Can you help me? I am doing a project and if you have experience on the subject, I’d like to know your opinion.
Have you ever left a job because you either didn’t like or had no confidence in the boss (leader)? It could be the owner of a small business you were working for, or your immediate supervisor.
Tell me; what did you see or not see in your leader that made you leave? The more specific you are, the better.
If you want to say “He was a jerk”, ok, fine. But what specifically did he do that made you think that?
Maybe he/she was nice but there was something else about them that made you leave.
Please hit the orange comment button and tell me! (or you can see what others are saying.)
Thanks!
I worked at a hedge fund in 2001-02 that I absolutely loved. The people were incredibly talented and every day was exciting, stimulating and fun. But when the market started going down, and the portfolio went down more, the portfolio manager (and owner of the firm) stopped listening to his team. He withdrew, stopped communicating, and started making his own trades w/out feedback or discussion. That worried me far more than the short term results. I lost confidence in him so I left. The fund survived the bear market, but only barely. Years later, in the 2008-09 downturn, that fund fell more than 90%. They survived that too, but all those great people I worked with are long gone.
I once left a job after I had an epiphany. I had been coming home for several years saying that, “I can’t take it anymore “, I realized that I could take it, I didn’t have to take it anymore. I stopped giving my boss and his boss power over me. These two people were active alcoholics and as such given wide swings in mood and expectations. When my mindset changed the bosses didn’t know what to do with me, they had lost control over me. I gave my two weeks notice amidst cries of “You can’t leave , you’re a valued team member.Both were gone within a year.
I once left a company because the owner was so invested in other projects besides that of the company that made the bread and butter. Hardly available if you needed them and had too many other irons in the fire. Seems to me that an owner of a company should take care it first.
Don’t we all have one of these stories. I left an organization because there was no consistent direction and lack of professionalism from management. The rules and our roles (including who each of us reported to) were always changing – almost from day to day. There was no annual plan or strategic goals set. To this day, I don’t know how they survived as long as they did.
Couldn’t/Wouldn’t do what he was requiring me to do.
My last boss was horrible because it was always “his way or the highway”. We would come to him with great ideas on how to make the company better, more productive, or more profitable. He would listen and then after we pitched our idea would say, “We’re not doing any of that because I sign your paycheck and make all the decisions.”
Then, after a while he would impliment the ideas and take full credit for them. Just so happens this boss was my dad….and why I left there in 2013 to start a home performance company that is now 4th-5th in the DES dealer network. This year, our company will be larger than the HVAC company he started in 1975!!!
I left a job a few years ago 1st because I could see how poorly mismanaged the financial side of the buisness was, but under all of that was the knowledge that the owner professed Christian values in his personal life but ran the buisness the opposite of that.
I was working at a food section inside of a large store. With us being slightly separate from the rest of the store, our general store manager would move our immediate bosses out, and leave us leaderless for weeks, expecting the crew to do the management roles themselves. He would always make promises, but not one was followed up on. My last day there one of my co-workers had told him, its Kelsey last day will you tell her bye? He said no I don’t think she should leave, and walked off. No thanks for working with us and we’ll miss yous.
I left my last job due to a variety of reasons. I was salary plus commission working 65-70 hour workweeks and they wanted me to work weekends on top. Most of my hours were spent doing non-commission jobs because they wanted the hourly guys off overtime. To Handle the sales appointments, they allowed the schedulers to quote over the phone and make more commission for themselves, which cut the field sales out of the commission altogether. My territory ran from Ohio to Boston MA. I even missed family funerals because “I already had a route that day”. They consistently took perks away telling us the company was struggling as they kept buying fancy cars and country club memberships. I’ll cut the rant off here but could go on if you want more.
I have left a few places because of empty promises. They entice you to work for them, but never deliver on those enticements.
The worst boss I ever had, had zero compassion. My husband was diagnosed with cancer, he underwent 2 major surgeries in a single year, and the following year spent 2 separate weeks in Boston for a chemo-like treatment. I was docked pay, because they claimed they couldn’t tell I had done the work when I wasn’t in the office. In all reality, they never looked or cared to see if the work was completed, but simply didn’t want to pay me for working outside of the office. When he came home from Boston, he was so violently sick, he ended up in the hospital at home for another week. Even before going to the hospital, when I said I needed to stay home with him, the response was “he’s just sick, you don’t need to be with him, we need you in your chair at work more.” I was beyond dumbfounded by the complete and total lack of human compassion. My work was always completed and done well, they just didn’t want to set a precedent for allowing people to work from home. That was by far the most negative work experience I’ve ever had.
Expectation and articulation!
I had a chance to take over a small manufacturing company here in Illinois. The owner is 67 years old and would like to retire. I agreed to come on board for a year to learn from him and get to know the business. We both agreed that after that year we would talk again about some sort of transition.
I stuck it out for 16 months and then threw in the towel. I had nothing to go to for sure, but I knew I couldn’t spend one more day in that plant.
