People don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses
Everyone has been in a situation where they moved jobs to find themselves dealing with a Miranda Priestly (made infamous in the movie Devil Wears Prada). The happiness of moving into a new role, new position, new company is many a times dampened due the misery inflicted upon by the boss or the manager. While it may not be practical to change jobs because of your relationship with your manager, it can cause a lot of heartburn if not dealt with. It can lead to work stress, lower productivity, reduced job satisfaction. Also, and most importantly, it can reduce the potential to make progress at work. Hence it is very crucial to deal with the situation while you can.
A survey conducted by Predictive Index (Predictive Index People Management Study – 2018) shows that as many as 41 % of the employees’ report disliking their managers professionally and personally.
You are not alone if you feel this way. Before you start your search for the Top Manpower Consultants in India, here are some of the ways in which you can try to improve the work situation with your manager.
- Recognise and acknowledge – every person has a different management & leadership style, which may or may not go down well with the subordinates. For someone used to working independently, a micromanaging manager can be a point of contention. That does not mean he is a bad boss. His way of managing may have worked well with his other subordinates. Hence it is important to recognise what the actual issue is before showing your dissatisfaction towards the boss. Recognise his / her management style and acknowledge whether it is a deal-breaker, or you can work out some way of dealing with them.
- Know your manager – Learn more about the manager, their working style, what is their motivation, their goals, their achievements. The more you know them, the higher the chances of you being able to understand things from their point of view and find the best way to work with them with minimum friction. If they are controlling, maybe you can keep them in the loop by providing them daily updates. If they are indecisive, try and give them relevant information for various scenarios along with consequences to help them decide.
- Be patient – many a times, people take time to adapt to changes. It may be in the form of a new role, new subordinate, new company. So, do not be in a hurry to come to conclusion and draw judgements. Give it time & patience.
- Communicate – having to spend 8-10 hours of your day with someone you do not like can make your life miserable. Do not suffer in silence. Have an open discussion with your manager about the areas of discomfort. Do not be disrespectful or rude. Try and be as reasonable as possible and stick to only work-related issues. There is nothing that cannot be resolved with a discussion.
- Don’t take it personally – whatever happens within the office needs to be taken professionally and not personally. It may or may not be a reflection on the kind of person you are. So never take the comments to heart. It will only impact your self-confidence and worsen the situation further.
- Report abusive behaviour – If the manager is abusive, racist or discriminative and it is impacting you at a personal level, please ensure that the same is brought to the notice of the concerned department. Most of the times, people get away with abusive behaviour, because they feel they are in a powerful position & will get away with it.
If you are happy with the role and responsibility and feel this job is important for you in fulfilling your professional goals, it would be wise decision to sit down with the manager and get to know what expectations they have of you and work around how would that be best delivered keeping both of your work styles in mind.