Is a Bad Boss a Good Reason to Quit Job?

How many of us have kick started our careers with the ‘right’ boss? You ask – what’s right?

I’ve always been fascinated with the things that distinguish a good boss from a bad boss. After having worked with at least half a dozen bosses in my ten plus years of career in corporate communications, can easily differentiate the good apples from the not so good! Most of us have probably experienced by now how one rotten apple can spoil the entire basket! Many have hailed with the classic problems of a bad boss. Never give a compliment and look for things to be wrong or to go wrong. A recent study sheds new light on worker-manager relationships, finding that about 50% of the 7,200 adults surveyed left a job “to get away from their manager”.

At the same time, an ideal boss – a pertinent leader would always bestow right opportunities to excel and succeed and air cover if they fail. So do we choose the ideal companies or the ideal bosses to work for?

My first part-time job as a student was at age 17 and was in my early 20’s when I started my first corporate job, and never stopped working after that. I picked up my first job to fund my college studies and worked there for only a year. Incidentally this first boss funded my master’s degree! He is today my Godfather!

What is life without adventures and which throws up umpteen options for driving your urge to fly, fly high. I changed jobs for two reasons. One because of notorious bosses and second, when I had to relocate. I had always wished for a boss who could teach me how to succeed with office politics without compromising my integrity and championing my work up the executive ladder.

I read this somewhere and couldn’t agree more – “We are often forced into leadership styles that aren’t our own, but it takes confidence and credibility to drive your own leadership style”. Something’s I can’t let go at any cost are honestly, humility and hard work with zeal to succeed. 

Another area ripe for improvement is setting job priorities and goals. We may have the priorities right but are the goals set too for an employee by the manager? Clarity of expectations is perhaps the most basic of employee needs and is vital to performance. An engaged and empowered employee will seldom leave the realms of a good job.

One experience that I remember and bite my tongue for – on the very first day of one of my new jobs, I was escorted straight to the boardroom to be part of an agency pitch presentation. Just out of a management degree and head flying high, I blatantly put forth my views and challenged the claims. I felt proud to have dichotomized the misrepresentations but to my horror the agency guy was my boss’s best friend! Rest is history!

We all make mistakes but only a good mentor-boss can make you learn, excel and build self-confidence. The benefits last decades. I would always cherish the good leaders who made me realise that I could do it and do it well. If you have a mentor who you know wants to see you succeed, you can actually grow, grow stronger.

In my experience, my mentors were the truthful friends, telling me when I was being obnoxious, disoriented or short sighted, and pushing me ahead when I had self-doubt. So when I retrospect, I just so strongly believe how important it is to start ones career with the right mentor-boss as what we inculcate within us in the very first work school goes a long way in building ones corporate character.