Is your Boss a Jerk?
The new year is coming and Chris Knudsen is running a contest to find the boss who is the biggest jerk of all. Don’t worry, no company or real names will be used and should not be submitted. Just the stories. Go to the above link for details.
He said it’s just for Utah jerk bosses. Still, I think if you have a good one, submit it. It might make Chris’s blog, even if you don’t win (link love).
My last boss rocked. But I’ve had bad ones just like anyone else.
Here are a few of my tips if you want to be nominated to be a crappy boss:
- Humiliate employees in front of their peers – one of my all-time favorites (I’ve seen it done by CEOs down to regular Joes)
- Never show appreciation or give credit to someone else (remember, your ego comes first)
- Be sexist. Women don’t belong in the workforce, they belong in the home! Be condescending and question their judgement as much as possible. You know you’ve hit the jackpot if you can make her cry.
- Send an email criticizing an employee and make sure they “accidently” read it (passive agressiveness works best when you’re afraid of confrontation).
- Be threatened by rather than learn from an employee with different skills than you have.
- Don’t stand up for your employees when coworkers are verbally abusive. Look the other way.
- Flirt excessively with your employees and socialize with them outside of work often. Be sure to leave your spouse at home with the kids while you have a bang-up time.
- Be inconsistant and keep them guessing about what you want. Change your objectives frequently and then blame the employee when they don’t know what you want.
- Be suspicious. Don’t trust employees to make their own decisions. It’s a great way to stifle creativity which involves risk – and risk must be minimized.
- Don’t tell employees what criteria they will be judged on in their annual review until the day or week of the review.
In the book, the E-Myth Revisited it says that your company will be a reflection of you. If you’re trusting, your employees will be trusting. If you’re generous with your time, they will be generous with theirs.
Being a good boss isn’t easy work. You need a delicate balance of people skills. In general the bosses I’ve had that were bad were naively so. They didn’t have the maturity or training and their companies didn’t make it a priority. If I could name one bad trait in people or bosses it would have to be narcassism and insecurity (sense of entitlement, extreme self-absorption).
4 Responses to “Is your Boss a Jerk?”
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November 27th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Thanks for the plug. It sounds like you may have a story or two to send me.
November 28th, 2006 at 2:21 am
Yes, Excellent Jerk Boss Suggestions
I would like to add some other ones to your list
janet, as well.
–Going along with the flirting excessively with
employees of the opposite sex is to date them and
have some extramarital fun with those regularly,
who are married but seem open to the flirtations.
–Another might be a boss who goes out to lunch with
some emloyees and tells them some very funny & dirty jokes
and suggests they do the same over lunch or if it’s a
male boss to complement the ladies on their short skirts, legs, and cleavage, Excessively!
November 28th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
My single tip to become a crappy boss: micromanaging!
December 1st, 2006 at 9:21 am
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