Managing Your Bad Boss

Managing Your Bad Boss

So, your boss is a dud. A bully. A person you'd do anything to avoid. Maybe he or she embodies all of the habits I wrote about in the first post in this series. What now?
First, here's my short list of how we may make the workplace bearable when our bosses aren't.

• Commiserate. The worst bosses make for the best co-worker relationships. You can end every office squabble by saying, "Hey, I'm keeping the boss off your back!"

• Sabotage. Does your boss have a personal refrigerator not allowed by company policy? Did you really get a package for him or did it "accidentally" get reshipped to the Tunisia office?

• Question everything. You don't want to make any mistakes, so check every detail. "By 'blue,' do you mean aqua or more teal? Can you give me the RGB values of the 'blue' you're looking for? To be safe, I'll hold off on the presentation till you decide."

• Travel. Travel. Travel. Where in the world does your Blackberry not work? In your case, anywhere more exotic than 10 feet from your desk.

• YouTube. Lots and lots of YouTube. *While I would certainly never advocate behaving unethically (and therefore most of this) it strikes me as more true than not that people work ing for a bad boss use these tactics, albeit often unconsciously—and that's not a reasonable way for you or your boss to survive the workday. But in my experience, really outlasting a bully requires a thickening of your own skin and, as unpleasant as it sounds, a change of attitude to helping, rather than hindering, your bad boss. In a good employer-employee relationship, the relationship is a two-way street. The boss seeks to know what you want and explains clearly his, and the company's, goals. The bully boss, however, does not care about you and will not (or cannot figure out how to) be open and honest. This makes your attempt to please the boss harder— but not impossible. Chances are good (based on my experience with many bosses and employees) that you and your bully boss are at cross purposes. Maybe she has pet projects that you find frivolous and distracting. Or perhaps you want to get promoted and your boss wants you to keep a low profile so the spotlight remains on him. If that's true, the boss will view you and all your actions—aimed to show the world how good you are—as threats to his stability.

With these issues and others in mind, here's my revised list for really managing your bad boss:

• Understand what your boss' goals are (i.e. "get ahead" or "stay put") and how your objectives differ. How might your boss perceive you as a threat? Use that knowledge to keep from stepping on toes.

• Show your boss how you will support him or her. Focus on helping with the tasks your boss is weakest at, while being careful not to criticize.
• Head off confrontations. Just because your boss sent you 20 emails on your vacation doesn't mean you need to respond while water skiing. Take a breath and when you write back, keep it professional.

• Document your job requirements. Listing all the projects and tasks expected of you will help minimize the amount of "and one more thing" e-mails. And if you boss continues to come up with stuff to do, you at least have the documentation to support the need for more staff.

• Keep your goals secondary until (and if ever) you can win your boss' trust.
Do this and you might win over your boss to help support your career path. He still won't care about you, but it will be more valuable to him to help than crush your will to work. And if nothing works, remember: this too shall pass. But you may need to help things along, so stop reading this and get cracking on your resume. How about you? Have you found successful methods of dealing with office bullies? Do you think it's wrong to subordinate fully to the bad boss? Do you think some bosses are so bad that there's no way to manage them? And what about my first list? Is it tongue-in-cheek, or do you think it's what really happens?

The 10 Worst Job Tips Ever

The 10 Worst Job Tips Ever

Nearly every day, someone sends me a bit of astounding job-search advice from a blog or a newsletter. Some of this advice seems to come directly from the planet X-19, and some of it seems to have been made up on the spot. Here are 10 of my favorite pieces of atrocious job-search advice, for you to read and ignore at all costs:

1. DON'T WRAP IT UP
The Summary or Objective at the top of your résumé is the wrap-up; It tells the reader, "This person knows who s/he is, what s/he's done, and why it matters." Your Summary shows off your writing skills, shows that you know what's salient in your background, and puts a point on the arrow of your résumé. Don't skip it, no matter who tells you it's not necessary or important.

2. TELL US EVERYTHING
Another piece of horrendous job search advice tells job-seekers to share as much information as possible. A post-millennium résumé uses up two pages, maximum, when it's printed. (Academic CVs are another story.) Editing is a business skill, after all—just tell us what's most noteworthy in your long list of impressive feats.

3. USE CORPORATESPEAK
Any résumé that trumpets "cross-functional facilitation of multi-level teams" is headed straight for the shredder. The worst job-search advice tells us to write our résumés using ponderous corporate boilerplate that sinks a smart person's résumé like a stone. Please ignore that advice, and write your résumé the way you speak

4. DON'T EVER POSTPONE A PHONE SCREEN
A very bad bit of job-search advice says "Whatever you do, don't ever miss a phone screen! Even if you're in the shower or on your way to be the best man at your brother's wedding, make time for that phone interview!" This is good advice is your job-search philosophy emphasizes groveling. I don't recommend this approach. Let the would- be phone-screener know that you're tied up at the moment but would be happy to speak at 7 p.m. on Thursday night, or some other convenient time. Lock in the time during that first call, but don't contort your life to fit the screener's schedule.


5. DON'T BRING UP MONEY
Do bring up money by the second interview, and let the employers know what your salary requirements are before they start getting ideas that perhaps you're a trust-fund baby and could bring your

6. SEND YOUR RESUME VIA AN ONLINE JOB AD OR THE COMPANY WEB SITE, ONLY
Successful job-seekers use friends, LinkedIn contacts, and anybody else in their network to locate and reach out to contacts inside a target employer. Playing by the rules often gets your résumé pitched into the abyss at the far end of the e-mail address talent@xyzcorp.com. If you've got a way into the decision-maker's office, use it. Ignore advice that instructs you to send one résumé via the company Web site and wait (and wait, and wait) to hear from them.

