How To Know If You Are A Bad Boss

Business LoungeAugust 11, 2017

Jobs are sometimes all about bosses – the boss wants, the boss is angry, the boss criticizes… We sometimes don’t mention anything but the boss’ behavior and deeds. Yet, we aren’t sure that we have done everything as it should be. Still, these are not enough reasons to justify the bad behavior of any boss. Most of the time, we don’t know the reason why they behave the way they do. Further, we go ahead to identify them as bad people, which is actually wrong. Being a good boss is not hard to be. Anyway, if you are the boss, you surely need to check out what kind of boss you are to your employees.

“Being a leader is making the people you love hate you a little more each day.” — Patrick Ness

Here are eight signs that prove you to be a bad boss.

You delay your vacation because you are convinced that the company can’t work without you

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There are two real possibilities: you are true about this, or you are wrong. If you’re true, your staff is incapable of working without you, they aren’t responsible enough, and might not be competent for the positions they have. If you’re wrong, you are worrying for no reason, and your staff can handle things without you. In any case, the error might be fixed simply. If your staff is incompetent, educate them and make them work well. If they are able to do it without you, go on vacation and stop thinking that you are a center of the company!

You are angry when people quit

In every company, people progress in their jobs. It is normal that someone wants to go on and move to another company. That isn’t a reason for you to be angry or take it too seriously. Although you might be sad when a good employee just quits, take care of him/her before that. Make sure to talk with your employees and to know their thoughts. Provide good education and conditions, but when one decides to leave, don’t panic. Thank the person and wish them luck in their next job.

You yell at your staff

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Yelling won’t solve any problem no matter how small or big it seems to be. On the contrary, you will get more stressed and transfer that stress to your employees. This will paralyze them and prevent them from approaching the task at hand as they should.

Don’t use your power to humiliate others. Rather, treat them equally and talk to get the solution to the problem. If you yell when you are stressed, try to walk and breathe before you enter the workplace. That way you will relieve stress before you feel the need to yell at anyone.

You take over work from your staff to finish it correctly

This has a lot in common with the first point. Namely, you think that no one but you can do the job right, which is wrong from many, many reasons. If you consider them irresponsible or incapable, they are either not supposed to work in your company, or you just need to provide them more practice. On the other hand, if they are good enough, you are wasting your time doing their job, and at the same time, you don’t provide them enough confidence to finish their required tasks.

You don’t provide negative or critical feedback so no one could feel bad

These aren’t good intentions, just to be clear. Critics are the best way for an individual to correct himself and to progress in the professional plan. This way, you will provide correct information about an individual and his mistakes, and that way, you will surely make him work harder. Try to make a clear difference between criticizing a person and criticizing his mistakes because these are two different things. Always provide a positive feedback, too. This way, the person won’t concentrate on the bad things but will be encouraged to progress further.

You don’t praise your staff enough

This is equally important as constructive criticism. Try to praise your staff every day if you are able to. This will show them in which direction they should be going, and they will surely be encouraged to work even more. If your staff doesn’t hear anything positive from you, they will surely feel unappreciated and think that no one notices their achievements. This is especially so if you just continue giving them a critical feedback! You definitely should balance it with positive feedback as well.

Being a good boss isn’t easy, but it will surely become easier with the list we provided. Just try to avoid these mistakes, and you will surely end up being a better boss (if not a good one)!