The Bad Boss Handbook - (هوس)HOC-ENews · better results than trying to correct their inevitable weaknesses, or somehow trying to compensate for them. Praise them for what they

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The Bad Boss Handbook33 Things You Probably Shouldn’t Do

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Essential Insights: The Bad Boss Handbook

Contents/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

4 Intro

5 #1: Yelling at employees

6 #2: Being stingy with praise

8 #3: Criticizing too much

8 #4: Harassing employees

10 #5: Failure to communicate

11 #6: Not explaining the ‘why’

12 #7: Lying to employees

14 #8: Hiding behind higher-ups

15 #9: Reinforcing negatives

16 #10: Sugarcoating poor performance

17 #11: Calling people ‘average’

18 #12: Double-speak on salaries

19 #13: Playing favorites

20 #14: Being manipulative

21 #15: Not seeking employee feedback

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22 #16: Failure to enforce consistent standards

23 #17: Not recognizing people are wired differently

25 #18: Befriending employees outside of work

26 #19: ‘Seagull’ managers

26 #20: Clinging to command-and-control

27 #21: Being a bully

28 #22: It’s all about me

30 #23: Failure to give credit

30 #24: Finger-pointing

31 #25: Fear of firing

32 #26: Firing as bloodsport

33 #27: Incompetent hiring

34 #28: Setting a bad example

35 #29: Being an absentee boss

36 #30: Hovering

37 #31: Micromanaging

38 #32: Failure to document

39 #33: Not looking them in the eye

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Frontline managers and supervisors are extraordinarily important to the success of any organization. When employees love their bosses, they give their best and the whole organization does better.When employees don’t like the boss, performance suffers and the organization does, as well.

When people quit, causing expensive turnover and the need to train replacements, survey after survey has shown that it ’s most often not for wages or better benefits elsewhere. Most employees quit because they just couldn’t stand working for a bad boss any longer.

Managers and supervisors are still often promoted simply because they were the best performers among a peer group. But when they were promoted, many were given little or no training on how to supervise people and get the best out of them.

How can you teach people to become good bosses?

It may be hard to define what makes a good boss. It’s probably easier to define what makes a bad boss. Most employees have suffered at the hands of bad bosses during their careers. The habits of bad bosses are well known.

Perhaps by recognizing the habits of bad bosses, newly appointed managers and supervisors can learn not to repeat those mistakes.

So basically, this is the Bad Boss Handbook – of all the things you shouldn’t do. These bad habits of bosses are still commonly seen in today’s workplaces. And new managers and supervisors would do well to stay away from them.

The Bad Boss Handbook 33 Things You Probably Shouldn’t Do

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We did not include any that were patently illegal behavior, such as physically hitting employees or overt sexual harassment. Companies can deal with those kinds of over-the-top instances by enforcing their own policies prohibiting those behaviors.

So here are the 33 common habits of bad bosses that cause their employers untold problems in decreased morale, increased turnover and lagging productivity. And we tell you the good habits you should have to counter them.

#1: Yelling at employeesOf all the bad habits of bosses, this just may be THE WORST. Everyone, and especially working adults, respond very badly to being yelled at.

No matter what the supposed offense, if a boss starts yelling at the employee, there is no conceivable favorable outcome for the manager, the employee or the organization.

Some employees will resent the boss for yelling at them and express their resentment through passive-aggressive behavior. They will look for any opportunity to get back at the yelling boss, whether it is by doing the absolute minimum and making the boss look bad with his or her superiors or by small acts of sabotage.

Other employees may show their resentment by simply withdrawing into a shell and trying never to draw any boss’ attention again. These employees may start sleep-walking through an eight-hour shift – and no extra effort will ever be forthcoming from them. They have disengaged.

Whatever the reaction, the employee is not likely to focus on what he or she was being yelled at for. The contents of the yelling words will likely go right over their heads.

The only thing worse than yelling at an employee is yelling at him or her in front of others.

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So whatever the boss or manager was so upset about, it’s not going to get fixed and the employee is not likely to correct the offending behavior. So the boss would do well to remind himself or herself that yelling at people is not very goal-oriented behavior – unless the goal was to humiliate the employee, which becomes bullying.

The only thing worse than yelling at an employee is yelling at him or her in front of others. That will only deepen and solidify their resentment.

To be sure, some employees will try a boss’s patience. But in most companies with an enlightened human resources philosophy, a manager who yells will probably get reported and end up slated for some coaching.

But the main reason to refrain from yelling: It’s the worst way to reach your goal, which should be to get the employee to correct his or her behavior.

If the offense was so grave that it is cause for termination, save your anger and let the HR department handle the termination.

If it is not a fireable offense, and if the boss doesn’t want to get rid of the employee, the boss would do well to call a time-out to cool off. If necessary, send the employee home for the rest of the day and face him or her the next morning when you’ve had a chance to cool off and handle the issue more rationally and calmly.

#2: Being stingy with praiseThis is perhaps the most frequently observed habit of bad managers. Most managers fall into the trap of believing that being a boss is all about correcting employees.

After all, you believe you were appointed to be the boss because you know more about the job than anyone else. So now it’s time to share your knowledge with others and prevent them from making mistakes.

By nature, giving feedback tends to be negative. “Don’t do this – do this instead.” “You should have done it this way.” “You can’t do that.”

No, no, no.

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The trouble with negative feedback and criticism is that it’s not very effective. Some employees just may not be able to do much better. And having their shortcomings pointed out constantly is deflating.

Even for people who need correcting and are capable of doing better, harping on negatives is not likely to get them enthused about doing better in the future.

Instead, playing to people’s strengths will always get better results than trying to correct their inevitable weaknesses, or somehow trying to compensate for them. Praise them for what they do well, and they’ll do more of it.

Always give three times as much positive feedback as negative feedback. A thank-you for a job well done is one of the most powerful motivators for employees.

And it’s probably best to stay away from the so-called “sandwich” style of criticism as well. In the sandwich style of criticism, a boss forces himself or herself to

first say something good about the employee, then follows it up with the criticism that motivated the boss to call the employee into his office in the first place, and ends with something positive again. Thus, the criticism is “sandwiched” in between two different layers of praise.

