With the current economic crisis and bulk layoffs, some employees tend to believe that it’s okay to accept anything and everything that comes their way from their bosses. This includes disrespect, rudeness, and manipulation that employees face at work. Employees who carry low self-esteem or low self-confidence will often consciously or unconsciously behave in a way that destroys their personalities. It can kill their passion and ruin their careers.
Bosses may be holding higher ranks at work, but if there’s one thing we all should know straight away is that the ranks or positions don’t entitle them to treat their employees poorly.
Most of us may have gone through this trauma, especially at the start of our careers where we are shouted at, disrespected, and manipulated, I speak from my own experience and I have learned one important lesson i.e., I am in charge of my life. So are you. If we start tolerating such unacceptable behaviors from our bosses, not only do we lack self-respect, but we destroy our personalities altogether. Remember, we all deserve a far better life.
Here are some of the bad behaviors of the bosses that employees need to be aware of that may hint at being an employee with low self-confidence.
1. The Ultra-Nice Bosses
Having an overly friendly boss can be more harmful than it seems. It’s not the workplace discipline that gets evaporated but no one would take each other seriously. In my experience, bosses do this when they are professionally or functionally not sound enough and lack the tools set to navigate the relationship asymmetries between them and their employees.
They use the shallow — and ineffective — tactic of behaving and speaking like everyone is a buddy to each other hanging out at the time. Not drawing clear boundaries can leave the team feeling confused as they would expect a far knowledgeable and subtle personality as a boss to see their work and decide their career paths.
2. Disrespectful Bosses
In one of my previous jobs, my boss expected me to shorten my vacation time and join back work. It got to the point when I had to mute his calls because I couldn’t suffer another back-and-forth. Another former boss of mine used to frequently call, text, and email after working hours and on weekends, with an expectation of getting back to him with quick responses, which meant that I could hardly plan my personal time with friends and family beforehand.
If you’re in a similar situation, I want you to know that you shouldn’t have to establish new work-life balance boundaries for yourselves. Bosses need to be respectful of employees’ personal time in the first place. Our vacation time and weekends are special to us, especially when our family looks forward to it. Unpaid overtime is an atrocity. We deserve to have a compartmentalized work-life balance. As the singer-songwriter Dolly Parton once said, “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life”.
3. Micro-managers
Remember, we all are adults that’s why we work. Some bosses tend to forget that. Studies show that Employees who have flexible working hours work more and report higher satisfaction than those who don’t. Flexibility increases productivity at work. This is partly due to the fact that many people want to preserve their own sense of autonomy. We feel much more motivated when we have a certain amount of freedom to invest our time and effort into our careers in ways most suitable to us.
My takeaways of the micro-managers are as follows:
- A micromanager adopts a babysitter management style that focuses on the day-to-day performance of individual teams and workers.
- While micromanagement may produce some immediate response, it tends to lower company morale and create a hostile workplace.
- Once identified, micromanagers can take steps to improve their leadership style and adopt a more macro approach.
The Corporate Thieves
Just because someone is my boss doesn’t entitle him/her to take credit for my work, efforts and ideas. I have learnt it the hard way. Bosses must be considerate of this and must give due credit for our efforts. It’s honestly not that hard for a boss to say, “XYZ came up with this productive idea and I think it’s fantastic, so let’s all try to brainstorm for a bit to take his idea to the next level”. It is as simple as that. Isn’t it?
If our bosses happen to steal our ideas on their own without our permission and giving due credit, this organisational value system is at stake. This means that the bosses also lack the confidence and maturity to give credit where credit is due. Not only that but it’s also a blatant display of poor professional integrity.
5. Unappreciative Bosses
The workplace is just like a home. In fact, we spend more time at work and as employees, we expect to be respected, recognised, and pampered. According to a survey, 63 percent of employees complained that their bosses don’t recognise their hard work, effort, and initiative. In some cases, employees are also notified that their bosses hardly talk to them. There was a huge disconnect between employees and their bosses.
The above results make perfect sense. But there’s another behavior that a more recent body of research found — and it’s one that employees themselves didn’t really identify. Instead, it became apparent only when independent observers looked at their situations and realized what was going on.
Bottomline
Recapping from what I said at the very outset of this article due to the market situation, employees may be working under pressure with a sense of immense fear and insecurity. They feel frustrated and anxious and compromise on their self-confidence and self-esteem.
However, there is a crucial need to look at the bigger picture where employees can up-skill themselves i.e., improve their education, and qualifications through short courses, additional degrees, etc. and find better jobs at better organisations. Remember, the sky is the limit.
