How to Work with a Bad Boss

I've worked for my Boss for five years now and have always challenged myself to perform well, approaching all the projects and assignments from my Boss with a very positive attitude, and being prepared to go above and beyond when needed, but over the last few months my Boss has not treated me with an even hand when it comes to the other members of the team: shutting me down and cutting me off publicly at important meetings where I have to speak on issues that cover my areas; not allowing me to take part in new projects and new areas of responsibility, in preference to associates that are far junior to me in terms of in knowledge and experience, making me unable grow my knowledge and expertise in the new direction/business of the company; sending me on what appears to be wild Goose chases, to use up my time, and then not supporting me when I produce my findings; shutting me down on any proposals that I make without being prepared to listen to the case supporting the proposal. When it comes to me, my Boss has never been overly outgoing or talkative, but I always believed that my performance and my attitude towards my job would bring him around! So 'why stay', you might ask. Well, jobs in my field are not easy to find and coupled with how the economy has been for the last five years, where jobs haven't been easy to find in any field, it's safer stick it out rather than spend anywhere up to a year or more looking for a job, with virtually no income coming in! It's obvious that for whatever reason, he wants me to leave, probably to make way for someone else -- who knows, no matter how I try to probe and engage, he doesn't talk... so I don't know what his plans are but I haven't been waiting to find out. Since I noticed the change and realized what was happening, I've been job hunting and had a few phone interviews but nothing more substantial than that so far, although I'm determined to keep searching until I find something! One thing I didn't mention is that this company has a lot to be desired when it comes HR practices, policies and procedures... they don't seem to have any hard and fast rules about employee reviews or appraisals being done, on any type of schedule whatsoever. Although there is a detailed Employee Handbook, covering all the typical areas of employee rules/regulations and conduct, as well as procedures for reviews/appraisals, I have never witnessed any review being done on my behalf, for any time period, in the five years that I have worked for this company, despite me asking for my review repeatedly every year since I've been here. I believe the situation is the same for many others in the company! This is unlike any company that I have ever worked for before, and although I could publicly holler and shout about what is clearly an injustice here, I can't believe that those who are responsible for seeing that companies actually perform these standard HR procedures for their employees don't already know about this?

Overlooked Deliverer of FL 3:21PM February 12, 2011

How do you work with a boss that is clearly Bi-Polar! I worked with her when she was new at the company and even referred her for the position. I left the company and then returned after she was promoted. I was placed in her department and she was my supervisor. She was very nice during her aclamation, but changed as she became more comfortable in her position. As time progressed, she began bullying each of us and seemed to target specific individuals who eventually left the company or were moved to other departments. She then focused on me making my life miserable. She had to approve our quotes and would return every one of mine for me to revise with her yellow legal pad of questions. She would talk negatively about my co-workers to me and then the same to them about me. She would make horrible comments about the CEO's children or their friends whom were hired and being trained on our floor. I couldn't understand why the CEO or management within the company would tolerate such behavior by a supervisor. I was eventually moved to another floor, but when my supervisor on that floor left for other employment and a "friend" of the Bi-Polar supervisor was promoted to supervisor of my floor, I was eventually terminated during a company lay off. Everyone commented to me that I was being treated poorly because my experience and knowledge exceeded both supervisors so they wanted to get rid of me. Needless to say, I was totally shocked when terminated in September 2008. I was the oldest underwriter in the company and my salary exceeded the other underwriters as well as the new supervisor. I was told that I was the highest paid underwriter when I returned to work there in 2001. I was very fortunate to only be out of work three months, but had to take a position for which I am over-qualified and at half the salary. I am just happy to have a job!

Not Over the Hill of OK 11:32AM February 02, 2011

No mention of the midget boss! I had a boss once who was shorter than his wife and had the Napoleon complex. He was intimidated by any male who was bigger than him and a snappy attitude of a little dog. He preferred to work with women because of this. This was noticed by all of his departmental managers who were women. It was hard enough that the man had the accent of a bayou hillbilly, no one could understand what the man was saying. For some reason, he was in cahoots with a big boss at the corporate level so he was always kept around. How do you deal with a boss who has the insecurities?

John of MS 3:58PM February 01, 2011

I once worked for an abusive alcoholic who brought beer into the office daily and started drinking at 10 AM. We all worked very hard to get him promoted and he finally moved up to a new position which he lost fairly quickly. Sad situation for him and us! Dick in Chicago!

Richard J Pabst of HI 2:01PM February 01, 2011