That management style was considered rather enlightened – and it certainly is better than yelling at people or constantly harping on negatives. The problem with that style is that employees have largely become inured to it. So when a manager starts praising an employee, he or she automatically thinks (or even may say): “Uh, oh, I wonder what’s coming next – what have I done now?”

It is simply much more effective to deliver praise by itself when warranted – and make it sincere.

Always give three times as much positive feedback as negative feedback. A thank-you for a job well done is one of the most powerful motivators for employees.

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#3: Criticizing too muchIf you’re not giving enough praise, you’re probably criticizing too much, or at least that’s what your employees would likely say.

Employees who hear nothing but criticism and negative feedback from their bosses tend to get down on themselves and on the job they were hired to do. They get the feeling that they can’t do anything right. They become disillusioned and may quit to work elsewhere where they believe the grass is greener, or at least where they will feel more appreciated.

Or their performance may drop to such a point that the company has no alternative but to terminate them.

Too much criticism is harmful to employees’ performance in any profession and in any industry.

The administrative assistant who is constantly criticized by her boss for not doing things right will eventually believe she can’t do anything right. The factory worker who is constantly criticized by his or her supervisor for not doing things by the book will probably make more and more mistakes as his confidence erodes.

The salesman who is overly criticized for not being effective will soon begin to feel constantly ineffective.

Constant harping, simply put, never achieves its purpose.

#4: Harassing employeesBy harassing, we are not referring to legal harassment as defined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

But there are other kinds of harassment which do not rise to the level of a patently illegal act, but are nevertheless truly bad habits.

The workplace is full of jerks who for some perverse reason get a kick out of making someone else’s life miserable – and some of those insensitive jerks have unfortunately risen to the level of supervisors.

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Some unenlightened supervisors who haven’t been trained otherwise may even think that harassing their underlings may be the best way to keep them in line and on their toes.

Harassment can take on all kinds of forms. Insecure supervisors and bosses find lots of ways to needle employees.

Work relationships have grown increasingly litigious, and there is a tendency now to want to slap a legal term on even petty squabbles and call it “harassment.”

Often, when these kinds of incidents are investigated, it’s found that there’s nothing illegal going on – just bad management.

The legal profession has done a disservice to the workplace environment trying to force all conflict between workers or between bosses and workers into some kind of legal term like “illicit harassment” when there is no basis for such legal judgment.

Most of these cases in all probability could easily be solved by someone – an HR executive, a senior manager, or in-house or outside attorney – telling the offending boss to “knock it off.”

A boss who has been told to knock off offensive behavior directed at a particular employee should also be warned to be careful not to engage in any kind of behavior that could be seen as retaliation, or take any adverse job action against the employee who reported the harassment.

A plaintiff’s lawyer may not have been able to prove that the company or the boss did anything illegal in the original incident. However, if the employee who reported the boss is suddenly transferred to an undesirable shift, or suffers any adverse fate, then that same plaintiff’s lawyer will have just been handed a dream: an open-and-shut, high-dollar case of retaliation.

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#5: Failure to communicateThere’s nothing employees hate more than a boss who shuts himself or herself in an office and doesn’t talk to the staff – about anything.

They want to hear something from the boss. For younger staffers, a text message may be OK. But most employees, especially those over 40, want to see and hear the boss in person.

Even if there is nothing particular to report to the staff, just seeing the boss walk through the workplace and joke around with some of the employees will send a message that all is well, that there is nothing to worry about.

It’s been called Management By Walking Around, and sends an important signal that the boss is there to lead, protect and serve.

We’ve all heard that the actual words being said account for only about 10% or less of communication – the rest consists of tone of voice and especially body language.

Bosses would do well to make sure they have a smile on their faces when they move around in the midst of their teams.

Walking around with a long face and a worried look will immediately start the rumors flying that bad corporate news is about to come down. An open stance and a nice smile are among the manager’s best weapons to get everyone in a positive and productive mood.

People want to hear from their bosses whether they’re doing well or not. And they want to hear whether the company is doing well or not.

If there is important corporate news, whether it involves expansion or contraction, changes in benefits plans or safety procedures and policies, or departures or arrivals of top executives, numerous surveys have shown employees would rather hear it from their immediate supervisors than from anyone else in the organization.

Bosses would do well to make sure they have a smile on their faces when they move around in the midst of their teams.

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That mid-level boss has more credibility with workers than the corporate big shots or the HR department – and the bosses are always better able to put the news into context for their employees, and explain what it will mean to them in their particular jobs.

Managers and supervisors may not always be able to share everything they know with employees. Some things are just too sensitive and cannot be shared for all sorts of reasons.

But bosses also need to realize that the rumor mill is always running and if they don’t say anything, the rumor mill will fill a vacuum – likely with idle speculation that is not conducive to a positive working environment.

It’s often better to say something like this: “I realize the rumor mill is working overtime, and no one knows at this time how this situation will turn out. As soon as I know something definite, I’ll tell you. But in the meantime, the best thing we can do is to concentrate on our work and do it as well as we can. There’s nothing we can do to influence events.”

At least that way, the boss preserves the trust of his or her employees. In uncertain times, with mergers and acquisitions, rightsizing, downsizing, etc., employees want to see that their managers have their backs and will protect their interests.

#6: Not explaining the ‘why’Failing to explain the “why” probably irritates employees most and causes the most misunderstandings between bosses and employees.

This is especially true with employees of the so-called Generation Y, generally defined as those born after 1980. They are so named because they came after the Gen-X. But they might as well have been so named because they always ask “why?”

Take the extra few minutes to explain the “why.” Your people will appreciate it and will probably do a better job knowing how their jobs fit into some big picture.

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Some managers may reflexively see this as open insubordination by always questioning everything and wanting to know why something needs to be done. But the Gen-Y worker means no such disrespect.

He or she always asks “why” – for this is how they roll. So try not to let it lead to misunderstandings.

When in doubt, bosses would do well to over-communicate. Little harm can come from over-communicating as difficult as that may be to achieve, but a lot of bad results can occur because of under-communicating or a total failure to communicate.

So take the extra few minutes to explain the “why.” Your people will appreciate it and will probably do a better job knowing how their jobs fit into some big picture.

