Working for a Boss You Don’t Respect

A boss can be careless in one part of his job and right about something he asks you to do. Disliking him makes that harder to see. So does the pressure to pretend that every instruction is wise because it came from a manager. You owe him a fair hearing for the same reason you owe one to anybody whose judgment affects your work.

Take an instruction you think wastes time. Ask what it’s supposed to accomplish. You may learn there’s a constraint you couldn’t see. If you understand the reason and still think the instruction is poor, say what you expect to happen and offer a concrete alternative. If the decision is his to make and the work is legitimate, you may have good reason to carry it out once he’s heard you. The judgment changes if the request asks you to deceive someone, conceal a serious mistake, or expose another person to harm. Then the objection concerns what you would be participating in.

The same fairness applies when you speak about your boss afterward. “He changed the deadline twice without telling the crew” gives another person something to judge. “He has no idea what he’s doing” asks them to adopt your verdict on the man. If his conduct repeatedly makes it hard to do good work, the facts are sufficient grounds to raise the problem or look elsewhere.