We all know one.  The glaring, scowling, mealy-mouthed, mean-spirited, phony-smiling, berating, intimidating, micro-managing, growling excuse for a superior who rules our every action and breath with his tyrannical presumptions to lead.

The Boss from Hell

I know.  At my last company, I spent almost two years contending with a real maniac.  He had a talent for raising blood pressure, just by being within a person’s visibility.  He insisted upon daily meetings that dragged on well beyond the working day, where he would do all the talking, (shouting, really), and jab his finger at his subordinates and cut them down, a piece of their ego at a time.    He was as close to experiencing Hitler as I’ll ever come. 

The measure of his effectiveness as a HellBoss was indicated in the rapid graying of hair and the intensity of water cooler and stairwell ranting among his employees.   The tragedy of his reign was in the fact that he, fairly or unfairly, outlasted those who either quit or got laid off.

He was protected, of that I am sure.   But that realization has allowed me to understand the mistake that I made in the first place, one that I hope readers of this colum will not make:  Understand the company culture.

Make no mistake about it;  when bosses from hell proliferate, it is because they have been allowed to do so.  And this condition could be from design, or it could be from sheer senior-level incompetence.  In either case, it is imperative upon the jobseeker to find out about the culture, before becoming a part of it.

If you don’t want to go to Hell,  don’t be tempted to take the wrong job.

I knew about  this particular company before I joined it.  And its culture of long work hours, demanding, unreasonable bosses, and systemic abuse towards lower echelon employees, was a part of its outside reputation.  I knew about all this.

And yet, I took the bait.  And spent a chunk of my life being miserable to myself and my family.  When I was laid off, my wife and I actually breathed a sigh of relief.  I had been cast out of Hell onto the plains of Purgatory, and although the netherworld of unemployment has its own degrees of stress and uncertainty, it is a period in which to digest what has happened, to reflect, to correct and re-invent. 

And to keep clear of the Boss from Hell. 

It is no coincidence that this particular company has a hard time making the grade as a Fortune 100  GreatWorkplace contender.  But that’s one of the areas to research, when trying to find a culture where employees truly are valued, respected, and treated fairly.   It’s likely that the company is successful, in more ways than just profitability. And it’s likely that HellBosses are in short supply. 

I’ve discussed a bit about how to avoid bad bosses.  But how do you deal with a bad boss in the first place?  How have others dealt with a Boss from Hell? 

Jake desJardins

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 5:50 pm and is filed under Bosses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.