#7: Lying to employeesFailure to communicate is a bad habit of bosses, but outright lying to employees is indefensible. It’s difficult for a boss to come back from an outright lie told to an employee. The employee will likely never trust or believe the boss again. The boss’ credibility has been destroyed.

“That’s probably another one of his (or her) damned lies,” is the natural reaction from the employee the next time the boss asks the employee to believe him.

Lies will almost always come back to haunt the boss who tells them, possibly forever. They are rarely, if ever, forgotten.

There are several different ways of lying. You can lie by omission – by not telling someone something they should know or have a right to know. If an employee is not doing a good job or not doing it right, and the boss doesn’t tell the employee, that’s a lie by omission.

The boss gives the employee no chance to improve or do it right. And that lie will come back to haunt the boss. When the boss finally gets tired of the employee not doing the job right and fires him, the employee will rightfully say: “But you never told me so …” and he may well file a wrongful termination suit, trying to find, with the help of an attorney, an illegal reason for the termination.

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With their verdicts in wrongful termination cases, juries have consistently shown that they believe employees deserve a warning before they can be fired. They believe people should be told the truth. They will not forgive a boss who consistently marked “satisfactory” on an employee’s performance review because he didn’t want to confront the employee, and then suddenly turns around and fires the employee, saying he was never any good.

Of course, there are other ways of lying to employees, none of which can bring good results. Some bosses mistakenly believe that in times of corporate instability it is better to tell the employees a white lie to quiet them down and keep things calm.

A manager may know that some layoffs are coming, but he doesn’t yet know how many and where the axe may fall. He may then be tempted to tell employees “don’t worry – everything will be fine” just to keep them focused on their work.

It’s always a mistake to tell an outright lie like that. Once the news is announced and both the departing and the remaining employees realize that the boss has told a lie, the boss will lose respect in the employee’s eyes and will never be believed again.

You may not always be able to share everything you know, but don’t lie. In the case of the impending layoffs, it would be best to say something like: “Look, everyone knows we’re going through some tough times, and some difficult decisions may have to be made. Several alternatives are under consideration.

I’ll keep you informed about how the decision-making process is going. As soon as I know something, I will communicate it.”

Sometimes managers and supervisors discover later that they told one or more of their employees what amounts to a lie, but they didn’t intend that at the time.

It’s always a mistake to tell an outright lie like that. Once the news is announced and both the departing and the remaining employees realize that the boss has told a lie, the boss will lose respect in the employee’s eyes and will never be believed again.

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Either they didn’t have the right information at the time, and they got caught unaware, or they made the mistake of assuming something that didn’t turn out to be true.

In those cases, it is best to immediately call in the employees who were told this and set the record straight right away. The boss may say something like: “I know on such-and-such a day I told you X. That’s what I thought was true at the time. I now know that I was wrong. I’m sorry I gave you the wrong information. The real truth is Y.”

The boss will not lose the respect of the employees this way and the trust in the relationship will survive. Don’t try to rationalize having given the wrong information. Simply admit the mistake and move on.

#8: Hiding behind higher-upsBad bosses sometimes have an irritating habit of trying to distance themselves from decisions made on high, saying they don’t agree with a decision that was probably unpopular with their staff, but they have no choice but to implement it.

They are probably acting out of a misplaced sense of loyalty to their people. They want to have a common cause with their people.

They may think they’re still one of the workers and that’s where their loyalty should lie. They may do so because they want to be liked by their employees. Railing together against a bigger boss and saying that “the devil made me do it,” may make everyone feel good momentarily, but this kind of a cop-out achieves nothing good over the long term.

Good bosses, on the other hand, make a real effort to explain to their employees the reasons behind the corporate decisions that may seem unpopular at first – even if they themselves may not have agreed with the decision at heart.

Good managers know how to explain things to their employees, so they can put it in the right context and see it from the right perspective. Good bosses know how to explain the background, and give their employees hope of a better future for all.

What’s more, that’s what loyal employees expect.

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#9: Reinforcing negativesA big mistake bosses make with their employees is in choosing negative words, when they would be much better off using positive words.

A supervisor may say to an employee: “You don’t want to get into a rut, so I’ll transfer you temporarily to a different shift.” The supervisor may have the best intentions in the world in saying it. He or she may honestly believe the employee will benefit from a change in scenery.

But all the employee hears is: “Boy, that job I’m doing really sucks. Now that he mentioned it to me, it is a real grind and a rut, a total bore. I hope I never have to go back to that.” Because the boss used the word “rut” in a negative way, even though he said that he didn’t want the employee to get into one, all the employee heard was the negative idea.

A boss may tell an employee: “You’re doing a good job managing your heavy workload,” and he may mean it as authentic praise. But the word “workload” is a term with a negative connotations.

All the employee hears is: “Boy, he’s right. They’re working me way too hard. I’m doing much more than anyone else around here and that’s not fair. I’m going to push back a bit.”

The boss could have said the same thing, without being misunderstood and without the employee taking it in a totally unintended way. He could have said something like this: “You’ve done a really good job going beyond your comfort zone and expanding your horizons. I think you’ve grown personally and professionally through those new challenges you’ve taken on. You’re doing great. You can go far around here.”

The words may essentially mean the same thing and cover the same situation. But the positive words will have a much more beneficial effect on the employee’s performance than the negative ones.

Good managers understand that every word they say will carry some meaning to their employees, and they’re careful to use positive words and images and not reinforce possible underlying negatives.

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Bad bosses don’t watch their words. Good managers understand that every word they say will carry some meaning to their employees, and they’re careful to use positive words and images and not reinforce possible underlying negatives.

#10: Sugarcoating poor performanceOne bad habit of bosses is to shy away from confronting employees even when it’s necessary. They’re afraid of an argument or they just don’t want to deal with the situation.

So when it comes time to document the employee’s performance, since the boss never openly confronted the employee about his or her sub-par performance or his or her bad attitude, the boss can’t very well address such criticism at the last minute.

So the boss sugarcoats his or her judgment of the employee’s performance and says everything is OK and satisfactory.

The employee may have no idea that he or she is coming up short of expectations. Or even if the employee knows he or she is not doing too well, the employee can still fool themselves by focusing on the fact that the boss never said anything to him or her – or said that everything was OK.

