How To Spot a Bad Manager During an Interview

While it’s important to impress a potential employer with your resume, skills and work experience — it’s just as important to evaluate the company and manager. Asking the right questions during an interview can help you identify red flags about the manager and work culture.?

By Helen Harris?

When thinking about an upcoming interview, you usually focus on how you will best present yourself to the hiring manager or group of interviewers.?

How can you impress them? How will you show them that you are the right candidate for the job and that you bring the right skills and experience to the table??

While the above is certainly important – and you should prepare your career materials to reflect your experience – you shouldn’t neglect the fact that the interview is just as much about them as it is about you.?

It starts with asking the right questions during your interview.?

Has the manager and their leadership team created an environment where you can do your best work, grow your talent, collaborate and learn from those around you??

Or is there high turnover, an environment with little to no communication or trust, and no support for employee growth??

How do you find out these things??

Questions You Should Ask To Identify a Bad Manager

What questions should you ask in an interview to best identify company culture and what someone’s management style is like??

Dana Leavy-Detrick, executive resume writer, personal brand strategist and career consultant at Brooklyn Resume Studio/Canna Career Partners, says to ask questions that shed light on things such as employee retention, career development and turnover.?

For instance, is the role you are interviewing for a new role or is it one that is filling a vacancy? If it’s the latter, you will want to dig deeper and see if there have been many people in this particular position. Have they just left, or have they gone on to higher-level roles?

Other questions Leavy-Detrick suggests asking include the following:?

• What is the opportunity for advancement at the company?
• What is the company’s approach to employee retention and professional development (i.e., do they offer training, recognition programs, annual bonuses or incentives?)?
• How does the manager/the company set team members up for success? Do they provide things like coaching and regular performance evaluations to team members?

Paula Christensen, certified professional resume writer and interview coach, adds a few other key topics to bring up in your interview:?

“How does the company celebrate employee success?” This question helps identify whether employees are appreciated and if teamwork is reinforced — both of which lend to a culture of future success.

“What would you most like to change about the company?” Knowing what leadership wants to change helps you recognize potential red flags and roadblocks.?

“Asking this question also shows that you know every company has weak points and that you are insightful enough to ask about them to proactively prepare for them should you get the job,” said Christensen.?

Christensen points to other questions to help discover someone’s management style that include the following:?

• “What challenges might I encounter if I take on this position?”?
• “Are there any weaknesses in the department that you are particularly looking to improve?”?

“These questions help discern if your future manager is a micromanager, gets a little too riled up over issues with customers or how committed they are to training and professional development,” said Christensen.

Other Signs of a Bad Manager?

Aside from asking the above questions in your interview, Christensen urges job seekers to stick to their gut first.?

“Negative vibes are a major warning sign,” said Christensen. “These can look like off-putting or abrasive language, disrespecting coworkers or having a fearful or anxious tone. Follow your intuition here. Do you really want to work for someone who adds blame to others or makes problems worse through their discontent and pessimism?”?

Christensen acknowledges another general red flag: When your values and the company’s are misaligned.?

For example, she states maybe they have a “winner takes all, cutthroat” attitude, and you are more laid-back. Or maybe you like extremely structured and thought-out processes, and the business you are interviewing with is a start-up with undefined methods expecting its new hires to act nimbly and adjust to changing business practices.?

If your goals and culture don’t line up from the beginning, you’re going to have a hard time adjusting, thriving and identifying with the management at that workplace.?

Also, if there are signs of frequent turnover, you should think carefully about pursuing the role further and dig deeper into why people keep leaving.?

“Anything that points to frequent turnover on the team is a red flag, whether it’s employees leaving the company altogether, or being moved to another team,” said Leavy-Detrick. “It could very well be a leadership decision, but it could also signal that the manager is difficult to work with or doesn’t value team members enough to ensure their success.”?

Signs of a Good Work Environment and Manager?

Now that you’re familiar with what a bad manager and a toxic work environment might look like, it’s important to also cover what a healthy work environment entails.?

