Wayne Hochwarter a professor of Business Administration at Florida State University asked : How bad are bosses, really? Hochwarter surveyed 400 mid-level employees in a variety of industries to get a bead on the state of boss-dom today. What he found was alarming because it not only means there are a lot of bad bosses out there it means that there are lot of unproductive employees at a time when they need to be really productive to win over new customers.
He found:
- Bosses who put themselves first. 42% said their bosses were more concerned with saving their own skins than they were with enabling their employees to be productive. And 29% of employees said they believed their boss would ‘throw them under the bus’ if that’s what was required for the boss to keep his or her own job.
- Bosses who don’t keep their word. 42% of workers said that during the past year, their boss had failed to follow through on a promise he or she had made to them. More than 25% said this had happened to them at least five times in the past year!
- Bosses who are duplicitous. A third of workers said their boss is ‘two-faced,’ saying nice things to them in person but then saying negative things about them behind their back.
- Employees who run for cover. Two-in-five of the survey respondents said they would not acknowledge their boss if they ran into him or her on the street.
- Bosses who lie. Almost a quarter of workers–24%–said they had caught their boss in a lie but never received any explanation or apology.
We have all had our share of bad bosses and that is one more reason why, if you have a really good boss, you need to stay where you are and rethink about leaving. A friend of mine who recently left a good boss for a new job with a bad boss told me “yeah, I’m making more money now but I’m not happier, In fact I now realize I made a huge mistake”. Think about that…
Related articles
- ‘Horrible Bosses’ Movie Has a Ring of Reality, Professor Says (livescience.com)
- Almost half of employees worked for an unreasonable manager (richsmanagementblog.com)
- How to tell if your boss is ‘horrible’ (theglobeandmail.com)
- Half of Us Have Had ‘Horrible Bosses’: How to Handle Them (dailyfinance.com)
- 5 Tips To Deal With A Bad Boss (workhappiness.wordpress.com)
- How To Deal With A Difficult Boss (presurfer.blogspot.com)
- What Your Boss Expects: The Basics (hullonline.wordpress.com)
Great post, interesting insights.
The first point is always one that baffles me. How can a boss think he/she can trying save their skin if they put themselves before their employees, the ones who might just be able to help with said skin-saving? Surely a boss who is more open, honest and trustworthy is more ‘saveable’ anyway.
Hey, klelir job on that one you guys!
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Just what the doctor ordered, tahkinty you!
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The saying is always true: People don’t quit jobs, they quit people.