Bosses who sugarcoat feedback to their employees aren’t doing them any favors. They let them live in a fantasy world that will eventually end in a rude awakening.

Bosses who sugarcoat feedback also may do great harm to the companies they work for and represent. An employee whose performance lapses are not corrected won’t improve. As a matter of fact, performance will probably slip to such a level the company has no choice but to eventually terminate the employee.

And then, if the employee has been there for a few years, he or she will go seeking an attorney to sue for wrongful dismissal – saying he or she was fired for some illegal reason, like being part of a protected group.

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Bad bosses hide the truth from their employees, and make it worse for everyone when the real truth is later discovered. Good bosses always find a way to tell the truth, as uncomfortable as that may be. In the long run, the employees will thank their boss for having told the truth, early and often. The lies and the sugarcoating don’t do anyone any good.

#11: Calling people ‘average’No employee thinks of himself or herself as “average.” Everyone thinks he is she is above average. “Average” is a damning word, and perhaps one of the greatest de-motivators out there.

If you must work with boxes on performance reviews with pre-determined categories, at least get rid of the word “average.” You can easily replace it with “meets our high expectations,” a phrase that can mean exactly the same, but is a greater motivator.

Some companies just don’t think they can trust their supervisors to do anything with performance reviews except to mark off boxes. Hopefully, the boxes have at least been vetted by a communications expert to ensure they stay away from negative stereotypes.

However, the most effective performance reviews don’t rely solely on boxes to be marked off.

Bosses who make an effort to write something meaningful about the employee’s performance, both praise and constructive criticism, have the greatest chance of having a positive impact on performance.

Employment law experts generally advise companies not to do performance reviews at all if their supervisors are going to do a bad job of it or if they’re just going to mark off boxes.

Badly done performance reviews make it virtually impossible to mount an effective defense against eventual wrongful termination suits.

Bosses who make an effort to write something meaningful about the employee’s performance, both praise and constructive criticism, have the greatest chance of having a positive impact on performance.

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#12: Double-speak on salariesPlaying Santa Claus is fun. Everybody likes to do it.

Santa brings presents and makes people happy. In the same vein, bosses love to hand out nice raises and bonuses. That’s the easy part.

Bosses who give out big raises are loved and embraced. It makes them popular and it usually buys some short-term loyalty – short-term because if the employee doesn’t get as much of a raise the next year, he or she will start to wonder what’s gone wrong.

It is much harder to have to tell employees, which will be the case much more often, that they will not be getting as big a raise as they were expecting or hoping for – or perhaps even no raise at all.

Here’s where bad bosses stumble. They’ll bring good news, like big raises, when they can take the credit. But they don’t like talking about money to employees when they can’t bring good news.

It is not uncommon for bad bosses to hide behind the people upstairs and say that so-and-so won’t let them give larger raises than this.

Good bosses know how to talk to their employees about money issues whether the news is good or bad – and most of the time it may be more bad than good. For a sizable raise, good bosses make sure that they manage expectations for the future – it’s probably not going to be as good in the future.

If the news about salary adjustments is not as good as the employee had hoped, good bosses assume part of the responsibility for the decision themselves and let the affected employees know that.

People can accept small or no raises when they know they are being treated fairly, and they trust that other employees are being judged on the same criteria.

The key lies in the perception of fairness.

Good bosses know how to explain fairness. Bad bosses just reinforce resentment on the part of employees who think that they’re not being paid enough.

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An employee working for a good boss may be content with a small raise because the boss made it clear, in terms that could be understood, how raises were calculated.

The same employee who got the same small raise from a boss who failed to communicate how the raise was calculated, may be totally de-motivated and resentful because he or she feels exploited.

#13: Playing favoritesPeople resent few things as much as they resent bosses who play favorites. Employees need to sense they are being treated fairly by their bosses. If employees see the boss has a “teacher’s pet” who gets all the plum assignments, extra time off or other perks, they will resent it.

Employees want to see consistency in the way all staff members are treated by their bosses. If someone was disciplined for something, they want to see that someone else who does the same thing will be treated the same way.

Seeing favored treatment gives all other employees the impression that they might as well not even try. Their performance sags, they become disillusioned, and they start looking for jobs elsewhere.

The perception of favoritism can destroy an entire work team if it is not checked in time. Some otherwise well-intentioned bosses may not even be aware they are playing favorites.

They may think that the employee they are favoring is so obviously superior to all his or her co-workers, that everyone else will also see that superiority and automatically defer to the favored employee. But others probably do not see it that way.

To guard against such unintentional favoritism or the impression of favoritism among the workers, good bosses check in frequently with all of their workers one-on-one to find out what’s going on.

The perception of favoritism can destroy an entire work team if it is not checked in time.

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They don’t just rely on one of the workers to tell them about the mood among the staff. They balance what one person says with what other employees may say, and they don’t automatically believe what one employee says over what another may say.

All employees want to feel they have an equal chance of having a strong and productive relationship with their manager. As long as they are listened to, they will feel that the work environment can be fair to all of them.

#14: Being manipulativeNo one wants a manipulative boss.

A typical manipulative boss may say to an employee: “But you’re so much better at this than so-and-so” in an effort to use flattery to get an employee to take on extra work or undertake an unpopular task.

The manipulation is obvious – probably to everyone but the boss.

Employees would prefer a different approach. A good boss who senses this will stay away from such false flattery and simply say to the employee: “Look, I need you to do this. This is why this is important, and I don’t have anyone else available right now to get it done. I’ve come to you because I know I can rely on you.”

A straightforward appeal is preferable to a manipulative approach from the point of view of getting employees to tackle the task and feel good about being an integral part of the team’s successes.

Employees sense when they’re being manipulated. And they will resent a bad boss for it.

One of the most manipulative statements a boss can make to an employee is to say: “You’re lucky to even have a job here.”

It’s an obvious attempt to cow the employees into abject submission and get him or her to do anything for fear of losing their jobs. The employee may do as asked, but will always resent the bad boss for saying it and for having their jobs threatened in that way.

Employees sense when they’re being manipulated. And they will resent a bad boss for it.

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Good bosses are always open and straightforward with their employees – that’s what the employees most appreciate. They don’t want to be bullied, manipulated or threatened.

