If you envision yourself turning in your resignation letter every time your boss talks to you, then this is a sign that you are unfortunately dealing with an evil boss. These types of bosses are toxic, abusive, with no regard for the feelings of others. Here are the characteristics of an evil boss.
Video Overview
Your boss is always right
Learning to admit you’re wrong is a key component to the success of any relationship. This includes employer-to-employee relationship. However, evil bosses just don’t see it that way. They have the compulsive need to be always right in any given situation, and refuse to see other people’s perspective.
Your boss is a poor communicator
Evil bosses are terrible communicators. They fail to give clear and explicit instructions, and don’t take the time to explain or discuss matters in detail. They get annoyed at being asked questions and don’t clarify any confusion. That goes to say that they are terrible listeners as well. They often don’t listen to other people’s viewpoints, and are usually dismissive of any feedback.
Your boss is narcissistic
For evil bosses, everything revolves around “Me, Myself and I”. They are manipulative and self-centered. Their motivation is spawned from the desire to get the most benefit for themselves. Bad bosses have a great sense of entitlement and believe they deserve special treatment. They are also quite obsessive about looking good to the company board, and like to hog all the credit and limelight.
Your boss lacks empathy
Empathy is the ability to emotionally connect and understand what other people are feeling. Unfortunately bad bosses generally don’t have empathy. They couldn’t care less about other people’s thoughts and feelings, let alone their personal experiences. They see employees as a tool to get the job done, and not as people with emotions and sensitivities.
Your boss is a bully
Bullies get their way by fear and intimidation. Threats and blackmail are their way of gaining authority and control. They are especially good at picking on your weaknesses and vulnerabilities and use them in order to dominate you. Unfortunately, bullying is prevalent, not just from bosses but from coworkers too.
Your boss never appreciates
Bad bosses are very poor at giving praise and encouragement. They are quick to criticize and never say words like, “thank you”, or “good job”. Giving encouragement motivates employees to do better, so failing to show appreciation and give encouragement is detrimental to overall employee performance.
Your boss is a screamer
Unfortunately screaming bosses commonly pervades the workplace. Overwhelmed with anger, frustration or even fear, evil bosses lose control and screaming is a way of regaining some of that power and control. Lashing out is their way of processing anger. There are also bosses who believe yelling at employees will keep them on their toes and drive them to produce good work. However, this only results in fear and stress on employees. Studies have shown that prolonged and unrelenting stress suppresses intelligence and negatively impacts work performance.
Your boss is a blamer
Quick to blame and quick to deny their own mistakes, this is one of the classic traits of an evil boss. Bad bosses never acknowledge their own faults and never say sorry. They quickly put the blame on others in an attempt to cover up their own lapses and blunders.
Your boss is vindictive
Heaven forbid if you ever try to defy or challenge an evil boss, because they will come after you with a single-minded purpose of making your life a living hell. These bosses are vindictive, and they won’t tolerate a subordinate getting the upper hand. They retaliate and are relentless in their pursuit to make sure you suffer for having the audacity to oppose them.
Your boss plays favoritism
So you see some coworkers getting undeserved promotions, special privileges, or getting extra attention from your boss. This means your boss has favorites. Favoritism is unfortunately commonplace in many companies. Oftentimes, those who are part of the inner circle are suckup’s, as evil bosses love suckup’s who feed their narcissistic selves
Your boss is inconsiderate
It’s your day off, but your phone keeps ringing, and you get bombarded with hundreds of emails from your boss. Your boss sends you off on personal errands, not caring that it’s your day off. These are unfortunately real examples of an inconsiderate boss. This trait is tied up to lack of empathy, where an evil boss is insensitive to your thoughts, feelings and personal affairs.
Your boss micro-analyzes
Everything needs to be perfect, and every single detail needs to be meticulously analyzed. Their demands and expectations are unrealistic. Evil bosses are micromanagers as well. They watch your every move, endlessly poking here and there, and are super controlling. They just won’t leave you alone and allow you to have some independence. Having a micromanager drives an employee to work themselves to death. For more insight, check out this post, Slowing Down: Are You Working Yourself To Death?
Your boss is never available
An evil boss is never there when you need them. You constantly have to adjust your time around theirs but they never adjust their time for you. They don’t like to be bothered, and are unwilling to accommodate you regarding your concerns.
Your boss is a shamer
Shaming people and embarrassing them in front of everyone is another typical trait of an evil boss. Staff meetings are a great avenue for them to publicly humiliate, belittle, criticize and berate someone. This behavior often stems from their own feelings of inadequacy. Inflicting pain on others helps alleviate their own pain.
If your boss fits more than 5 of the traits on our list, then you are definitely dealing with an evil boss!
What if the problem isn’t your boss, but it’s the workplace itself? Check out our post, Are You Working In The Office From Hell?
Learn how to successfully cope in a stressful working environment. Check out our post, How To Protect Your Mental Health In The Workplace
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