I don't know about you but I have lots to share on the topic of toxic managers. I've had my share of them. It's one of the top one or two reasons I came to be a proud, self employed 'corporate dropout'. The other reason had to do with the 'lavender ceiling'.
Management styles are just like parenting styles, you end up with a continuum from authoritarianism to permissive with the ideal - authoritative - much too rare but the best.
I recall working many years ago for a female manager I really liked. We even became friends. I would share with her my sense of her management style and how I wished she'd 'focus more on the people and less on the task'. Still, she wasn't a bitch, just too dry or removed from her employees. I am sure there are nuanced reasons for this, reasons a trusted ally could have helped her conquer, on the way to being a better manager because her workers liked her more and wanted to do well by/for her.
Well, it's been many years since and I no longer have any contact with this person, however, in the meantime I've worked for managers who were much worse! And mind you, most of these managers worked in the health care industry.
In fact, how ironic, no? It has always shocked me how poor the management of many health care companies is, in terms of them valuing their workers. You would think they - aware of the health and mental health issues that can come up - would be even more attuned to workplace emotional environments than the managers in other industries.
Big assumption my friends...
One company owner was 'all about the benjamins' it seemed, while co-owners turned a passive eye as this person ran roughshod over the feelings of colleagues and subordinates (or treated them invisibly). Yes, there was too high an overhead to sustain (so why not lower your overhead?). Another seemed to be on a power trip times two! I don't know what was up, but I do know how it 'felt' to work with them or be managed by them.
You see, I have the advantage of being educated enough to know when the problem isn't just me, the worker bee. Many workers who don't have that education put up with bad treatment by managers and then wonder why they are dealing with high levels of stress they have to pay money to recover from (like the frequent massages I had to get almost weekly working one job where the boss was so verbally abusive I would come home with tight and painful neck and shoulder muscles which then exacerbated my neck problems). You can laugh and say I'm a wuss but today's desk jobs are mostly mentally stressful which of course then affects your physical health.
The good news is that the best companies are becoming savvy to the problems employing toxic managers can produce. So what if he or she has worked in your company for years? In this role now, their lack of training and communication skills is costing you lots of: time, money and headache as employees complain, call out sick and either quit or spread the negativity through other means.
If you are reading this, are an employee, manager, company CEO, HR Director or other company decision maker and you are interested in learning more about my management coaching and middle manager's therapy services, it's easy to start finding your way out of this 'box'. Just click here and arrange a complimentary phone call to discuss your situation and begin to move forward.