#15: Not seeking employee feedbackBad bosses don’t communicate enough with employees, or if they do engage in communication with employees, it ’s mostly a one-way street.

They talk at and to people, but they don’t listen enough to appreciate the feedback employees may give them. Either they don’t know how to listen or they don’t believe their employees can possibly have anything useful to say.

That is an erroneous notion because employees are actually doing the jobs that the boss is supervising, and they always have the best perspective on how to get the job done.

But apart from the useful feedback bosses can get from employees, bosses must know that employees need to feel that they are listened to – that there is someone they can go to who will hear their concerns.

They want that person to be their immediate supervisor. A bad boss is known as a man or woman who doesn’t communicate or listen, and a good boss is seen as the kind of person who does.

The need to be a good listener is especially acute at the time of the annual performance review. Bad bosses just go through performance reviews talking at employees, telling some of the good they’ve done, and dishing out the criticism where the boss thinks it’s appropriate.

Good bosses do exactly the opposite. They involve employees in the performance review process and ask them how they feel they’re doing, and if they have any suggestions for improvements in the work process.

Very enlightened bosses even ask employees for feedback on themselves, how they think they’re being managed and their opinion of how the department is being managed.

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Management experts say that good bosses ask just as many questions as they make statements during performance reviews. That’s the way they get employees talking and give them the feeling that they’re being heard.

Good bosses know they have to use an equal number of question marks and periods during their speech in performance reviews. If the ratio is closer to 1:1 between questions and statements, they know that they’re encouraging good employee feedback.

#16: Failure to enforce consistent standardsInconsistent rule enforcement can have disastrous legal consequences. If standards have not been consistently enforced, it will be virtually impossible to discipline or terminate any employee for not having met those standards.

What often happens in these cases is that an employee dismissed for some rule infraction or for not meeting standards will find an attorney to sue his employer, alleging wrongful dismissal for some discriminatory reason.

The employee and his attorney will allege that the stated reason for the dismissal (of not meeting standards) was just a smokescreen for the real reason for the dismissal, which the employee will allege was

because he or she was some protected class.

The manager will then be called upon to explain in court how he or she came to the conclusion that the employee had to be terminated.

The employee’s lawyer will be allowed to go on a fishing expedition to sift through the company’s files and find other cases of how the company handled similar infractions or shortcomings.

Good bosses strive to be consistent in the treatment of their employees, not only to avoid legal troubles, but because it’s the right thing to do and it’s what their employees expect of them.

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And if it can be shown that other employees did not get the same treatment, a jury will be instructed that they can disbelieve the company’s officially stated reason for the dismissal, and substitute its own judgment or that of the employee’s attorney.

Inconsistent treatment of employees always leads to trouble. It’s what bad bosses do. Good bosses strive to be consistent in the treatment of their employees, not only to avoid legal troubles, but because it’s the right thing to do and it’s what their employees expect of them.

#17: Not recognizing people are wired differently

While all employees should be treated consistently when it comes to enforcement of company policies, that doesn’t mean that all employees should be managed in exactly the same way.

Some bosses fail to recognize that people are wired differently and therefore react differently in the same situations.

To recognize the four basic personality types of people that populate the workplace, regardless of generational differences, many different personality tests are available from HR consultants or testing companies.

Some of the testing systems may be more sophisticated than others, but they all divide people into four basic categories – and each classification has two opposites:

• The Dominant type – these people are either very comfortable assuming positions of leadership, or they are the typical lone wolf technicians who like to be left alone while they complete complicated tasks. These are people who are hard driving, and challenge themselves and others constantly. The opposite of this type is the arch-follower, who can execute tasks all day long, as long as they’re told exactly what to do.

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• The Extrovert type – these people are great socializers and establish friendships easily. Usually, they make great salespeople. The opposite type, the introverts, are uncomfortable with too much attention and tend to be wallflowers. They’re reserved and don’t easily establish friendships.

• The Impatient type – these people want everything done yesterday and don’t understand why it takes others so much longer to accomplish the same tasks. The opposite type, the analyst, painstakingly analyzes all aspects of a question before making a decision.

• The Big-picture type – these people are more comfortable with the big picture and don’t worry too much about the details, which they happily delegate to others. The opposite type, the fuss-budgets and micro-managers, who sweat every detail and rarely step back to see which direction the ship is headed.

These different personality types have nothing to do with intelligence. Some of the smartest people can be introverts or extroverts, leaders or followers, fuss-budgets or big-picture people, impatient drivers or patient analysts.

Smart managers know how to tell one type of employee from another. They know how to play to people’s strengths and put them in roles where their weaknesses won’t cause them a great disadvantage.

They know how their people are wired, and they protect them by not putting them in position where they are more likely than not to fail.

They don’t ask an introverted engineer to become a salesperson just because he knows so much about the technical details of the product that needs to be sold. At best, a manager will pair the introvert engineer with an extrovert salesperson, who is better able to handle the relationship aspects of the selling process.

And a bad boss won’t ask a big-picture person to proofread a company announcement for spelling mistakes and missing commas – those things will sail right over their head. Nor would they understand it if their boss got upset with them about it.

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#18: Befriending employees outside of workBeing friends with subordinates outside of work has always been problematic, but in recent years this has become trickier because of the advent of social media.

Facebook and similar sites have created new challenges for off-duty relationships between managers and supervisors on the one hand, and the employees reporting to them on the other.

That’s why companies that have effective social media policies usually caution managers and supervisors about “friending” subordinates on social media sites.

At a minimum, managers must set a good social-media example by not over-sharing details of their lives that might make employees uncomfortable in the workplace.

Of course, pursuing romantic relationships with underlings is a no-no because then the boss cannot be seen as impartial when judging the people working for him or her.

So if it’s not a good idea to ask an employee working for you for a date in person, is it OK to ask them to be your “friend” on Facebook?

Other employees may view that as the manager playing favorites.

A common problem of being personal friends with the people who work for you is that at some point you may really have to be the boss and call someone’s attention to his or her shortcomings.

That’s always awkward when you’re friends, and even more so if your wives play tennis together or your children are best buddies at school.

There are no easy answers to the question of when a manager should or should not be a subordinate’s friend. But it can be a path lined with hazards.

