What irks you in a boss?

[2005 EquinoxLS]

We have the what irks you in a Co-Worker, now lwets try another exercise and see what irks all of us with our bosses or as I sometimes call them "authority figures".

My main one is a boss who throws a temper tantrum like a 2 year old when things dont go their way. I have a few of them. They have gotten better with me since they know I dont do things to cause such behavior. If you cant handle the pressure of the job then maybe you shouldnt do it. Simple as that.

A boss that cant seem to make a simple decision is another thing that annoys me. Everyone has had one of these.

So lets have it.

[mustang84]

Really, I've never had any problems with any of my bosses. All have been pretty reasonable, even-tempered guys. With my current bosses, the only thing that bugs me sometimes is when there is a meeting that they are leaving for in 15-30 minutes and they wait until then to tell me they need a bunch of things printed. It would be nice to have a little more forewarning.

[balthazar]

Last time I had a true boss, she had a real problem discerning the conceptual difference between 'raise' and 'promotion'.

Now I have a fantastic boss- buys me food whenever I'm hungry, drives me to & from work in his truck, never yells... what a guy!

[FAPTurbo]

One of my old bosses had the real bad habit of confiding to others about the people under him that he disliked, and saying some nasty things to boot. It always made me wonder if and what he said about me to others.

Plus, I was very certain he was a coke fiend.

[caddycruiser]

We have the what irks you in a Co-Worker, now lwets try another exercise and see what irks all of us with our bosses or as I sometimes call them "authority figures".

My main one is a boss who throws a temper tantrum like a 2 year old when things dont go their way. I have a few of them. They have gotten better with me since they know I dont do things to cause such behavior. If you cant handle the pressure of the job then maybe you shouldnt do it. Simple as that.

A boss that cant seem to make a simple decision is another thing that annoys me. Everyone has had one of these.

Mine would be exactly the same...they're too busy & in their own removed world to really get involved with the actual operations of the business, but go nuts at a weekly progress/goals for the week meeting, get pissed, throw something & F bomb away then get up saying "whatever, you figure it out", slam the door and leave. Classy. And so inspirational. One one hand they'll continue saying they need to and trying to micro "manage everyone because this isn't working", but can't, and then at other have no clue how things below them actually work and when they hear certain snippets of "that's not done yet" completely fly off the handle like a 3 year old temper tantrum.

For me, the tantrums and lack of any sense whatsoever how things in the company actually run aside from their initial backing & start, and then making unrealistic demands. When you can't even stand to be near or converse, even a hello, with a boss, there's a problem...trust me. It's a big reason why I'm currently in the midst of gradually exiting & trying desperately to figure out my next start :AH-HA_wink:

It's terrible to have work and complain about it when so many people are out of it, but that's no reason to stay. As my grandfather said to me while on a visit a few weeks back "Life is way too short to be miserable, and if you're somewhere or doing something that doesn't make you happy, stop it & move on. Even if you have to go live in a tent in Florida to figure it out, do it." Hah. The tent in Florida comment still makes me chuckle, but otherwise it's something I'm about to follow through with...

More bad managers please...this should be good!

Edited September 21, 2009 by caddycruiser

[cletus8269]

had an assistant store manager we referred to as Darth Delegater

everything he was supposed to do for the store manager he would break down into a list for us to do on top of our duties... what a tool. the company paid him to smoke 2.5-3 hours of his shift a day

[capriceman]

If they can't accept "NO," "Your Wrong," or accept failure.

[caddycruiser]

New one, for me at least.

Lack of communication about anything, from what they want you to do to that the office is moving (the latter, yes, literally and TWICE...and I quote, from his assistant to me after I asked what he said..."I don't know why everyone wants to know so much..." and then it trailed off into a mumble) but they get LIVID when you don't let them know every single detail from every day about what you're working on, or just don't talk to them anymore as I...or if you do, they don't care & still flip out later :AH-HA_wink:

[ShadowDog]

My last boss was an excellent leader. The only problems were that he'd been at his job for so long and had subordinates whom were more popular than proficient at their jobs spreading negativity about him to others. Respect for him from some of these 'others' isn't high as they consider him a warlord of a rule-maker. These rules are simple customer service guidelines that are put into practice everywhere, "No cellphones on the floor", "Be on time for your shift", "Meet your deadlines or stay late", etc.

The only thing that irked me about him was that he sometimes had unattainable goals and large projects that required more manpower than the sales per man hour budget could afford. I tried scaling him back a bit, providing spreadsheets and support over more than just the usual, "...can't be done" argument; however, he always pushed us to make it happen. This usually meant me staying an hour or two late every day on a weekly basis. Even worse, he felt I need to find an answer to my efficiency issues that kept me from getting home instead of staying at work. Still, he was a great guy and I miss working for him.

My current boss is ... oh, anything but a manager. Sure, he owns the company and knows how to do everything but some of the administrative; however, he keep stating, "We need to make sure we... (insert rule here)." But he never follows through on his own rule, as if 'Do as I say, not as I do' applies. His communication sucks, plain and simple. He takes calls on his cell but doesn't relay the information to me. What ever calls I receive that require his attention are recorded on my Comm Log for him to review later. He might look at the log once a week while I end up receiving calls from people wondering why they haven't got an answer yet. I'm supposed to co-ordinate the projects; however, half the time the crew tell me where they've been told to show up the next day. At least they feel the same I about the boss as I do. They know I'm always kept in the dark and they know why. Despite being hired to assist in the development and expansion of his business, I can't help but wonder how much of it is completely out of my hands because of his complete lack of budgetary concept and cash-flow understanding. If it keeps up the way it's going he'll be out of business before next summer. Until then, I'll do what I can to ease the blow.

Maybe I'll consider talking to my previous boss about another position. Heh. At least we'd both be happy again.

[trinacriabob]

I saw this thread and needed more than a few seconds to go to it.

The most offputting trait in a boss is arrogance. There is a difference between arrogance and confidence. Arrogance means you think the people that work for you are the "plebes." They forget that, without these people, things wouldn't get done and they couldn't sit on their lofty perch. Yes, I know you're not supposed to be buddy-buddy with your subordinates, but sending out signals that they are a notch below is toxic.

Even though I took more of the number-crunching courses when I studied business, the "soft" courses about organizational behavior and human resources are eye-opening. At opposite ends of the spectrum lie the hierarchical organization and the matrix organization. I found that I work much better in a matrix organization, which is a community of peers and you are there to get the job or project done without a lot of formalities/titles/red tape. BellSouth (now AT&T Southeast) was hierarchical...people were too busy worrying about titles, kissing ass, and posturing to move up...and some of them had neither the know-how (neither practical nor academic) to be where they were.

A second trait would be incompetence. Let's face it, there are people in high(er) positions that have their jobs because of numerous inadequate reasons. Eventually, most of them are "smoked out," but many people are inconvenienced until this occurs.

In my specific case, I would say that I've run into some scrapes with bosses when there was not much of an age spread and I had more credentials and/or had gotten my license prior to them. They appeared to be threatened and were way too defensive. I would say that I've liked it better when I've been sort of a "mini-firm" within a firm, where I've had projects assigned to me, either solo or along with a few people, and we just get down to work.

I think I've been fairly well-liked as a supervisor. At least, that's what I've been told (and one of the people working for me e-mailed me the link to "Canadian interview gone disgustingly wrong.") Most of the time, I was at the same level as my co-workers and got promoted because I was fairly organized...and they didn't want that level of accountability, so they didn't resent it. But it's weird going from the lunch time pizza/once-a-month-Greek restaurant or happy hour thing to being someone's supervisor.

Edited September 22, 2009 by trinacriabob