“A Survival Guide for Working With Bad Bosses: Dealing With Bullies, Idiots, Back-Stabbers, and Other Managers From Hell,” by Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D. (AMACOM, 210 pages, $15)
Despite laws and regulations prohibiting sexual harassment on the job, some bosses still can’t resist directing lewd or sexually suggestive behavior toward particular subordinates, laments workplace expert Gini Graham Scott.
Too many of them, she adds, get away with it.
“One reason they do so is that when employees fear losing their jobs, particularly in a tight job market, many stifle their complaints or don’t follow through when an initial complaint is not acted upon. So the situation continues, while employees feel violated, angry, or anxious, yet don’t know what to do,” Scott writes in her latest book, “A Survival Guide for Working With Bad Bosses.”
In a chapter titled “Dirty Looks,” Scott presents a case in point in which a woman she interviewed for the book tells of having had a boss who would talk to her breasts and even scratch his privates. Most of her female co-workers were subjected to the same mistreatment.
Her boss, whom Scott calls Ray, restrained himself for three months, after the interviewee and some of her female colleagues complained to his supervisor. But he returned to his “dirty looks” ways when he felt that sufficient time had elapsed for him to do so safely. The women never complained again because nothing came of their original complaint.
The interviewee endured her boss’ conduct for seven months before she quit the job.
Graham offers several alternative courses of action she might have taken, including:
“Get a group of women together, stare at Ray’s crotch together, and laugh. He should get the message after that.”
Her best advice for such a situation is to speak up “sooner rather than later” about the problem.
“If a first complaint to another level doesn’t work, try again. Keep records of what he has done and when, and be ready to go formal with your complaint if your second effort doesn’t prevail,” Scott writes.
The “dirty looks” boss is one of the more than two dozen types of bad managers identified in Scott’s survival guide. She describes each, provides an example of a worker’s mistreatment by such a boss, offers several options for dealing with the situation and then pares those down to the most realistic courses of action. Among the other types are:
-The insulting and abusive new boss. Scott suggests that the new boss’s abusiveness may be due to insecurity. She advises trying first to find ways to make the new boss feel more secure before going on the attack. Nevertheless, she says, work in concert with other employees and keep notes.
-The “No-Boss Boss.” This type doesn’t or can’t handle his managerial responsibilities. The department drifts rudderless or a subordinate assumes the leadership role by default.
“If you’re a better manager or leader than your boss, then go do it. In the long run, you will be recognized as a manager and a leader, too,” Scott says.
-The “control freak” boss often resorts to such out-of-control behavior as tirades and tantrums to get his or her way.
“When someone is upset and out-of-control, the best way to get control is to stay calm and in control of yourself first. Use charm rather than challenge to stay in control,” Scott writes.
-The perfectionist boss is one whose nitpicking over trivialities delays getting necessary things done.
“Sometimes a perfectionist can be a perfect idiot in demanding too much perfection. In that case, try making it perfectly clear to her boss or to other employees that this is so,” Scott writes.
This guidebook contains an assessment quiz to assist one in classifying his or her own bad boss. It also includes general guidelines for dealing with all the specific kinds of bad bosses pinpointed.
Scott has arranged her material in a user-friendly format. The reader doesn’t really have to read the whole book. One can peruse the table of contents, find one’s type of bad boss and go to the chapter that deals with that species of unsavory character.
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AP-NY-12-08-05 0620EST
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