The owner liked to talk…alot. He would bring key people into meetings and talk (lecture) for over two hours sometimes. This wasn’t every once in a while, it was nearly every day. It was torture. He would talk in circles and we were expected to listen. Often times we would leave the meeting completely depleted of any energy with our minds feeling like total mush.
Leaders who think that a series of lectures that they call meetings are important are weak leaders. A meeting should be about people bringing ideas to the table to discuss, not to try and come up with ideas as the table. Brainstorming is stupid and ineffective. Focused discussion that has a time limit is always preferred. In fact, there is research to back up the fact that when a meeting goes over 20 minutes, you lose everyone.
Talk is cheap. Leaders need to shut up and listen to the people who are on the front lines. Then, LEAD and DIRECT them in a way that benefits everyone.
I guarantee as I type this that the company I left will have a two hour meeting today…about nothing.
A boss who does not embrace the full talents of his or her employees . A boss who feels threatened by your abilities and talents. A boss who will never engage you in a conservation about development of a program . A boss who treats you like a second class citizen . This a bad boss . These are the people who have had some type of supervised role over me .
A boss (leader) who does not lead by example.
I have had my best success when I can know with a certain degree of confidence how my boss would handle a situation before we even discuss it.
I have had a few bosses that are completely unpredictable to me. If an employee doesn’t have a clear idea of what success means for tomorrow, I don’t see how that employee can plan for success.
When I built houses I worked for some one who would get upset when I took the initiative to solve a problem when he was not there (even if I did a good job). However when I would instead wait for him to arrive I would get yelled at for not taking the initiative to solve the problem. There are two things wrong with that. First it was a culture of no matter what you did it was wrong. Second, he would never define what we should and shouldn’t do when we were done or stuck and couldn’t get in touch with him. We where told to figure it out but somehow we always seemed to get it wrong no matter the choice.
I had a supervisor that would constantly oppose every idea I had no matter if it was good or bad. If it came from me, they would take the opposite stance and fight it any way possible to make sure I never had any of my ideas implemented for the company. It got to the point where I gave the company my two weeks notice because I couldn’t work in an environment where my opinion was invalidated to the point where I felt that I was incompetent and unworthy. I told the owner that, unless something was done about my supervisor, I would have to seek employment elsewhere. They understood my problems and let me know that they would do everything in their power to correct the issues within the company. I stuck it out and eventually they were fired and I even got a promotion shortly after. I am glad I waited around because I loved the company and I will always look back on that time as a learning opportunity for myself. Hard work is always rewarded and misuse of power comes with consequences.
A good boss is one who communicates with their employees.
I had a boss who would email you to do a job but not define what they wanted done. Today to many people count on the world of cyber to communicate. What ever happened to talking to people?
I believe that talking to your employees gives them a better sense of direction of what they need done and they get to know you as a person. Thus they are happy employee’s which bring’s better production from your employees. Better production, happy employee’s, makes them more money.
I had a boss who was computer illiterate yet insisted she knew things. Totally destroyed a database we worked hard to build. Then would not admit she was wrong. I gave up and looked for a new job.
However I once had a boss who would heap loads of work on my desk,then come back and ask for the one thing I didn’t get to yet. I stopped her and asked her to put them in priority order. She started to do that and I stayed with her for 10 years.
Bottom line; communication makes a good boss.
Years ago I worked for a guy who trusted no one. I gave him and the business everything I had to give. He would accuse us of taking things, when most of the time he or someone had misplaced them and they would be found later, without any sort of an apology. I just couldn’t work in that type of an environment, so I quit.
Empty promises. This boss put in writing in 3 annual performance evaluations that it was time to upgrade my job description to reflect the scope of my work. She promised me an appropriate title. In a large organization, she blocked 3 interviews with other departments, because she didn’t want to lose me. While she was on an overseas vacation, I took a print out of her written comments about my performance to an internal interview. The hiring manager did not wait to speak with her (so this opportunity was not soured by innuendo). I accepted a new offer before she got back from vacation. I’ve been happy in a new job ever since. It took her six months to get my old job upgraded, and someone did finally benefit from my experience.
I am 53 and yes i have encouter not one but Manny over me with defects both because of my character developed thru difficulties and leaders doit wear difficult. I will mention some of dear problems. Minimizing leaders one that because of fear and lack of trust they stop dear personal grout. Short vision, the live in dear past and present that take away the ability to see the future
Communication is everything. I was the Director of a Hospice program, which had a hospital administrator. He implemented a drastic change that affected all my employees without ever discussing with me. It was an untenable situation which I could not accept. I decided to resign and all the staff resigned with me, that’s how upsetting it was. After the core team left, the program was never the same and eventually folded. There certainly is a right way and a wrong way to do things. No changes should ever be made without communicating to all those who would be affected.
