slacker manager outs the boss from hell

Slacker Manager posted a list of links, this was one of them.

Bad Bosses come in four varieties, says Dan Woolridge at Inside Work. These types are:

1. The true boss from hell - just plain mean
2. The functionally incompetent boss - despite possible good intentions, he doesn't git 'er done.
3. The emotionally incompetent boss - you probably know the type.
4. The positional boss - as long as it doesn't hurt her standing, she'll let it pass.

I don't know if that's an exhaustive list but Woolridge cites some interesting research about why people leave companies.

“Rapport with the boss largely predicts risk for depression and other psychiatric problems in the workplace,” says Brad Gilbreath of Indiana University-Purdue University in Fort Wayne.

According to Psychology Today, “Surveys show that up to half of all workers have a shaky, if not downright miserable, relationship with their supervisors.”

A Gallup report is equally blunt about this, “Employees leave their supervisors, not companies.” [emphasis in original]

I'm not sure why there are no links to those sources, though their findings are no surprise.


What I found most interesting was not the insights in the article, but Inside Work's tagline: business innovation + biblical insight. I admit to having a love/hate relationship with such "Christianity at work" media, but the other stories on Inside Work's main page appear, after a quick skim, to be of similar quality. The organization was spawned by the Global Comerce Network. I'll be poking around some at these sites and reserve the right to amend my initial positivity.

I did like the way Woolridge closed his article, offering some probing, scripture based questions designed to prompt self analysis. Especially the last one:

If you were the subject of the survey and were recognized as the source of turnover, employee dissatisfaction, and poor employee health, how would you respond?

Read the article by Dan Woolridge


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