Do most people not like their boss?

Not only do I like my boss but I recommended him. He’s doing the job because I didn’t want to do it.

I’ve liked some and not liked others but none was so bad that I didn’t think I could work for them (except my Ex but that is a longer story.)

I have liked 90–95% of mine. Some had flaws, sure, but almost all of them were/became personal friends. Most people in my field don’t want to take the management step. We are happy to let a coworker do it so we don’t have to. If I found myself working for someone I hate, I just wait them out. In a year or less, they’re usually gone.

I’ve liked most of my bosses and when I was a boss I think my staff liked me. Most of them anyway.

I did work for a couple of people who I did not like. Most people didn’t like them.

Not in my experience. Most of the bosses I’ve had have been likable, and were mostly liked by me, and by most of the people who I had perspective on whether they liked them or not.

Though, I’ve tended to look to work in places with good work culture and people.

I certainly haven’t had a typical work experience, though, particularly taking the population at large. I have certainly heard of a great many poor workplaces.

I like my boss. Although I will say that I think it is human nature to at least some of the time not like your boss, if only temporarily. But honestly, I had the boss from hell at my job before this one, so it would be really challenging to have a boss who I disliked more.

I’ve liked some bosses, and even respected some. The ones that have a conscious don’t seem to last long. I mean bosses are just like every other worker bee except that some do nothing and others work just as hard as everyone else. So in the end, it has to do with whether the person is someone you can trust and know that they don’t expect from you something they aren’t willing to do as well. What good is a lazy boss. It just usually means you have to do your job and theirs, or that they will hire other lazy coworkers to work with you. The only main difference is that a boss can make your work life miserable if they are a crappy human being and you will get fired before they will. And some bosses get on power trips as they climb the ladder and will gladly step on anyone who makes them look bad and is a potential threat to that power. Oh, and no, I never stayed working for a boss I had no respect or trust in. I would look for a job and once I had a new job, I was out like Flint.

For the most part, I’ve liked my bosses very much. I’d even say we were friendly, and with a couple, we got together as a group with other employees after hours.

I suspect that people sound like they don’t like their bosses, or complain about them, in part because society somewhat expects it. Similar to disliking or not getting along with your mother-in-law or in-laws.

I had several I liked, and several I didn’t. Most don’t matter.
I haven’t mentioned in a while that I survived having the worst boss in the world. He raped a co-worker. He purposely gave a member of the crew a heart attack, then bragged about it. He often talked about molesting children. He was a monster.
Was any boss as good as he was bad? I doubt it.

My last boss was a stupid asshole.

I’ve had awful ones and I’ve had wonderful ones. I’ve had ones who’ve invited me to their houses like friends, and we’re still in touch.

As a full time union rep for ten years, I used to tell people “there are no perfect bosses, there are no perfect employees, there are no perfect jobs.” Even the best bosses would sometimes do things that were not thrilling to me. My most recent one was a friend, she was my friend before she was my boss. She would piss me off sometimes and I’m sure I pissed her off. She was scatterbrained and didn’t confirm meetings so we’d show up on the wrong day, stuff like that, and she didn’t delegate, so it was her planning things and me dealing with her scatterbrained-ness, as much as possible.

For times I’ve had bosses I couldn’t stand, I considered my options, which, in a local government of thousands of employees, and about 40 departments, I had options to move around. I was lucky in over 30 years with the government, I had some tough times but I survived and now am retired with a pension (starting at age 55).

Before I retired…

There are good and bad. The one most recent was a disorganized, ambitious (in a bad way), power-hungry idiot. She decided to throw all past knowledge out the window (until she figured out that wasn’t a great idea!) and she though that being a micromanager would giver her some power.

Prior to her, I had a great manager who set rational goals and tried to give us the freedom to achieve them in our own way. (Note: He was canned, basically, because he was too honest and the CEO didn’t like the truth. Still doesn’t)

So, it depends on the employee and the manager. Since management wields the power, it’s up to them to be wise in what they do.

Most of mine were good people.

I think there’s another piece to the puzzle here : the type of job.

My guess is that hourly workers in lower-paying jobs think more poorly of their bosses than professional (exempt) employees do.

This is most likely because in lower paying positions, you don’t have professional, trained managers (just people who were kicked up a notch), and so the boss won’t be a good leader.

That happens in professional positions, too, but in my experience, not as often.

All of that said, there can be shitty bosses at any level. Would you like to work for Donald Trump?

I’m retired now but during my working career I had a considerable amount of different employments and employers.

I must admit that in most jobs I had I never ever came into contact with the actual boss but none of them treated their employees badly.

Of the few bosses I knew and worked with all but one were extremely good, fair and friendly.

Of the one who was not like that I first of all had a go at him for the way he treated his staff and then I said ’“I quit” and walked out.

When I contacted him to ask for the wages and holiday money still owed he refused so I simply told him that it is illegal to refuse to pay an employer their rightful wages and holiday money when they leave and if he continued to refuse he would be hearing from my lawyer and if needed he would be taken to and Employment Tribunal. Needless to say he agreed to and paid what he owed.

Since I had a go at the employer, walked out and informed him of his legal obligations concerning wages and holiday pay and friend of mine who also worked for the same employer told me his attitude had changed and he was treating his staff much more correctly.

Some were great and some were admittedly bad. One boss literally told us he just got divorced, so he has time to “break us in” by making us stay late to do menial, punishment type tasks.

My current boss is great, though.

One of the benefits of aging is that I haven’t worked with a bad boss for 20 years. Almost 30. When I was young I would work for whoever would have me.