7. NEVER SEND A PAPER RESUME
I've been recommending sending snail-mail letters to corporate job-search target contacts for three or four years now, and people tell me it's working. The response rate is higher, and the approach is friendlier. A surface-mail letter can often get you an interview in a case where an e-mail would get ignored or spam-filtered. One friend of mine sent her surface-mail résumé and cover letter to a major company's COO in New York, and got a call a week later from a general manager wanting to interview her in Phoenix, where she lives. She showed up at the interview to see her paper letter—yes, her actual, signed letter, on bond paper—and résumé sitting on his desk in Phoenix (probably conveyed via an old-fashioned Inter-Office envelope). An e-mail might have ended up in the COO's spam folder.

8. WAIT FOR THEM TO CALL YOU
You can't wait for companies to call you back. You've got to call and follow up on the résumés you've sent. If an ad says "no calls," use your LinkedIn connections to put you in touch with someone who can put in a word with the hiring manager. Don't sit and wait for the call to come. Your résumé is in a stack with 150 others, and if you don't push it up the pipeline, no one will.

9. GIVE THEM EVERYTHING.
Give them your résumé, your cover letter, and your time in a phone-screen or face-to-face interview. But don't give anyone your list of references until it's clear that mutual interest to move forward exists (usually after two interviews), and don't fill out endless tests and questionnaires in the hope of perhaps getting an audience with the Emperor. Let the employers know that you'd be happy to talk (ideally on the phone at first) to see whether your interests and theirs intersect. If there's a good match, you'll feel better about sharing more time and energy on whatever tests and exercises they've constructed to weed out unsuitable candidates. Maybe.

10. POST YOUR RESUME ON EVERY JOB BOARD
This is the best way in the world to get overexposed and undervalued in the job market. (Exception: If you're looking for contract or journeyman IT work, it's a great idea to post your credentials all over.) People will find your LinkedIn profile if they're looking and if you've taken the time to fill it out with pithy details of your background. If you're not employed, include a headline like "Online Marketer ISO Next Challenge" or "Controller Seeking Company Seeking Controller." Your résumé posted on a job board is a spam-and-scam magnet and a mark that your network isn't as robust as it might be. These aren't the signs you want to put out there. Use your network (vs. the world at large) to help you spread the job-search word. What's the worst job-seeking advice you've ever gotten?

Banyak Karyawan Keluar Karena Perlakuan Kasar

Banyak Karyawan Keluar Karena Perlakuan Kasar

CHALLENGER, GRAY & CHRISTMAS, INC.

Perlakuan kasar yang menyerang seseorang secara verbal terus membayangi tempat-tempat kerja. Tiga dari 10 eksekutif HR mengaku bahwa mereka melihat karyawan keluar dari perusahaan karena mengalami bullying.

Survei yang dilakukan terhadap 100 orang profesional HR oleh perusahaan outplacement Challenger, Gray & Christmas di Chicago tersebut juga menemukan, sepertiga eksekutif menjadi saksi atau pernah mengalami bullying di tempat kerja.

"Secara statistik, bullying jauh lebih lazim terjadi dibandingkan pelecehan seksual, kekerasan di tempat kerja atau pun diskriminasi rasial dan biaya-biaya jangka panjang yang harus ditanggung perusahaan cukup besar," ujar CEO Challenger, Gray & Christmas John Gray. "Di samping itu, bullying juga masih merupakan salah satu dari masalah-masalah manajemen yang paling sering dihadapi oleh manajemen dan pengadilan," tambah dia.

Riset yang akan dipublikasikan dalam Journal of Management edisi September tersebut menduga, banyak budaya perusahaan yang tanpa disadari kadang memicu, mendorong dan bahkan menghargai bullying. Namun, sejauh ini, kesadaran orang terhadap fenomena bullying masih sangat rendah. Di Amerika, hanya satu dari 10 orang yang menyadari bahwa perilaku yang mereka perlihatkan sebenarnya merupakan bullying.

Riset menyimpulkan bahwa perilaku bullying tak lepas dari budaya (di) tempat kerja yang bersangkutan. Kehidupan perusahaan memicu stres dan individualisme, di mana semua itu mengakibatkan individu-individu yang memiliki kekuasaan dalam organisasi melakukan bully terhadap yang lain.

Meskipun tidak ada data yang valid mengenai staff turnover yang terkait dengan bullying, namun dikatakan bahwa "tak diragukan lagi angkanya signifikan". Robert Sutton dalam bukunya yang berjudul The No Asshole Rule mengutip sebah perusahaan yang memperkirakan kehilangan 160 ribu dolar AS per tahun untuk biaya turnover dan penyelesaian kasus-kasus yang disebabkan hanya oleh satu talent yang temperamental dan berperilaku kasar.

Sementara itu, data dari Employment Law Alliance memperkirakan bahwa hampir separo karyawan di Amerika telah menyaksikan kekerasan verbal maupun fisik di tempat kerja. "Sudah menjadi kewajiban perusahaan untuk mengindentifikasi para bully dan mendampingi mereka untuk mengubah perilaku mereka, atau jika tak bisa, keluarkan mereka," ujar John Challenger.

"Setiap perusahaan yang kehilangan karyawan karena kasus bullying di tempat kerja, harus mencari penggantinya. Biaya replacement bisa mencapai 150 persen dari gaji karyawan yang digantikan itu."