What We Can Learn from a Mean Boss

And how they can make your life a living hell

Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash — I wanted an image to depict an ideal collaboration at work

I’ve had a lot of bosses. Good, bad, indifferent.

A few were mean.

Some didn’t know how to handle the pressure of goals and productivity or foster a sense of teamwork. Some of them, on the other hand, eventually became enlightened and learned powerful lessons about the double-edged responsibilities of leadership and morale.

But a small population were mean to the bone.

Sometimes, it’s hard not to take it personally.

• Have you ever gotten unfair treatment from a crazy boss who humiliated you in front of others?
• Have you ever experienced personality clashes with your boss that precariously crossed the line between ‘it’s just business’ and ‘it’s personal’?
• Have you ever felt there was a boss out there with a relentless hidden agenda to get you at the cost of your job?

The worst boss on my long resume of job experience was an extremely competitive, narcissistic, manipulative gameplayer.

It’s hard not to reveal specifics or their gender in describing this particular mean boss. So, instead of the pronouns him/her, I will simply use they/them.

I did, however, have several private pet names for mean boss, including Godzilla.

• Godzilla was deceptively two-faced and loved playing favorites at work. Even having inappropriate relationships.
• There were days you could do nothing right, in their eyes.
• They used gaslighting as their secret weapon, feigning shock and innocence whenever anyone called them out on their nuanced behavior or reported them to upper management. They chalked it up to factors other than themselves or their behavior.

There were rumors that a petition was circulating at work about the way this particular boss treated or mistreated certain people.

I tried to stay under Godzilla’s radar but there were a few times I heard rumors floating within the company that mean boss thought perhaps I had been there too long.

• At the time, mean boss had been there six months.
• Godzilla once told me that their favorite book was The Art of War by Sun Tsu. I read it, thinking I would get some insight into Mean Boss’s mind. There are valuable life lessons in The Art of War, that can be open to interpretation. I came across one line:

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

Interesting and vital indeed. Everyone needs to read The Art of War and tuck it under their belt.

I wondered if mean boss had ever read Dale Carnegie.

A few complaints to the top brass resulted in HR interviewing each worker in the department. There were mixed reviews.

The bigwigs eventually transferred the boss to a different floor. We heard that they had to go through an extensive course of re-training and an attitude adjustment in order to keep their position within the company, and that no further complaints would be tolerated about them.

Funny how gossip travels through the company’s grapevine.

I once overheard a visiting regional vice president call that boss— “all sizzle and no steak.”

For the duration they were with us, that boss made our lives a living hell. Our new supervisor came in with a much better attitude. There was mutual respect in our work connections. There was a sense of teamwork and doing our best to achieve our monthly goals.

The worst of times suddenly became the best of times.

What a difference a mean boss can make.

Have you ever had this distressing experience?

© Connie Song 2022. All Rights Reserved.

• Last week I wrote about a fascinating topic: a possible art forgery:

Is It Forgery Fraud or a Remarkable Find?

© Connie Song 2022. All Rights Reserved.