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Here’s how to know and what you should do to improve your worklife…
Chances are that you are going to spend at least 75,000 hours ‘working’. And while the saying might be that ‘If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life’, that just ain’t gonna be the case for most of us. In fact, most of us are going to be ‘working for the man’!
That said, with much of our work lives now merging with our personal lives, the wrong ‘man’ can make life hell. By now, there is a veritable canon of research that says people leave bosses rather than jobs.
A toxic boss can be more damaging to you than you might think. One study suggests that a bad boss can actually put you at risk of cardiac arrest!
Are you dealing with a toxic boss?
True, no manager is perfect. We all have our little quirks and eccentricities, after all. But certain behaviors may clue you to the reality that you’re reporting to a toxic boss.
The chart below should help you determine whether you’re dealing with a leader who is actually noxious.
How to Deal with Toxic Bosses
The good news is you don’t have to let toxic leadership take you down. Harvard Professor Barbara Kellerman identifies seven types of toxic bosses. The chart below should provide an indication as to the kind of problem you need to address.
Consider these tips to make the best of a tough situation and come out ahead:
If You Don’t Have a Toxic Boss …
Of course, you may not be as unlucky as quite a few employees out there. If you don’t have a toxic boss, then it’s always best to grow a healthy and productive relationship.
Here’s how:
Toxic Bosses: Hold on until you find better prospects.
Typically, toxic bosses feel they are under tremendous pressure. They love to pass that pressure on. They want to control and will thrive on two things – your emotions and attention.
They feed off the power they have to manipulate others. Unfortunately, the toxic boss may find success by inducing fear in their employees. This means that you might have to find a better job.
The ultimate irony and reailty is that a toxic boss will to be a failure when it comes to long-term success. He or she will never build a cohort of productive, supportive co-workers. In the meantime, the bullying, toxic boss is unlikely to change his or her behavior.
So, your best and immediate option is to work to change your own behavior and the way that you respond. Try to develop ways that allow you the advantage of, rather than being a victim of, the situation.
And, of course, keep reading those ‘Postion Vacant’ ads!
Are you working in a happy or a toxic environment?
Images courtesy of Resume.io