Christensen identifies the following as “green-light” aspects of the job-interview process:?

• If the interview process was well-managed and the company treated you respectfully throughout the process
• If communications were timely and cohesive
• If they didn’t make you jump through too many hoops:?“Human relationships drive business success and the way you were treated through the interview process shows a lot about the organization’s values and commitment to hiring the right people,” said Christensen.
• If you can genuinely picture yourself working for them, partnering with their team on a new endeavor and even drinking coffee with them in the break room:?“You know yourself better than anyone else, and it is an excellent sign if you visualize clear and detailed moments like these,”?said Christensen.

Leavy-Detrick adds that another clear indicator of a great company and manager is if you can tell that the company values its employees, employees’ opinions and feelings toward the company, and also makes an effort to retain its talent.?

To round out Christensen and Leavy-Detrick’s thoughts, Jody Michael, WSJ bestselling author of “Leading Lightly,” executive coach and leadership coach, states that another positive indicator is a hiring manager who demonstrates integrity. For example, if they said they would return your email by the end of the week or send you job-related materials — did they??

“In great cultures, leadership advocates for accountability and won’t make excuses for falling short,” said Michael.?

Additionally, you shouldn’t overlook the position’s pay and benefits. Is it competitive in respect to other positions with the same responsibilities??

“Overall, you’ll want to look for a company that values what you value, whether that’s work-life balance or some other benefit, but you also want to decide for yourself what the compensation indicates about the company’s view of employees,” said Micheal.?

And last but not least, a company’s reputation speaks for itself. If you have done your research on various social media sites and see that employees are happy to work there, approve of the CEO, the work they do and the company culture, then you are already off to a good start when it comes to further pursuing the role.?

What To Do if You Have a Bad Manager?

What if you interviewed for a job that had no signs of the manager being a “bad manager,” and the culture not being a good fit — but when you settled in, things took a turn for the worst? You might be wondering who to turn to.?

Leavy-Detrick advises depending on the company’s structure and assuming it can’t be worked out with the manager directly, that you should be cautious about going directly to another supervisor or to HR.

Before turning to anyone, first see if your company has protocols in place for handling personnel matters or an employee handbook to guide you in the right direction.?

“How long you tolerate a challenging employee-manager dynamic is a personal decision,” said Leavy-Detrick. “But keep in mind, the longer it negatively impacts your ability to succeed at the company, the more it may hinder your overall career growth — particularly how you position the experience on your resume or in the interview.”?

If at all possible, Christensen urges you to first try to make the relationship with your manager work. Leavy-Detrick builds on this, stating that you may even be able to request a transfer to another team, or to work on a different project.?

Take time to express your concerns face-to-face, or on Zoom, rather than via email, and keep your emotions in check. Avoid letting your frustrations dominate the conversation and speak professionally, with a neutral tone. Christensen also advises it could be a good idea to see if there is someone internally who you feel comfortable approaching and getting advice from with your issue.

But if you have exhausted these avenues, it might be time to explore what else is out there and reopen your job search.

“We spend so much of our waking hours at work, it doesn’t make sense to be unhappy,” said Christensen. “Your manager’s effectiveness makes an enormous impact on your professional future.”?

Top Takeaways?

How To Spot a Bad Manager During an Interview

• Identifying a bad manager starts with asking the right questions during your interview.?
• You should ask questions that shed light on things such as employee retention, career development and turnover.?
• By asking these questions, you’ll be able to tell if the manager is a micromanager, gets bent out of shape easily or how committed they are to training and professional development.
• “Overall, you’ll want to look for a company that values what you value, whether that’s work-life balance or some other benefit, but you also want to decide for yourself what the compensation indicates about the company’s view of employees.”?
• If you are in a bad work environment, first try to make the relationship with your manager work or possibly request a transfer to another team or different project.??
• “In great cultures, leadership advocates for accountability and won’t make excuses for falling short.