Work Matters

Category: Bosses

  • Interesting Shoes

    I taught this week in a Stanford executive program called Leading Strategic Execution, specifically on the nitty-gritty of of being a good boss in a bad economy — especially how to implement hurtful things such as layoffs and pay-cuts in ways that do as little harm as possible to people's dignity, well-being, and productivity.

    Today, after lunch, an executive told me a story about how a secretary where he worked walked-up to the boss and asked "when are the layoffs?"  The boss looked shocked and wondered what in the world prompted the question.  She answered  that when something bad was about to happen, he stopped looking people in the eye when he talked to them and looked at his feet instead.  So the codeword in the place was "the boss is wearing interesting shoes today," which they all knew meant that something bad was going to happen. The specific lesson  is to look your people in eye, and the general lesson is that — especially when people are living in fear — they watch the bosses every move VERY closely.

    What are some other signs you've seen from bosses that bad news is coming?

  • Guy Kawasaki’s Peter Principle Pop Quiz

    Guy just posted a pop quiz over at his American Express blog that melds the culprits of the financial meltdown (plus a few politicians) with the crazy language — my favorite jargon monoxide of all time — from The Peter Principle.  Here are two sample questions, but you need to go to Guy's site to take the whole pop quiz:

    • Richard Wagoner’s record at GM proves which Peter axiom?

      1. In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

      2. The incompetent supervisor evaluates input, not output.

      3. The habitually incompetent can, by random action, be right once in a while.

      Answer: 1. Obviously. [2: Wrong. Both inputs and outputs tanked. 3: Wrong. When was he ever right?]

    • Which of Peter’s axioms best explains Bernie Madoff?

      1. Gargantuan Monumentalis: giant burial park, big mausoleum, and huge tombstone syndrome.

      2. Rigor Cartis—abnormal interest in charts, with dwindling concern for realities that the charts represent.

      3. Image Replaces Performance—a substitution technique involving smoke and mirrors.

      4. 2 and 3 only.

      Answer: 4: Correct. At least, this explains his clients. [1: Wrong:
      you’re confusing Madoff with Robert Stanford. 2: True, but not the
      entire answer. 3: True, but not the entire answer.]

    I love the quiz because it shows how, although the times have changed, the concepts in the Peter Principle apply as well as they did 40 years ago, and the language that Dr. Peter invented remains as funny — and accurate — as ever.

  • Interview on Peter Principle in Women for Hire

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    As I wrote awhile back, I was lucky enough to be invited to write the foreward to the  of writing the 40th Anniversary edition of The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong.  When it is officially published in a couple weeks, I will do a longer post.  But I did have fun with an interview I did at Women for Hire.  My main point, I suppose, is that although both women and men are at risk of being promoted to their level of incompetence, that since organizations generally hold women to higher standards than men (and look the other way when a man is incompetent), that there are probably more incompetent men than women in the workplace.  It is jsut a hypothesis, but backed by studies on negative stereotypes of women and actions against them — see Through the Labyrinth.

  • Warning Signs About Your Future Boss: A Checklist

    About a year ago, Guy Kawasaki and I worked with the folks at LinkedIn to develop a ten-point checklist to help people detect whether their future boss is likely to be an asshole. — things to look for during the interview process and when doing background checks on a future employer and company. I went back and look at this list and realized that, although it emphasizes asshole bosses, that many of these are also more general warning signs that your future boss isn't just a jerk, but is more broadly a crummy manager.

    With so many people looking for new jobs, and almost every organization I know reorganizing, there are a lot of people looking for new bosses now or, as a result of a reorganization, considering multiple internal offers for a new job with a new boss.  I thought it was a good time to reprint the list. Note that this is also in Guy's new book Reality Check, with a host of other insights on this challenge (See Chapter 87).

    As I wrote earlier on this blog, "Discovering the answers to these questions before you take a job can save you a lot of heartache."

     Here is our 10 point checklist.  Check-off each one that applies to your future boss. 

