10 Signs You Have a Bad Boss

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Alison Green, On Tuesday 6 September 2011, 23:28 SGT
Everyone likes to complain about their boss now and then, but here are 10 signs that you have a truly bad boss, the kind worth getting away from. And if you're a manager and recognize yourself in any of the below, it's time to immediately send yourself to manager rehab!
[See 15 Ways Good Bosses Keep Their Best Employees.]
1. Yelling. Managers who yell actually diminish their own authority because they look out of control. After all, a manager confident in her own authority doesn't need to yell because she has far more effective tools available to her. Don't yell, and don't work for yellers.
2. Fuzzy expectations. If your manager doesn't communicate clear, concrete goals for your work, and convey to you what success in your position would look like, she's falling down on one of her most important jobs. A good test: If you and your manager were both asked what's most important for you to achieve this year, would your answers match?
3. Unreliability. She says she'll review your report by Tuesday, but it doesn't happen. She promises to join you for your important meeting but doesn't make it. She says she'll forward you a client's contact info, but it never arrives. You need to be able to rely on your manager to do what she says she's going to do, just as she needs to rely on you for the same.
4. Unwillingness to make decisions. This often takes the form of managers neglecting to address performance problems or not firing low performers. But it surfaces in other ways too, like not taking responsibility for moving work forward or punting in favor of trying to reach consensus.
5. Unreasonable demands. Holding staffers to a high standard is a good thing. But insisting that people work over the weekend to complete a project that isn't