I thrive in collaborative communicative honest hardworking but fun settings. I will always go the distance if needed and love to bring value to any of my jobs in terms of better systems and processes. I was in situation where I had vast amount of experience and value but my bosses never met with me, broke meetings time and again, provided no training, no guidance, little communication and withheld important information necessary for me to do my job. The company was run by a CEO who had started the company and ruled by yelling, criticizing and creating a political envt where withholding info gave you power. My bosses were fostered in this system and had no managerial skill. When I tried to volunteer to help in other areas of which I had experience, they were threatened and would cling to their fiefdom and not allow my participation.
I have loved most of the positions I have worked in and have left only one job because of the boss. He was the owner of the franchise and appeared to be smart, but he did not know how to communicate with his staff or customers. without it being in a very hateful and condescending manner. Funny I don’t remember him talking to me the way he did everyone else, but I’m sure he must have. He was very disorganized himself, but he tried to micro manage his office manager and the rest of the staff, who could have run the business better than he could. We had new staff members on several occasions that he would bring to tears and then they would leave.
I was in outside sales and on several occasions when he accompanied me on customer visits I was told to come back any time, but not bring him with me again.
When I turned in my notice he said that I could work in the office more if I would stay and I told him that I loved the job, but I could not bear to see how he treated people and that was why I was leaving.
The office manager finally left a year later and called me to let me know she had finally broken free. She had just become so invested in her customers, she had a hard time leaving.
My best boss was the total opposite. Many of those that worked under him would have followed him any where. He knew how to bring out the best in people.
I think the most frustrating thing about a “bad boss” is no follow through. In my experiences I have noticed that is a common theme in my career. (especially with sales) To say something to appease the rep to keep them happy and then not make it a priority to them with little to no follow through. It will motivate and make the rep and keep them happy for a couple of days until they realize that they were just words with no action. Words are just words until they are acted upon.
I (female) was hired as an assistant preschool teacher. It was a Jewish school. They knew that I was not a Jew, but hired me. The Lead teacher (male) had a horrible attitude towards me. As if I was not a human being, but a kind of a robot, who was not worth anything.I quit.
I had a boss who’s favorite quote was “If you want a friend get a dog”
Another boss would receive the sales numbers from the previous month, and if they were under forecast he would walk up and down the hall and say ” I’m gonna fire all your asses if these numbers don’t get better”
Great Motivator
The one thing that has made me walk out on a jobs in the past was micro managers that constantly made you feel like you had a magnifying glass on the back of your neck. I don’t have the personality for that type of treatment.
I was working for a company that was going down the tubes! They asked us salespeople to make cold calls on our own time. It was a desperate move and desperation is never very effective. I quit started my own business and never look back!I somehow forgot to say thank you!
I had a boss who didn’t show much appreciation for the employees. The decisions he made where to grow the company and his wallet. The customer is a focus but you can’t treat your employees any less. I felt under appreciated for almost 10 years. I was paid well but in my opinion money isn’t all happiness. I feel bad for the remaining employees who haven’t seen a raise in years. Who dedicate their selves to the company by working weekends or late hours. These people are taken for granted. When you voice your opinion and it’s heard on deaf ears. You feel helpless and angry.
In the job I had previous to working for Woods I had a terrible manager, and her management style definitely lead to me searching for other employment. Basically her moods dictated how our work day would go, if she was in a good mood we had no issues, but if she was in a bad mood which was often we would have a super stressful day. She was also very critical over even simple mistakes, while telling us she didn’t expect perfection because we’re human, but she really did expect perfection in an extremely manual data entry position where the likelihood of human error was extremely likely. Meanwhile, if we caught a mistake of hers she would either deny it to the end or just laugh it off as no big deal. Her team was constantly overloaded with work and always given the same amount of time to complete it yet she never supported us, volunteer to help, or had our backs when a simple mistake was made when we were trying to get 12 to 14 hours worth of work done in 8 hours time.
Had a boss that was an extreme micro-manager, at least that’s how it seemed to me. Every day we were fighting fires and I felt that he wasn’t given the respect he needed and authority to make necessary changes so he never implemented any good ideas of his or our own. When I noticed he was sleeping in his office several days a week to accomplish his work, I knew it was time to move on.
I’m not sure if anyone will see this but I decided to comment anyways. Only instead, I’m going to write about one of may favorite (past) managers. He is a former chef at the Biltmore Estate and his name is Damien Cavicchi. He is now the head of culinary operations for The Blake at Township (assisted living home) and I was the lead server at this time. His very presence sort of demanded respect. Whether he was at our location or not, he always maintained constant communication with our staff and always suggested new ideas, or sent us links to good articles to read (work related), challenged our staff to be better, do better, be creative, stay ahead of the competition, think harder and much more. He showed the staff how far a smile can really go too.
In conclusion, a bad boss is one who doesn’t teach you anything, who doesn’t challenge you, show you the value in serving others, and who doesn’t lead you in the direction that inspires growth.If you’ve worked anywhere and didn’t take anything with you from that job, you may have had a bad boss.