Most people at some point of their lives have to deal with a difficult boss. Difficult boss vary in personality from being a little pushy or rude, all the way to being downright abusive. Many people feel that an abusive boss has control of their personal life outside of work by lowering their self-esteem and making them live in a constant fear.
In this situation, you have to be skillful on handling a difficult boss situation. All of us have read the famous rule:
Rule no. 1 Boss is always right.
Rule no. 2 in the case the Boss is wrong, see rule no. 1
This is not to say that one has to be yes man at all the time. Whenever you face a conflict situation with your boss consider the following approaches.
1. Appreciate wider perspective. The boss has wider perspective than you, therefore please consider whether there is something you are not able to visualize that you boss has visualized.
2. Do not offend his authority. Every boss is sensitive to maintaining his authority. If you have a better idea, put it in a manner suggestion, avoid offending his authority.
3. Never react to verbal abuse or harsh criticism with emotion. This will always get you into more trouble than you started with because it will become war between ego that you have, hence, why he is difficult in first place.
4. Discuss rather than confront. When your boss criticizes you, don’t reach out of emotion and become confrontational with him about it because that just breeds more conflict. Instead, use his criticism as a topic for discussion on interests, goals and problem-solving and ask him for advise on how your work can be improved.
5. Evaluate your performance. Before you go attacking you boss, examine your own performance and ask yourself if you are doing everything right. Get opinions from other co-workers about your performance and see if there is any warrant to the criticisms of your boss before you criticize his opinion.
6. Encourage good behavior with praise. It is easy to criticize your boss, but criticism often lead towards resentment and hostile feelings. Proactive praising is much more effective than reactive criticisms.
7. Leave work at work. Get into the habit of leaving work at home and not bringing it into your personal life because that will only add to your level of stress. Keep your professional life separate from your personal life as best as you can. Most of all, do not have an attitude of superiority just because of your own belief and principles. If you miscalculated and made the wrong decision, and misconceptions or wrong assumptions, do not hesitate to apologize. Being human means you are human. You can make mistakes. And so can they. It is best to rise beyond the mistakes and thus learn from them.
By: Mrs. Maruja D. Trine | Principal II Samal National High School | Samal, Bataan