A common problem of being personal friends with the people who work for you is that at some point you may really have to be the boss and call someone’s attention to his or her shortcomings.

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#19: ‘Seagull’ managersBad bosses sometimes practice the “seagull” school of management. What this means is they fly away as the job is starting, only to return suddenly when least expected, swoop down with loud screeches, soil the place and fly away again, leaving others to clean up the mess.

Needless to say, this kind of behavior is demoralizing to employees and is guaranteed to make the boss universally disliked.

The seagull school of management sets employees up to fail. A manager who delegates a task, then shows back up and turns everything on its head shows no respect for the abilities of his or her employees.

People stuck working with these kinds of managers get paralyzed into inaction by the fear of what such a bad boss will do (screaming, making a mess) when he or she comes swooping down again.

Good bosses stay involved in a process and are there to help clean up any messes. Those bosses gain the respect, not resentment. In turn, good bosses get maximum effort from their employees.

#20: Clinging to command-and-controlCommand-and-control, the management norm during America’s great corporate and industrial expansion of the 20th century, has fallen from favor.

Good employees don’t stand for it and go seeking other opportunities. There is nothing good people hate more than being told, “Your job is what I say it is.”

Some managers still cling tight to this style. As a result, they become bad bosses in the eyes of their employees, no matter how well-intentioned they may have been.

In their defense, they may say the only thing they did was try to get employees to do things the right way.

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Good bosses either know instinctively – or have been trained by their companies – to involve their employees in the decision-making process to get greater buy-in and engagement with the enterprise.

An involved workforce is an effective workforce, but bad bosses who still practice command-and-control will have a very hard time getting their employees engaged.

#21: Being a bullyBullying continues to be a big problem in the workplace, despite the age of managerial enlightenment that has infused American business.

Bullies are bad bosses, and employees almost invariably react badly to being bullied.

But the problem is worse than a few bullying bosses. Even if bosses don’t engage in that reproachable behavior themselves, they may knowingly or unknowingly allow some of their employees to be bullied by others.

Bosses may or may not know of the bullying, but in any event it is their duty to spot it and stop it.

Good bosses not only refrain from bullying behavior because they respect the dignity of their employees, but they also rigorously enforce company policies against bullying and workplace violence.

If they witness any such incidents, they step in immediately and put a stop to it in no uncertain terms. And they maintain an open-door policy and make sure their employees know they are easily approachable and can report such incidents without fear of ridicule or retaliation.

Bullying can take many forms. A statement made by a boss, such as “What’s wrong with you?” or “You’re lucky to even have a job!” can easily rise to bullying.

Employees need to feel like they have some degree of control over their own jobs. They work well for good bosses who empower them. They don’t work well for bad bosses who capriciously order them around.

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It is obvious from such statements that the boss is angry at the employee and says these things to vent that anger. But threatening someone’s job, or implying that the person is just a hopeless screw-up, has the net effect of just grinding people down.

The employee who is insulted or threatened is more likely to just withdraw into a shell and look for the first opportunity to bail and find another job.

“Your job is what I say it is” is another typical statement made by bad bosses known to engage in bullying. Employees need to feel like they have some degree of control over their own jobs. They work well for good bosses who empower them. They don’t work well for bad bosses who capriciously order them around.

There is a fair amount of kidding and sarcastic banter going on between employees in the modern workplaces. Most of the time this joking is taken in good humor and lightens up the atmosphere in the workplace.

But bosses would be well advised to watch out if the same person is always the butt of the jokes and does not laugh with the other employees.

Not everyone has the same tolerance for what others consider joking. Bad bosses may be tempted to join in with the teasing.

But if a good boss spots such a situation where one employee apparently feels he or she is being singled out, that boss steps in, and the entire workplace will be better off for it.

#22: It’s all about meBad bosses may be insecure and constantly look for ways to reinforce their own authority – instead of looking for ways to make their employees better.

Bad bosses have a deep-seated need to strengthen their own sense of control. Good bosses love to delegate and empower their people, continually offering support as needed.

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Bad bosses may tell their employees their No. 1 priority is to listen to them and do as they are told. Good bosses stress to employees that serving the customers should be their highest priority, along with achieving the mission of the company or the organization. It’s not about the boss’s authority – it ’s about fulfilling the mission collectively.

Here’s an example of a bad boss who was more interested in reinforcing her own authority, than in getting the job done:

One time, an inexperienced manager was late for a weekly meeting she usually chaired with her team because she was held up in another meeting. To respect everyone’s time, her team started the meeting without her, getting some weekly routine tasks out of the way for which the manager was not needed, leaving the important decisions for when she would hopefully have arrived.

When the manager finally entered the meeting, she didn’t apologize for being late. She made no effort to find out what had already transpired and what issues had already been dealt with.

Instead, she started screaming at all participants and said, “How dare you start the meeting without me! Don’t you ever do that again!” The members of her team just looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

It was obvious the insecure rookie manager was more interested in reinforcing her own authority than in getting the job done and empowering her people.

Another way bad bosses often find to reinforce their own authority is through the performance review. They write such phrases as “Your manager has told you that …” or “Your supervisor is pleased with …” Bad bosses write a performance review for their employees as if it’s about them, the manager or supervisor.

Good bosses take care that the performance review is all about the employee – and keep any mention of the boss out of it.

The insecure rookie manager was more interested in reinforcing her own authority than in getting the job done and empowering her people.

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#23: Failure to give creditIt irks employees to discover that their boss has taken credit for an idea or improvement that the boss did not come up with. Falsely taking the credit is something bad bosses do.

It has an incredibly depressing effect on employee morale. The natural reaction of the employee whose idea it was is that he or she will never make a useful suggestion again.

They’ll think: “What’s the use, anyway?” The boss will also lose all respect in the employee’s eyes. And the employee is sure to tell his or her co-workers about the incident to make sure the boss loses the respect of the rest of the staff as well.

Good bosses do the opposite. They are not insecure and they proudly present a good idea giving all due credit to the employee or employees who came up with it.

Good bosses realize such actions will make the entire team look good, stimulating and motivating employees to make useful suggestions for the improvement of the whole organization.

Good bosses know how to praise and thank employees for presenting good ideas and good work, not steal them as if they were their own ideas.