    ___1. Kisses-up and kicks-down:
    “How does the prospective boss respond to feedback from people higher
    in rank and lower in rank?” “Can you provide examples from experience?”
    One characteristic of certified assholes is that they tend to demean
    those who are less powerful while brown-nosing their superiors.

    ___2. Can’t take it:
    “Does the prospective boss accept criticism or blame when the going
    gets tough?” Be wary of people who constantly dish out criticism but
    can’t take a healthy dose themselves.
           

    ___3. Short fuse    :
    “In what situations have you seen the prospective boss lose his
    temper?” Sometimes anger is justified or even effective when used
    sparingly, but someone who “shoots-the-messenger” too often can breed a
    climate of fear in the workplace. Are co-workers scared of getting in
    an elevator with this person?
     

    ___4. Bad credit:
    “Which style best describes the prospective boss: gives out gratuitous
    credit, assigns credit where credit is due, or believes everyone should
    be their own champion?” This question opens the door to discuss whether
    or not someone tends to take a lot of credit while not recognizing the
    work of his or her team.

    ___5. Canker sore:
    “What do past collaborators say about working with the prospective
    boss?” Assholes usually have a history of infecting teams with nasty
    and dysfunctional conflict. The world seems willing to tolerate
    talented assholes, but that doesn’t mean you have to.
                 

    ___6. Flamer:
    What kind of email sender is the prospective boss? Most assholes cannot
    contain themselves when it comes to email: flaming people,
    carbon-copying the world, blind carbon copying to cover his own
    buttocks. Email etiquette is a window into one’s soul.

    ___7. Downer:
    “What types of people find it difficult to work with the prospective
    boss? What type of people seem to work very well with the prospective
    boss?” Pay attention to responses that suggest “strong-willed” or
    “self-motivated” people tend to work best with the prospective boss
    because assholes tend to leave people around them feeling de-energized
    and deflated.

    ___8. Card shark:
    “Does the prospective boss share information for everyone’s benefit?” A
    tendency to hold cards close to one’s chest—i.e., a reluctance to share
    information—is a sign that this person treats co-workers as competitors
    who must be defeated so he or she can get ahead.
                       

    ___9. Army of one:
    “Would people pick the prospective boss for their team?”
    Sometimes there is upside to having an asshole on your team, but that
    won’t matter if the coworkers refuse to work with that person. Use this
    question to help determine if the benefit of having the prospective
    boss on your team outweighs any asshole behaviors.

    ___10. Open architecture: “How would the prospective boss respond if a copy of The No Asshole Rule appeared on her desk?” Be careful if the answer is, “Duck!”

    Scoring:

    If you checked 3 or more, then it sounds like your future boss is a borderline asshole.

    If you checked 5 or more, he or she sounds like a certified asshole.

    If you checked more than 7, you've got a flaming bosshole on your hands — and also someone who is incompetent in a host of other ways.

    I would love to hear other tips about
    what has helped you avoid taking a job with an asshole boss — or
    other warning signs that you wish you would have noticed before going to work for a demeaning creep.   

    P.S. You can also use the Asshole Rating Self-Exam, or ARSE, to assess a future (or current boss) — just have the people you are interviewing about the future boss complete with that person in mind (rather than themselves).

  • On Being a “Fully Present” Boss

    Last week, I was at an off site for a local company, and they had an eight-person panel composed of four bosses and a subordinate for each.  The bosses talked about how they worked to engage and motivate people, and the subordinates talked about how each boss operated and what they had learned from him or her. 

    One of the bosses talked about the importance of being fully present, an old but important theme that was emphasized in the Fish books. I was especially intrigued by his comment that, during conference calls, he turns off his computer screen so he can be fully present during the call –and not fall prey to the usual temptations of surfing the web and checking e-mail. 

    I love that tip.

    It also reminded me, however, of a CEO who did the exact opposite — turning the volume off on her phone to avoid hearing the insults and foul language spewed out by a nasty board member.   Being fully present is a wonderful thing in healthy relationships, but there are times when detachment has its virtues.

