How have you dealt with working for a mediocre boss who is also mean?

6 comments

1. I searched for a new job and left. Giving him my two weeks’notice surprised him. Taking my last week of vacation surprised him even more. No, Ed, I do not feel like I owe you anything beyond the minimum professional etiquette.

2. I quit… she was a total c*nt, and life is too short!
   No amount of money would ever have made her behavior acceptable!!! HR agreed with me and gave me fantastic severance pay!

3. I talked to her boss who was very supportive. She left the group eventually and my management chain made it very clear she’s coming back to our group so that was reassuring.

   If her boss was not supportive, I would’ve left for sure.

4. I blindsided her with my letter of resignation.

5. I almost quit. She had yelled at me in front of the rest of the staff after I couldn’t complete a huge task on my second day. I made it to my car before I started crying, and I spent the evening thinking I just wouldn’t go back.

   But by the next morning, I was more angry than hurt, so I went back. I looked her in the eye as I clocked in that morning and went and finished my task from the previous day. She was the type to push people to the breaking point and then gloat over making them quit (I found out later).

   So, to deal with her, I got really freaking good at my job, which forced my boss to give me more responsibilities and money. She didn’t like being stuck in that position so she was extra hard on me, following me around and criticizing my work, making me cover for other employees all the time, etc.

   The thing is, she wasn’t great at her job, and people weren’t at all loyal to her. My plan was to take over her job, and I was well on my way to doing it.

   Instead, I found out I was pregnant, and so I could no longer do a fair amount of the work I had been doing, and she had to cover for me quite a bit while I got light duty. I quit in my second trimester, on my own terms.

6. I intentionally took a job assisting a terrible boss, knowing upper management couldn’t hire someone outside the company to work for him. They paid me way more than the normal range for the job, just for being willing to subject myself to him. (He was a terrible person, but made the company a crapload of money and this was way before things like hostile work environments were liabilities to the company. so the c-suite’s answer to the problems his caustic personality caused was to overpay his assistants and look the other way when he was invariably a jerk to everyone.)

   I kept my head down, anticipated what he would forget, and compensated for his shortcomings. I did great work, despite the hostile work environment and made myself look valuable enough to upper management that I was offered a position elsewhere in the company. (With the nicest boss ever, and keeping my higher than normal salary.) When they eventually had to force the old toad into retirement (after shifting corporate culture and expectations made it clear to them he was now a liability) I got to watch the show from the sidelines instead of being impacted by it. (It was glorious!)