At some point in your career, you will come up against the unpleasant experience of working under a manager that has the self-awareness of an eight-year-old. It’s every employee’s rite of passage. And as a constant stressor in your life, rest assured that, unfortunately, having a bad manager will throw a wrench in the spokes of your mental wellbeing.
But let’s not go into a doomsaying fit, shall we? And scrambling to find a new job isn’t always the wisest course of action, either. Sometimes, we really have to – and forgive the cliche – make lemonades out of life’s bossy lemons.
Following is a list (by no means exhaustive) of 4 types of managers you might encounter, and how to deal with each of them. Enjoy.
The Micromanager
This is the type that has no trouble voicing their opinion about everything. They will nitpick your choices to the end of the Earth. They will jump straight to expressing and explaining where you “might have room for improvement.” Consider them like the perfectionist parent who is never satisfied and is always wont to point out your mistakes.
How to deal
If you imagine their nitpicking as if they were clinging to you, here’s how you should respond: instead of pulling away, open up to them even more. Practically, this may look like asking lots of questions and being over-communicative. You’re basically quenching their thirst to be involved in every little thing – and you won’t have to deal with the feeling of them encroaching upon you because you’ll be giving them what they straight off the bat. On your own, you might want to revise all the parameters of your job and make sure you thoroughly understand your responsibilities.
Needless to say, if the above suggestions fail you, you can always resort to having a heart-to-heart conversation where you (as objectively as possible) explain how you’re having trouble focusing on your duties because of their tasteless misconduct.
(Want some tips on how to become an effective communicator? Say no more.)
The Apathetic
This is the kind of individual who is “hands-off” when it comes to being the team leader. He’s the kind of person who is generally clueless about the goings-on in his team and seems rather interested in keeping things that way, all the while lecturing you from their high horse about what things need to get done and when.
How to handle
Confronting this guy (or gal) is going to be tougher than the other types of bosses for a couple of reasons: a) they are living in a parallel reality, and therefore b) are going to do a double-take when they listen to you telling them what’s going on. Also, you’ve got to take the possibility that they will refuse to have it into account. That’s probably when you need to head on over to HR and get a clearer understanding of how (and possibly why) your boss is being negligent of their responsibilities.
“It’s Never My Fault”
This is the manager whom, when problems arise, you’ll pretty much always find pointing fingers. They will rarely take responsibility for their part in any predicament, and will not hesitate to deflect it onto others. This is the advanced, slightly more aggressive version of The Micromanager, in that they are quick to place the blame on anyone they’re involved with – but, rather unsurprisingly, never themselves.
How to handle
For this type of manager, the only hope of getting them to see reason is by diverting their attention away from the surface-level symptoms (employees making mistakes, which is natural) and toward the deeper cause of the problems (anything from poor communication to inefficient delegation to insufficient onboarding makes the grade).
The “What’s Your Name Again?” Manager
As usual, we’ve saved the best for last. This kind of boss is the type with an attitude of “go in one ear and out the other” when it comes to receiving feedback. They’re the type to nonchalantly nod their way through one of your heart-to-heart conversations and then repeat the same behavior at the first opportunity. This is a variant of The Apathetic that is often trickier to deal with for one reason: They are particularly unconcerned with changing their ways and will for the most part ignore and/or resist any attempts to change that.
How to deal
You can always try the frontal approach, but as we’ve discussed, it’s likely to prove ineffective. For this reason, our advice will amount to little more than to have a conversation with HR about advancing your career – and of course, if all else fails, jumping ship altogether.
Other types of managers
As we said, there are many types of fruitcakes out there who you’ll run into in the corporate world (and, unfortunately, who you’ll have to work under for a certain amount of time – until one of you leaves, or they retire). The gist of it is this: try to understand them from their limited perspective and then work with them at that level (either by getting them to see reality or by playing their own game, while being aware of the pattern they’re exhibiting and its respective dynamics). Before long, with enough experience and self-awareness, you’ll learn to become one of the best managers out there yet.
Do you have other tips for handling bad managers? Comment below and let us know!
