Most of us have had “that” boss. If lucky enough to have not had to work for this person, we know someone who has. It’s not a pleasant experience, and one way or another, it usually doesn’t end well.
Sure, things start out OK. The work environment may have seemed impressive at the start, and there were bold pronouncements about all the team would accomplish together. But then, slowly or suddenly, adversity strikes. Rather than rallying the team and having them focus on the path to achieve the goals that everyone was already working on, the boss goes into full panic mode.
Instead of getting rogue team members back on track or out of the organization, the boss instead starts making demands that might sound good in the minute, but are counterproductive. Often the trouble makers within the organization get all the boss’ attention, upsetting those who were actually focused on the long term goals.
Instead of instilling a sense of resolve to get the job done, the boss projects the anger and surprise from very foreseeable events as threats to accomplish new tasks. These are often hysterically unreasonable and unattainable, but it’s what “the stakeholders” are demanding.
When the majority of the workers try to remind their chain of command that there were already tasks assigned, and progress toward goals were being made, it gets worse. “I don’t care. That was yesterday. This is what we need today!”
Most of the work that was done is then undone, and the workers are told to begin work on something else. With unclear goals, limited chance of success, and with horrible morale within the organization because everyone knows that failure is certain but management doesn’t want to hear it, the workers phone in their efforts until they either quit, or hope that soon enough there will be new management that might actually have a clue.
That’s a long preamble to vent about the current state of the electorate, and the view of too many…
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