Managers come in all shapes in sizes.

Some of them are fantastic and can even help turbo-charge your career, act as a mentor, or perhaps inspire you to follow a certain path you hadn’t considered before. In this context, imitation is the highest form of flattery. It’s not uncommon for chefs to have a real allegiance to their head chef if they feel their career has been better off through proximity to a certain professional.

However, that’s hardly the case for everyone. Some managers can be terrible at their jobs. They may be cold, calculating, blunt, dismissive, and even fragile in terms of their moods or how they take everything, like a recommendation for action, personally.

In such circumstances, you may feel like leaving your job, even if you don’t have anything lined up first. It’s a tough time for anyone going through such a journey. If you can relate all too much to our intro here, we do sympathise.

In this post, we’ll discuss five methods you can use to try and overcome difficulty, and what a better outcome may look like:

If Necessary, Go Through Your Formal Complaints Process

It’s usually assumed that Human Resources departments exist solely to protect the liability of the business, and it’s assumed in that way because it’s true. However, they’re also obligated to ensure that employees are treated with a baseline level of respect and fairness. If the behaviour from a manager crosses a line into harassment, bullying, or discrimination, filing a formal grievance is sometimes the only route left to take to get the issue on the record. This can indeed be a daunting step to take, naturally, as putting a name to a formal complaint feels quite risky when you still have to walk into that office every day.

However, if no official record is ever created, the behaviour is allowed to continue unchecked, and then it’s often assumed by leadership that everything is fine. Company handbooks usually outline exactly how this process works, and following it to the letter ensures that the complaint has to be taken seriously by the powers that be. Perhaps you can make them aware, so the next unfortunate person to be managed by such a person has an easier time stopping it.

Ask For Extremely Clear Instructions

Ambiguity is usually the weapon of choice for a poor manager, as it provides them with plausible deniability about their performance. In other words, if they have the sad motivation to do so, it’s easy for them to claim the work wasn't done correctly later on, or that the priority was completely different. Asking for absolute clarity protects you from this moving of the goalposts. It also forces the manager to commit to a specific directive before the work begins.

If a request is given verbally during a quick meeting or a drive-by at your desk, sending a follow-up email to lock it down or asking for it in writing is worthwhile. Simply stating "just to confirm, based on our chat, this is what was agreed" forces a commitment to an outcome and a timeline of exactly what was asked and when.

It’s sad you have to do this, but this is the way bad managers sometimes operate.

Save Dismissive, Harsh Communications

Nasty emails, condescending messages, or passive-aggressive notes are painful to read, but they should never be deleted from the inbox, because these communications are something of a digital footprint of the toxicity being endured daily. It’s often the case that a manager will deny ever being rude or unprofessional if they’re confronted about it later by a third party.

Having a specific folder where these interactions are stored might seem a little catty, but it does provide the undeniable evidence needed to back up any claims of mistreatment. It also proves it isn't just a misunderstanding if you have ten or so examples you can use in a complaint. Even if the emails are never shown to anyone else, knowing they’re there offers a sense of security that the truth is preserved.

Begin Looking For Alternative Work

There comes a point where the environment is simply too damaging to stay in, and preserving mental health becomes the main priority. As such, searching for a new role can help you feel like you’re taking proactive action for your own future. The job market can seem pretty poor sometimes, but opportunities are often found in some niches if you look away from the noise of the biggest platforms.

For example, checking a specialized SaaS jobs board or an industry forum can potentially give you better results than the massive general sites where competition is fiercest and plagued with AI spam. If you know you have an exit strategy, the hold someone has over you is less difficult to deal with, and you might even endure it while you wait for your new job to start.

Don’t Gossip Or Become Underhanded

Venting frustration to a colleague is a very human desire, but in a toxic team environment, trust is often a petty scarce and you can’t necessarily ensure people will keep your grumblings in confidence, no matter how understandable they are. It’s risky to share negative thoughts with coworkers, as that information can easily travel back to the manager or be overheard. Being labeled as "difficult" or a "gossip" gives a bad manager the perfect excuse to dismiss any concerns and paint you as the problem.

As such, it’s far safer to unload these frustrations on friends or family outside the office who have no connection to the company politics, and in your own time. Do your best to keep your professional candor and ultimately, don’t let a bad manager limit who you are and the good you can provide. Sometimes, people who suffer bad managers might take their frustration out on those they manage when they rise to a certain level, and it’s best to avoid that kind of temptation even if it seems justified.

With this advice, we hope you can deal with a terrible manager. There are many out there, but perhaps it can inspire you to be different if you get to that level.

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