Most of us have had the (dis)pleasure of working for someone at some point in our lives. Some people are a delight to work for and you don’t even feel like you work for them. These are the so-called good bosses.
Others make your job miserable, milking their work status in order to bleed you dry. These are the so-called douche ba—I mean, bad bosses.
Employers are rarely just one or the other; they’re usually a mix. Nonetheless, let’s look at how these prototypes handle different scenarios to see what we can learn. Though most applicable to managerial skills, with a little reflection, you’ll find that these lessons extend to your personal and even romantic life.
If he has a problem with your work…
+Good Boss: talks to you about it in private at the end of the day.
-Bad Boss: bad-mouths you to your coworkers.
In this example, Good Boss demonstrates an important leadership trait. He does not shy away from directness and he prompts a change to your behavior before it becomes habit. Bad Boss either wishes to embarass you or lacks the courage to speak frankly. Whether due to malice or cowardice, his actions are deplorable. It doesn’t matter if someone is your employee or your friend, be forthcoming with your discontentments, instead of holding a secret grudge.
If there’s conflict among staff…
+Good Boss: calls a meeting to set the ground rules.
-Bad Boss: ignores it, acting as if it’s your problem, not his.
Successful companies show a healthy respect for teamwork and chain of command. A good boss sows seeds of community, not conflict. He does so by making sure everyone clearly understands what is expected of them, to work together towards a common goal. It’s just like how your heart, your lungs, and your leg muscles act in tandem to keep you moving.
If you do a good job…
+Good Boss: praises you and rewards you with more autonomy.
-Bad Boss: either takes the credit or says nothing at all.
This is pretty self-explanatory. Give credit where credit is due and don’t speak up only when you have criticism to impart. If someone proves to be competent in the present, welcome their input and show faith in their abilities in the future.
If you need to speak with him…
+Good Boss: finds the time to address your concerns.
-Bad Boss: makes empty promises and hopes you’ll forget about it.
No matter how busy you are, find the time to be there for the people in your life. Show them you care through solid actions, not wispy words.
If given the opportunity…
+Good Boss: will be honest with you and ask for your help.
-Bad Boss: will lie and take advantage of you.
As I spoke about before, exploiting people is only advantageous in the short term. In the long term, honesty will bear bigger fruit, even if it means exposing your weaknesses. Relationships in which both parties allow themselves to be vulnerable are ones that are most mutually beneficial. In fact, I would argue sharing vulnerabilities is a necessary step towards finding love.
//Does your boss do something that drives you up the wall? How should he act instead? And how can it be applied to your own life? Share below.
Choose to Take the Journey 
Awesome post brotha. I was just having this conversation with someone about this today. More than likely a “Bad boss” is so shitty in the first place because he never had a boss of his own (or a manager of some sort) that treated him/her like shit everyday so he/she doesn’t know how it feels to be treated the way a bad boss treats someone.
I’ll use an example I was dealing with Tonight. The club I do one of my parties in NYC is filled with owners who I doubt used to work for a club by different owners to feel how it is to be bossed around. I.E they don’t really care to hear feed back from any of the people who are working under them. I used to think it was because they were foreign (maybe a part of that could be the case, just a bit though) and weren’t very accustomed to American ways of customer service.
But then I realized that they have probably never had a to work for a Boss who wasn’t family. I doubt they ever even had to interview for a job etc.
I came to this realization after reading a book called “Re-Work” by a couple of guys who run a company called 37 signals. In the book they talk about how most upper level managers (from tech companies) who are horrible bosses are usually terrible for the fact that they never had a boss of their own. So they don’t know jack about what it feels like to take orders from someone.
Most people who run business’ where they treat their employees like shit never really know what it was ever like to be an employee. A good boss usually knows how to put himself in the shoes of the employees. There really isn’t much that can be done about bad bosses. They are shit underneath a shoe.
All we can ever hope for is to come up from the bad boss experiences, persevere, not lose sight of our goals and life plans, and create a business for ourselves so that when the day comes to hire people to work for us that we choose the best people possible for the job and reward them accordingly for their great work. Starting with letting them know, through our actions and demeanor, that we are fully committed to being a good boss (when the time comes).
Funny how getting to the point of being a good boss usually always boils down to having had a bad boss.
I’ve had good bosses but that usually just made me complacent thinking that my good boss would always be around to take care of me. Almost instantly do the Bad Bosses make me realize that if I want to make things happen in my life I need to get things into gear and that I should never expect anyone to help or lend a hand when the time comes.
As for my situation at the club; I will probably end up leaving the club and taking my party else where. I’ve been there over a year and the owners have been acting really shitty for the past 3 months; all the while I’m lying to myself that they are going to get a change of heart and promote me with more money if I work harder to make the party bigger and more successful (it already is successful, just not for what they have in mind….greed is infinite).
Wow, great comment. It definitely sounds like you’ve had your fair share of getting pushed around by a bad boss. That’s a good point you make about how most bad bosses have never had a boss of their own. And that in order to be a good boss, you had to have worked for a bad boss in your past. I think this is similar to how growing up poor makes you empathetic towards the poor. But growing up rich, having never known financial hardship, someone can be completely callous to the plight of the masses.
As an employee, you always have one bargaining chip that your employer can never take away from you. And that is the freedom to walk away. Only you can take it away from yourself, by allowing yourself to become dependent on just one person. When someone shows that they don’t need you and don’t appreciate you, you should always keep one foot out the door at all times. It sounds like you’ve done just that. You have more than one employer, so I’m sure you’ll be able to find another job without taking too much of a hit to your income.
Fortunately, bad bosses usually have a quick employee turnover which costs their business in the long run. And if the job market too heavily favors the employers rather than the employees, you start to get protests, strikes, riots, and revolution. But that’s another topic entirely that I’d rather not get into…
Good luck with the job hunt!