  • Leigh Buchanan: Signs of a Bad Boss

    I've mentioned Leigh Buchanan here a couple of times, a former editor from the Harvard Business Review who now writes for INC Magazine.  Leigh did an early story on The No Asshole Rule called "The Bully Rulebook" and more recently did a great story called "Paradise the Hard Way" on the resilient and relentless two families that built and now run a wonderful small eco-resort in Panama called Tranquilo Bay.  I ran into some great ideas in a New York Times article published early this year that quoted Leigh and other management experts on the differences between good and bad bosses.  There are a lot of good ideas in this story, but I especially like Leigh's indicators of a bad boss — signs that his or her people will go to great lengths to avoid contact!  As Leigh put it:

    "You never see people walk by. Employees would rather circumnavigate the
    entire office to get to the coffee machine or bathroom than take the shortcut
    past your door and risk being invited in.”

    And Leigh added a second sign:

    Employees do not volunteer for the boss’s pet projects. It could be
    because the idea is bad, and they are afraid to say that. Or the idea
    may be good, but they are petrified of what will happen if they let the
    boss down. Or since it is the boss’s pet project, he will probably work
    on it as well. “Which means more time spent …gulp …with you.”

    I like these because they are subtle and creative.  If you know of any other subtle signs of a bad — or good — boss, please share!

    P.S. Also see Leigh's related INC story.

  • Latest Tips for Surviving Workplace Assholes

    I talk a lot here about the methods for enduring and triumphing against abusive bosses and co-workers.  Some of these tips come from your comments and e-mails, some from the No Asshole Rule, and some from academic research. I update this list every few months, so please keep your suggestions coming!   

    Before I get to the rest of the tips, one is in a class by itself:

    THE BIGGEST AND BEST LESSON: ESCAPE IF YOU POSSIBLY CAN. The best thing to do if you are stuck under thumb of an asshole (or a bunch of them) is to get out as fast as you can. You are at great risk of suffering personal damage and of turning into as asshole yourself. Acting like a jerk isn’t just something that a few twisted people are born with; it is a contagious disease. But escape isn’t always possible; as one woman wrote me, “I have to feed my family and pay my mortgage, and there aren’t a lot of jobs that pay well enough to do that around here.”

    Donkey_sign So here are my top tips for coping with workplace assholes that you can’t escape (at least for now):

     1. Start with polite confrontation. Some people really don’t mean to be assholes. They might be surprised if you gently let them know that they are leaving you feeling belittled and demeaned.  Other assholes are demeaning on purpose, but may stop if you stand-up to them in a civil, but, firm manner. An office worker wrote me that her boss was “a major asshole” (he was a former army major, who was infamous for his nastiness). She found that “the major” left her alone after she gave him “a hard stare” and told him his behavior was “absolutely unacceptable and I simply won’t tolerate it.” This is also pretty much what Ron Reagan (the late president’s son) told me on his radio show about how he dealt with assholes, as did a fashion model who described a constructive way to confront an asshole

    2. If a bully keeps spewing venom at you, limit your contact with the creep as much as possible.  Try to avoid any meetings you can with the jerk.  Do telephone meetings if possible. Keep conversations as short as possible. Be polite but don’t provide a lot of personal information during meetings of any kind, including email exchanges.  If the creep says or writes something nasty, try to avoid snapping back; it can fuel a vicious circle of asshole poisoning. Don’t sit down during meetings if you can avoid it. Recent research suggests that stand-up meetings are just as effective sit-down meetings, but are shorter; so try to meet places without chairs and avoid sitting down during meetings with assholes whenever possible – it limits your exposure to their abuse.  

    3. Find ways to enjoy “small wins” over assholes.  If you can’t reform or expel the bully, find small ways to gain control and to fight back -– it will make you feel powerful and just might convince the bully to leave you and others alone. Exhibit one here is the radio producer who told me that she felt oppressed because her boss was constantly stealing her food –- right off her desk. So she made some candy out of EX-Lax, the chocolate flavored laxative, and left it on her desk. As usual, he ate them without permission. When she told this thief what was in the candy, “he was not happy.” 