#24: Finger-pointingBlaming others, especially for their own shortcomings, is another nasty habit of bad bosses.

This bad habit is most often born out of a sense of insecurity. The bad boss is afraid to take responsibility when things don’t go as planned for fear of losing his or her status in the organization.

They simply can’t say, “I screwed up; let’s find out what went wrong and make sure it never happens again,” and they always need to blame someone else for their failures. When they engage in finger-pointing and scapegoating, it’s usually behind closed doors.

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The bad boss who deflects the blame for something that went wrong to one of his or her employees loses all respect in the eyes of his or her team. They’ll all see the “bush league” behavior and despise the boss for it.

The good boss, on the other hand, views mistakes as learning opportunities. A near-miss that could have led to a safety incident is investigated not with a view to who didn’t follow procedures and open a punitive case. That would guarantee no one ever reports a near-miss again for fear of being blamed.

Instead, the good boss approaches the near-miss from the point of view of what process improvement could be made to lessen the chance of another near-miss – or worse, an accident – in the same task or area of the shop in the future. Fix the problem, not the blame.

Everything that happens on a work team is ultimately the boss’ responsibility. Good bosses accept that responsibility and accountability. Bad bosses try to deflect it to someone else.

#25: Fear of firingBad bosses are often afraid to fire people. They just can’t bring themselves to do it. They’re afraid of the confrontation. They fear the outcome won’t go well. They fear the unknown.

Firing people is an unpleasant task, and taking someone’s job and livelihood away should never be done lightly. But all managers and supervisors know that it comes with the territory, and that from time to time it will be necessary to terminate someone for the good of the company.

Management guru Jack Welch, when he was the CEO of General Electric, made his Vice Presidents and direct

reports rank all of their employees and fire the bottom 10% every year to ensure that there would be continuous improvement among the staff.

Seeing that the boss realizes the person isn’t capable of doing the job and is willing to do something about it actually improves morale and raises the respect for the boss in employees’ eyes.

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Most companies today aren’t quite that Draconian, but we all know that there are people who need to be fired from time to time.

The staff usually knows before the boss that someone needs to go. They know the person just isn’t doing the job and is dragging everyone else down with him or her to make up for the shortcomings.

Bad bosses are often afraid that firing someone is bad for the morale of the staff. If the person obviously isn’t up to the task, nothing could be further from the truth. Seeing that the boss realizes the person isn’t capable of doing the job and is willing to do something about it actually improves morale and raises the respect for the boss in employees’ eyes.

On the other hand, if the incapable person is allowed to linger and hang on too long, morale among the team will decrease and the boss will lose employees’ respect for not having enough sense to do the right thing and fire the person so the rest of them can get on with the job.

#26: Firing as bloodsportJust like some bad bosses wait too long before they fire employees who need to go, other bad bosses do the opposite. They are quick to the trigger, firing people at the least provocation, and seem to enjoy sending someone packing.

This kind of bad boss can cause major problems for the employer.

Studies show that people who feel they were not treated with respect by their immediate supervisors when they were terminated are 10 times more likely to find a reason to sue their former employers.

And even if the termination was justified, plaintiffs’ attorneys have found a new way to sue employers over such harsh terminations, seeking damages for “intentional infliction of emotional distress” in the termination. And they have won big awards from sympathetic juries.

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Bloodlust does not belong in the workplace and can only make matters worse for the companies that employ such bad bosses.

Good bosses know that all employees deserve to be treated with respect, especially at one of the worst moments in their lives when their jobs are being taken away from them.

Good bosses treat employees with dignity and respect, even when it is time to let them go. Unless the employee has stolen from the company or engaged in some other heinous act, it is probably best to offer some severance and not oppose an application for unemployment benefits.

Those things help the terminated employee make the transition to the next phase of their lives. Good bosses realize that. Bad bosses are still so mad at the employee that they can’t control their anger – and thereby make matters worse.

#27: Incompetent hiringBad bosses are incompetent in the hiring process. These bad hiring decisions can cause just as much damage to the organization as a bad firing.

The cost of a bad hire typically runs into the tens of thousands of dollars when you take into account the hiring and training costs for the replacement employee, lost productivity, etc.

Bad hires can also cause various legal problems. A bad decision by the bad hire may create legal liability for the company, and the bad hire, once terminated, can still try to sue for all sorts of reasons.

The reasons bad bosses make bad hiring decisions are many.

Research shows that most hiring managers make up their minds in the first few minutes of an interview whether they are going to offer the candidate a job or not. They simply like the first impression they got and will not change their decisions even in the view of overwhelming negative evidence that may surface later.

The net effect of bad hires extends way beyond the position for which the bad fit was hired. Bad hires can demoralize and set back an entire team and depress productivity.

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Good hiring managers lessen the chance of making a mistake by always having someone else sit in on the final interviews to get a second opinion. They always involve HR professionals in the process, and they check resumes, gaps in resume and references whenever possible.

Most important, they take their time and let the job candidate do most of the talking in an interview. Some companies also have testing programs in place with different standards for candidates applying for different positions.

Bad bosses make hiring decisions by the seat of their pants, and as a result, saddle their teams with incompetent co-workers who drag the whole team down.

The net effect of bad hires extends way beyond the position for which the bad fit was hired. Bad hires can demoralize and set back an entire team and depress productivity.

Good bosses try to limit their hiring mistakes, and, if they make one, are quick to correct it and unload the bad hire.

#28: Setting a bad exampleEmployees want to see their bosses set a good example. They hate bad bosses who say: “Do as I say, not as I do.” They think such bosses are hypocritical and unworthy of their respect.

Setting a good example extends to many aspects of the job of a good manager or supervisor. Good bosses need to be seen by their employees as being of high moral character and observing ethics at all times.

Good bosses show constantly why they were named to their supervisory positions by showing how their greater experience and wisdom can help employees improve.

Bad bosses vacillate and don’t know how to exhibit their natural authority. If their employees see they can’t do the job themselves for which they’re supposed to supervise others, they will lose respect in the eyes of their work crews.

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Bad bosses vacillate and don’t know how to exhibit their natural authority. If their employees see they can’t do the job themselves for which they’re supposed to supervise others, they will lose respect in the eyes of their work crews.

