What do you do with a crappy boss?

June 4, 2007 7:17 PM

I'm working for a company with great retirement benefits, but my boss is a scum. It's not likely that he would easily let anyone in his team to work for others. If I stay, I'll have to be stuck with him.

Basically, everyone who works for him knows that he is extremely lazy and crappy for the quantity and quality of work he puts in. He spends much time playing the corporate games, BSing with people, trying to cover him and making him look good by taking credit of other's work. When it comes to work ethics, it's known among a few people in many occasions that he used the company's credit card for personal dinners and entertainment. He was once bullying a guy for a bad review if that person ever gets close to his foe even it's work related. I saw him call other employees bitches, fags, and use F words... My list can go on and on. He is definitely the least qualified person for such a highly visible position. I would expect a VP in sales to proactively take initiatives, coming up with plans, strategies, visions. None of these is his interest. I have no idea how he got this position in the first place.

Surprisingly, so far we get along fairly well. He is a smart guy (street smart). He knows that he depends on me for a lot of work. As a matter of fact, I asked for a raise half a year ago, knowing that I could be better off somewhere else. He agreed, and I chose to stay for the money. However, now I think about it, it really disgusses me for working for someone like him.

My company is a med size, with all supporting functions like HR, Employee Hotline, you name it. I'm pretty sure that some management people are aware of the situation and his incapability, but nobody wants to do or is capbable of doing anyting about this. I don't have any personal issue with him that I need to report to HR. On the other hand, I'm not in a position to critic my boss. I definitely want to stay with this company for a couple of years. But it's just sad that I have to work for a boss like him. Like I mentioned earlier, transferring to other department is not an option at this time, especially for my position. I'm devastated. What would you do if you were me? Thanks.

posted by dy to Work & Money (11 answers total)

Best answer: Are you nearing retirement age? If not, I'm not sure that the "great retirement benefits" are a compelling enough reason to stay in a job you don't like.

I saw him call other employees bitches, fags, and use F words...

That may cross the line into something that HR can take action against, such as sexual harassment. It could very easily go towards creating a "hostile work environment," which should set off alarm bells in the heads of anyone in HR.

I'm not really qualified to tell you which option (leaving or staying) is best, but it seems like the most logical would be to try to bring his behavior to HR's attention, mentioning that you love the company but can't bear to work under him unless something is done (and explain the need for confidentiality!), but also beginning to scout out other job offerings?
posted by fogster at 7:34 PM on June 4, 2007

Unless you are nearing retirement I would either look to get rid of him or look for another job. Going home in a foul mood for the next 20 years is not worth a retirement check. Poll some others around the office, get a concensus and take the issue to higher players.
posted by bkeene12 at 7:52 PM on June 4, 2007

Response by poster: I'm no where near retirement. My company pays 25-30% on top of base pay for retirement in place of 401K match.
posted by dy at 7:54 PM on June 4, 2007

Document the incidents. Times, dates, people involved.

Then go to HR.
posted by gomichild at 8:19 PM on June 4, 2007

Best answer: I know it can be hard to stick at all with something you've decided is intolerable, but I think you're ignoring a few ways out. While it "may be likely" he wouldn't let you move to another boss, you don't lose anything by trying. As a bonus, this gets your movements onto HR's radar, possibly making it easier to bring up the other issues you mention. You have good reasons to move away from him, but they may also be good reasons for the company to act to get him away from you. In light of this, would you keep your current job if you had a different boss? I mean, I wouldn't even be comfortable quoting Spicoli from Fast Times, "those guys are fags!" in mixed company, let alone at work. Maybe I'm a prude, though.

Also, start writing times and dates down..
posted by rhizome at 8:21 PM on June 4, 2007

oh, I love these kinds of situations. let's play games, shall we? let's not say anything. let's write anonymous letters to HR. try one every other month. use different personas. type them. drop them into the HR mailbox once, leave them on a HR desk the other. you want this to look as if it came from different people. do this around important times (fourth quarter, bonus and earnings season anyone?).

with your kind of info it should be rather easy to get him onto their radar and getting one or two sex harrasment complaints and then perhaps a "I am worried about his leadership" should have an interesting effect.

then again, I am wicked, evil and relatively fearless. you may not be this cunning and that's fine (actually ... the less corrupt your morals the easier your life) but I think you do want to do something while staying out of the obvious spotlight. this is just one way. another might be to start considering outside options because, let's face it, in an open confrontation you will be the one to lose.
posted by krautland at 8:43 PM on June 4, 2007

Best answer: You know, it can be productive to point the finger at others sometimes, but there's not much you can do about your boss. He's clearly successful in your company, despite his numerous flaws which you have detailed.

So maybe a better place to start would be with yourself. I notice from your post that your English grammar and spelling isn't perfect; from the pattern of the errors I suspect maybe English is your second language. There's room for improvement there. Have you considered taking night classes or doing some self-studying to improve in this area?

The reason I suggest this is that these kinds of things can hold you back in your professional life. Heck, polish up your lingo a little bit, and a year from now when your boss gets dismissed for his inappropriate behavior you might just be poised to step up into his job.
posted by ikkyu2 at 9:00 PM on June 4, 2007

Best answer: Especially in medium and smaller companies, HR is NOT always your friend. They may already know about your boss and not care to deal with it, or they they may not want to deal with any employee-boss issues (yes, I see this all the time in companies I work with).

My suggestion to you is this: You are always better off leaving a situation on your timeline and terms than on theirs. Start looking and leave when you find something better.
posted by wylde21 at 10:36 PM on June 4, 2007

If you can work with this guy, and he's not actually in your own personal face giving you direct personal grief, I think you should retrain yourself to see him as funny-sad-pathetic rather than evil-awful. And you're clearly not working for him; you're working for the company. If he wants to keep being a skidmark on the company bedsheet, that's HR's problem, not yours.

Just don't let him find out how much you despise him.

I left some advice in a "rules for life" thread that you could probably profit by: You're dealing with a mad person. Smile and wave.
posted by flabdablet at 5:21 AM on June 5, 2007

are you working for a corporate psychopath? If there's no way of getting rid of him, you're best off going somewhere else before he brings the place down with him.
posted by singingfish at 5:46 AM on June 5, 2007

Especially in medium and smaller companies, HR is NOT always your friend.
Truer words have rarely been spoken.
Case in point...
My former employer. Small-to-medium-sized employer. HR was basically a part-time employee who operated, basically, as a snitch to the President/CEO. Simply put, if you went to "HR" with any complaint (legitimate or not, documented or not), you would quickly find yourself on the CEO's shit-list, for being a troublemaker. Doubly-so if the person you had a complaint with was a favorite of the CEO.

If you can't stand this toad you work for...start looking around for greener pastures.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:17 AM on June 5, 2007