    4. Practice indifference and emotional detachment– learn how not to let an asshole touch your soul.  Management gurus and executives are constantly ranting about the importance of commitment, passion, and giving all you have to a job. That is good advice when your bosses and peers treat you with dignity. But if you work with people who treat you like dirt, they have not earned your passion and commitment. Practice going through the motions without really caring. Don’t let their vicious words and deeds touch your soul: Learn to be comfortably numb until the day comes when you find a workplace that deserves your passion and full commitment.

    Thedictator 5. Keep an asshole diary — carefully document what the jerk does and when it happens. Carefully document what the jerk does and when it happens. A government employee wrote me a detailed email about how she used a diary to get rid of a nasty, racist co-worker ‘I documented the many harmful things she did with dates and times…..basically I kept an "Asshole Journal."  I encouraged her other victims to do so too and these written and signed statements were presented to our supervisor. Our supervisors knew this worker was an asshole but didn't really seem to be doing anything to stop her harmful behaviors until they received these statements. The asshole went on a mysterious leave that no supervisor was permitted to discuss and she never returned.’  Similarly, a salesman wrote me that he had been the top performer in his group until he got leukemia, but his performance slowed during chemotherapy. His supervisor called him every day to yell at him about how incompetent he was, and then doubled this sick salesperson’s quota. The salesman eventually quit and found a better workplace, but apparently because he documented the abuse, his boss was demoted. (P.S. This is one my favorite "asshole boss" images. It is from BNET's article on Bosses: A Field Guide. This is "The Dictator," check him and the rest of his friends out).

    Button 6. Recruit Fellow Victims and Witnesses.  As the government employee shows us, an especially effective tactic is to recruit colleagues who are fellow victims of an abusive boss, coworker, or workplace to help support your case.  It is far more difficult for management – or a judge – to dismiss a complaint from a group of victims than a single victim. The power of this tactic is confirmed by in-depth case studies by Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik, an Assistant Professor at The University of New Mexico. Her analysis of how victims of bullying fought back, and what methods are most likely to succeed, suggests that people who work in concert with others to battle back experience less distress, are more likely to keep their own jobs and are more likely to force bullies out.

    In addition, finding witnesses who are willing to back your version of the events, and to provide you with emotional support, is important for strengthening your case against workplace assholes — and for bolstering your spirits as well. 

    7. Take legal action if you must, but do so as a last resort. There is a growing legal movement against bullying in the workplace, and employment lawyers keep telling me that it will get easier to collect damages against “equal opportunity assholes,” not just against racist and sexist jerks. Documentation is essential if you are considering making a legal claim. And certainly there are plenty of asshole bosses and employers that deserve to be slapped with massive fines.  BUT if you are suffering workplace abuse, the best thing for YOU might be to get out before you suffer much, if any, damage. I had a long conversation with two smart lawyers about this recently, and they pointed out an unfortunate fact of life that every person with an asshole boss needs to understand: The more you lose – – the deeper your depression, your anxiety, and your financial losses, and the more physical ailments you suffer –- the better your legal case against the asshole boss or company.  So the more you suffer, the more money you can get. The implication for me is, if you possibly can, why not get out before you suffer horrible damages in the first place?

    Wwwreuterscom There are no instant cures and easy answers for people who are trapped in nasty workplaces. But I hope my little list of tips can help those of who are struggling to fight back against an asshole boss. And please write me at robert.sutton@stanford.edu to let me know what you think of these tips, and especially, if you have more tips for battling back – and winning — against workplace assholes.

    Here is a new one that I am thinking about adding to the list: Laugh at the asshole's insults and forward his or nasty emails to the boss –– the idea here is that if you treat the asshole's nasty actions as something that doesn't deserve serious treatment and laugh it off, it does less harm and provides a basis for bringing the group of victims together to battle back. And in this case, they also forwarded the nasty emails to the asshole's boss.  To me, this is another variation of two important themes: 1.To the extent that you can find allies to fight back against an asshole, you have more power and more emotional support; and 2. Documenting the assholes actions is a huge help as that way you can use the bullies own actions and words as ammunition.