Help! My Boss Is Terrible, What Do I Do?

Here's a query I received from a reader of my blog:

Thanks for another great post Avinash. As often I feel like you're writing directly to me! I completely agree with your arguments, and I can relate because I allow myself to work 70-80 hours weekly on my projects - only because I'm passionate about it. My question to you is, what can you do with managers or senior personnel who don't share the same passion?? My belief is that you can't reach momentum as a unity without sharing the passion for what you're doing or trying to accomplish.

I'm sure like me, you feel for "Sam." I'm sure you can relate to him because you work very hard, and often feel that someone is standing in your way. That someone often is a boss (and this is hard for me to say as a People Leader myself!).

If you have a terrible boss, your strategy for dealing with it rests on two variables: Can you change jobs? How much flexibility do you have in your job scope/from your company?

Let's look at the combination of those two variables to determine the optimal next steps:

1. You can't change your job, but have a little flexibility.

In most companies this is quite true, you have some flexibility in how you spend time. If yes, look for work in other divisions in the company that you'll find to be interesting - either directly related to what you were hired to do or in an area you feel is a core competence for you. Take on a 10% or 20% effort in that area (away from your current boss/team).

This in practice means your job moves to being 110%. But, small price to pay.

Bottom-line: You get to escape from the near constant worries about your current boss, and you are likely creating a path to taking on a different role in the near-future if you prove yourself.

2. You can't change your job and you have no flexibility.

Look for something you can do outside of work.

I had a fabulous boss at that time, but I started my blog on analytics and marketing as a way to both share the knowledge I'd been so lucky to accumulate, and to have a platform where I could say/do what I liked (regardless of corporate job reality). Over the years, it has served me very well as a place to express my passion and be happy, even in the not-too-rare times when work was not a happy existence.

What's your passion?

It does not have to be related to work. But, find it, create a platform - online or offline - to manifest that passion. It will make work tolerable, it might even spark a new love for it because you are not as entrenched in it for all professional validation.

3. You have an opportunity to change your job.

Keep working hard at your current job, quietly and respectfully look for other alternatives out there. You are here on LinkedIn already, that's 90% of the way there! : )

Far too many people stay in jobs they don't like, with bosses and peers they don't like, for way too long. You have at least three choices, and you can make one of them right now, right here.

4. You should look inward.

This was not included in my opening when I said there are two variables, but as a People Leader of many years, and a team member for many years, I'll be remiss if I did not give you one answer you were not looking for.

Some bosses are terrible, but most are not. When I've found myself in these situations, I look inward to see what I can do to understand where my "terrible" boss is coming from.

Often it is not that they are terrible, it might be that that my boss and I are solving different problems. Or, that I'm working on something I feel is important, but is not aligned to what my boss is measured/compensated on. Or, this one is so common, the assumptions I'm bringing to the job are not the same assumptions my boss is bringing to it. Or... other such things.

It helps to seek that context. If you seek that context, directly or from your boss's boss, or from your peers, it allows you to ponder the complete reality of the terrible boss situation. Perhaps, you'll even see what you are contributing to it.

Then, for me it has simply been a matter of A. Identifying how to fix what I'm contributing to the situation at hand and B. Evaluating if I'm passionate about what will make my boss, team and company successful. If not, I have three other options (above)!

You have more power than you think, even in situations where you can't change jobs. I hope you'll look inward first (#4), and if the situation can't be rectified at all, proceed with choice #1 or #2 or #3.

I wish you all the very best!