the learning power from a mistake. Not the horrible boss though, if someone makes a mistake on her/his watch then they’ll know about it. Usually, the mistake gets mentioned in front of other people; this is done to make you feel uneasy and to knock your confidence. “Mistake outing” also makes others worried about being associated with you, who wants to hang out with someone who makes mistakes. The horrible boss believes that by driving a divide between its employees gives them more power. Change is Good Or is it? Good employees seem to leave frequently; your boss tells you that they couldn’t hack the challenge. The truth is these employees probably have their horrible boss radar switched on and got out before they got sucked in. Micro-Manager If you’re told to go off and get the job done, but then your boss watches over your shoulder every minute of the way, they’re a micro-manager. Micro-managers are part of the horrible boss package; they’re usually so fearful of mistakes that they’ll make your work life hell to prevent one being made. Mistakes happen, even more so when someone puts unnecessary pressure on you, the horrible boss will blame you and tell you that’s why they need to watch your every step. Non-Committal The horrible boss doesn’t like to commit to anything, and that makes employees feel unsettled and insecure. The office could be temporary, most of the workforce could be temporary, or zero contract and important decisions are put off. When the horrible boss is asked anything that needs some commitment, their answer will be, let’s discuss this another time. Me And Not We The power of we achieves infinitely more than the power of me; this falls on deaf ears though with the horrible boss. The horrible boss will always take all the credit, they will never mention the contribution of the team and even believe that the team held them back. The horrible boss will always use the language of “I” and never “We”. If they get questioned about using "I" instead of “we”,  they'll say they meant "we" but they clearly didn’t! There you have it some obvious telltale signs of a horrible boss if you see these signs don’t get sucked in, get out!

• VIDEO: For more ‘bad boss’ stories check out our video interviews of UK employees talking candidly about their experiences.

• Biggest UK management pet hates? Find out in our blog here.