Dealing with a Manipulative Boss

In one of my recent posts I wrote about four different categories of bad bosses. This included bosses with passive aggressive personality, put down boss, micromanaging, and the manipulative one. In general, dealing with a boss is the most challenging task in everyone’s career. So, I thought of taking up this topic and do a little more research about it.

Through my experiences and research, I found that dealing with a manipulative boss is the most difficult thing. This is because a manipulative boss will go to any extent of emotional torture to get his work done from the team members. In some cases, manipulation is tolerable but according to experts, if manipulation isn’t tamed it can easily turn to psychopathic levels.

To my surprise, I found that psychopathy behaviour is common among higher leaders and people who are part of the senior management. That’s why the first step to deal with a manipulative boss is to recognize the symptoms as early as possible. One of the most common symptoms include putting blame on someone else and not telling the entire thing in one go. However, these are only just few tell-tale signs, there is a lot more to understanding and dealing with a manipulative boss.

In this article, you will read problems along with solutions for dealing with a manipulative boss and save your peace of mind.

Ungratefulness

One of the most common characteristics of a manipulative boss is ungratefulness. They will always keep reminding you about the ways they have helped you so far. But they will never give you credit for your achievements.

Solution: Don’t lose self-confidence when dealing with such a boss. Manipulative bosses often target people with low self-confidence. Also, make sure you do your job on time, and include facts and figures a part of your dealings. If your reply is supported by reason from the very beginning, you will never face problem in dealing with such a boss.

Overpressure

Another annoying trait of a manipulative boss is their nature to make the employees do extra work than needed. They will ensure your plate is always overflowing with extra work. Somehow, if you manage to say no, they will make you feel so guilty about it that you end up taking that job in your hands.

Solution: You must know about your job description,roles and responsibilities in detail. Secondly, the best solution is to learn to say no to such tasks in a polite way without letting it affect your personal performance.

Escapism

There is a distinct category of a manipulative boss includes where managers and team leaders don’t want to address problems or conflicts directly. They know how to change issues or avoid problems when you question them about anything. They can even go to any extent to make you feel that the issue is irrelevant.

Solution: Make sure your boss provides you a specific date and time for addressing issues and problems at work. You can ask for such agreement in written through an email, text or fax for future reference.

Favoritism

A popular trick that manipulative bosses use to know about a new employee is by openly favoring or supporting them. This helps them win over the trust of the employee and also know more about his past. They treat this as an information to blackmail or take advantage of the employee in future.

Solution: As an employee, it's your duty to define a professional boundary between you and your boss. Share only the relevant stuff with your boss in order to protect yourself from a unavoidable situation in future. .

Intellectual Stimulation

Some bosses have this tendency of boasting of their knowledge which makes it difficult for employees to understand them. They are the ones who love intellectual stimulation and thus end up creating troubles for their team members. This can be the case with you if you find it difficult to understand your boss despite being a learned professional.

Solution: You have to ensure that your communication is clear and specific with your boss. When you fail to understand, ask for direct responses. Avoid giving your boss the chance to talk about irrelevant things.

These are some of the popular behaviours of manipulative bosses. I hope they will help you to deal with manipulative boss at your workplace. Also, share your experiences and valuable points in the comments below.

"Use an online project management tool to fulfill project deadlines."

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About Author:

Sandeep Kashyap is the Founder of ProofHub - a leading project management and collaboration software. A passionate leader, Sandeep is always on the lookout for innovative ideas about filling the communication gap between groups, teams and companies. He is also a featured writer on LinkedIn and contributing author at YourStory. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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