Setting a good example is always part of being a good boss. Bad bosses fail to set a good example, either because they can’t or they won’t. The net effect is the same: They can’t be effective with their work teams.

#29: Being an absentee bossEmployees want a boss they can physically see.

They want to know that he or she is there in case they run into any problems, which they are confident a good boss will be able to solve.

Some employees also realize that if the boss is absent or always looking the other way, there may be too much of a temptation, either on their own part or on the part of someone else on the team, to goof off, slack off, break rules or take a shortcut.

Being able to “get away with stuff” may make them feel good temporarily. But employees know that this is not supposed to happen, and it gives them a guilty conscience, whether they engage in that behavior themselves or tolerate it when they see someone else do it.

The boss being present guarantees things will stay on an even keel.

These days, more and more work is being done remotely. Companies save money on space and employees save money and time on commuting. But something is lost in the process, too. The lack of physical supervision is a high price to pay – too high, in the opinion of some corporate leaders who believe the trend toward working from home has gone too far.

That tide may change. Even computer giant Yahoo! recently banned all off-site work.

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But even when bosses and employees all work together in the same physical space, some bad bosses can still be guilty of absenteeism. If they lock themselves in their offices behind closed doors and work on their own projects, shutting out their employees, they are not really available to their employees.

That’s why good bosses make a point of walking around the workplace, giving their employees an encouraging smile, inquiring about their families or how special projects are going, even if there are no heavy business topics to discuss.

Good bosses stay visible among their team members. Bad bosses always find something else to do or bury themselves in their computers – anything but be visible among the troops.

#30: HoveringEmployees want to see their bosses. But taken to the extreme, a boss’s presence can become “hovering,” in which case it becomes a negative.

Work doesn’t get done faster just because a boss stands close by and hovers while people are doing it. And it won’t get done any better, either. As a matter of fact, the possibility of mistakes increases when bosses hover over their employees. It makes employees nervous – and nervous employees don’t do their best work.

There are two different philosophies in quality management.

One school of thought is that organizations must exercise quality control, meaning that on the back end of every job, you check that everything is done right and eliminate defects before the product goes out the door.

The other school of thought is quality assurance, which means that you build in quality on the front end. You train your employees well and empower them; you are careful about the selection of vendors who contribute important pieces of the final product; and you set everything up right from the beginning. Then you have fewer defects to weed out on the back end – and you don’t have to hover over employees.

Over the long term, quality assurance works much better than quality control.

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Over the long term, quality assurance works much better than quality control. Empowering employees works much better than checking over their every move.

Good bosses empower employees and let them show what they can do. Bad bosses hover over employees and show no confidence in them – practically guaranteeing that employees will never feel capable and will never reach their full potential.

#31: MicromanagingHovering over employees is one way to micromanage, but there are certainly other ways in which bosses engage in micro-management.

It’s one of the most frequently seen habits of bad bosses. They have a hard time letting go, and they’re obsessed with every detail being done exactly the way they want it, often losing sight of the ultimate goal.

Most employees resent being micromanaged. Eventually, the feeling of being micromanaged will often drive good people to quit – they simply can’t stand it anymore.

Bad bosses may honestly think they’re trying to help their employees get the job done right, but in effect, employees just get a sense of worthlessness, as if nothing is good enough for the boss.

Bosses don’t have to constantly and physically hover over employees to be guilty of micromanagement. Changing commas or paragraph marks in a report – peripheral changes that don’t add anything to the meaning – can be micro-managing as well.

Some bosses make employees endlessly rehearse a verbal presentation to be given to a management committee, instead of focusing on whether the employee can articulate a clear vision and adequately make the main points.

Good bosses empower employees and don’t sweat the unimportant details – leaving their employees some elbow room to do it their way. Bad bosses sweat all the details ad infinitum, and as a result, take away all initiative from their employees.

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#32: Failure to documentThis habit of bad bosses will eventually come back to burn them.

Most supervisors hate paperwork and claim they don’t have the time to do it. This leads to the following common scenario:

For years, a boss has been concerned about an employee who’s either incompetent or has a bad attitude. It’s really starting to bug the boss.

The boss constantly yells at the employee about doing things wrong, but the boss never writes anything down, and never tells HR about it. The boss figures at least he has a body there to get some work done, and he’d rather work with the devil he knows than the one he might hire next.

Until one day, the boss can’t take it anymore and marches into the HR department and says: “I want you to get rid of so-and-so.”

“What’s he (she) done?” HR asks.

The boss launches into a long litany of offenses committed by the bad employee over a period of years.

“Do we have anything in the files on this?” HR asks. “Have we even written this employee up for this?”

“Well, no,” says the boss. “I have a crew to run and a job to do, you know. I’m too busy for paperwork.”

“Well, then we can’t fire this person,” HR says. “You have to warn them and start building a file.”

Good bosses realize that paperwork is a necessary evil. It’s essential that it gets done to be able to make the right personnel decisions at a time when they become necessary.

Bad bosses always find an excuse not to get the needed paperwork done, or done on time, and find themselves in a quandary as a result. If they still insist on going ahead with a termination under the above-described circumstances, they can cost their companies considerable sums of money if the company loses a wrongful dismissal lawsuit.

In the absence of good personnel files, plaintiffs' attorneys are very adept at creating some supposedly illegal reason for the firing…

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In the absence of good personnel files, plaintiffs' attorneys are very adept at creating some supposedly illegal reason for the firing, and juries always believe an employee should first be given a warning and a second chance. If a company can’t prove it gave such warnings, things are not likely to go very well in court.

#33: Not looking them in the eyeGood bosses look people in the eye when they’re talking to them. It’s one of the most essential elements of open communication that builds trust.

The eyes are an important part of body language. People who make good eye contact are thought to be open and honest, and worthy of trust. People who look away and do not make eye contact are thought to be hiding something, or at least being distracted elsewhere. Or worse, they are suspected of being insincere or afraid of engaging with the person they’re speaking to.

Good bosses look their employees in the eye.

Bad bosses neglect to look their employees in the eye, and, as a result, fail to establish good communication with their people.

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The Bad Boss Handbook - (هوس)HOC-ENews · better results than trying to correct their inevitable weaknesses, or somehow trying to compensate for them. Praise them for what they