What is the best way to deal with an a$$hole boss?

Unless you can find someone to mediate and clear the air, it is going to be really uncomfortable, if not impossible, for you to be in a subordinate position. Is there someone in HR in your company who can help?

I’ve told this same true story on another thread, but when I was working for a major midwestern telephone company in the 1970s (before “Ma Bell” was split into many little companies in 1974), our division had a “rectal opening” for a boss, whom no one could stand, and who also drove a company vehicle, fortunately for us.

With the help of a friend of mine who was a professional locksmith, we had another set of keys made for his company vehicle, then planted illegal narcotic substances inside of it, and “doctored” some of his food and drinks in the employee cafeteria with the same illegal narcotic substances.

We then arranged for the narcotics to be discovered by someone not connected with us or our department.

Because he had the “only” keys to that vehicle (by his own admission) and because his blood and urine tests revealed that he also had illegal substances in his own body, the company felt they had no choice but to terminate him, “for the good of everyone concerned.”

That’s insane Jack! Ima go tell the Feds brb.

Well, if you don’t want to go Jack’s route, then i would suggest the very real possibility that you need to start thinking about another job.

I’ve gone through the HR process before to try and get transferred away from a boss like that and have usually found that the boss was not going to change. If the negativity is really effecting you and creating an issue, then you should think about moving on. You can fight the situation for months or years, but all it will really result in is more misery.

Just stay focused on your skill set and what you can bring to any organization.

Assassination is always an option

Holy Cow JackAdams! You are one bad man! I hope I don’t get in a disagreement w/you. Any ideas that don’t involve obtaining illegal substances, breaking and entering, and getting the patsy stoned?

I don’t really know anyone in that type of business. Threatening with light to moderate bodily harm is pobably the best that I could do.

dindinbaby, do you want him to stop, or not?

Well I certainly can’t top JackAdams stroke of genius in his account, so if you can’t figure a way to use his advice, I’m going to go with fireside.

The HR route typically won’t work in situations like yours because it’s not a single isolated incident that caused a disturbance, but rather a long acrimonious personal vendetta by a recalcitrant rectal opening.

If it is intolerable, hang in for a bit, get your resume in order, get your network going and before you decide to leave, give the HR route a chance. It may work, but the reason it usually doesn’t it that the HR side of the problem disappears when one of the parties disappears.

Unless you are in a company that has positions you could fill by way of a lateral transfer you have few options. Staying miserable shouldn’t be one of them.

Stop being a pain in my a$$, definitely. Stop breathing, the jury is still out. He is actually terrible at his job. So I am hoping for self sabitage

He probably wouldn’t have been promoted if his boss thought he was terrible. I thought the same thing and fought for years over it, last word I got is that he is still there doing the same thing years since I left.

The problem with looking up from the bottom is that you can’t see what is happening past the person above you.

If he is really as bad a “person” as you say he is, then he probably has some so-called skeletons in his home closet that he would not wish for others to know that he has.

I don’t know that the following is true or not, but I have heard that, if someone is anonymously accused of having child pornography on their home computers, that that person will have an unexpected knock on their door, along with a search warrant.

The reason I am mentioning this is NOT to get a truly innocent person into any kind of trouble, but to say that IF such a person is as bad as you imply that he is, then he probably DOES have such images on his home computer.

And, even if none are found, the fact that he was suspected, is sometimes “good enough” for a company to get rid of someone.

One thing I learned, many years ago (by watching a co-worker get unfairly dismissed), is that a company does not need a valid reason to discharge someone. You work at the “pleasure” of your employer, who can discharge you at any time, “for cause,” or “without cause.”

I know of one large midwestern employer who routinely fires their employees, right before they get tenured, so the company does not have to pay pensions to them. They have done this plenty of times, and now they are being sued by a number of former employees who were fired after 17 years, but before the 20th year, when they would have beem eligible for company retirement benefits.

i had a boss like that once he was always cussing me and treating me like a piece of dog meat. i just put up with his crap for a couple years and then one day when he was cussing me i just walked out and still havent went back to the place

Then HE WON, unfortunately.

Unfortunately for me I’m stuck in fast food for the moment, and I can assure you that I’m stuck with tons of a*hole bosses for the majority of my day—we’re talking ignorant, loud-mouthed people—truly foul human beings (at least while they’re at work).

In my experience, the best thing you can do is remain calm because the worst thing you can do is let whatever is said to you become personal. It’s best to be cordial, but don’t be too nice because you can run the risk of letting this person run all over you.
It’s really important to remain professional in this sort of situation, so try to be civil and try not to be baited if your boss continues to try to bait you to react emotionally, because the less you react the less power those insults have—and the person in question will quit. It’s also really good to avoid labels, because that only exacerbates because it’ll only feed the anger—and that’s something that you DON’T want boiling over at the work place.

If all else fails, make sure you have a Plan B (another job offer), and move on…

Hopefully this helps.

Your best option, for you and your blood pressure, is to start looking for a new job.

I worked for a complete control freak tool and I still smile at the look on his face when I said was giving him 2 weeks notice. He had that ‘oh no, I cannot control this situation and he is smiling because he knows it ” look. It ate him alive that he wasn’t in the position to fire me and I took control back from him.

I spent the next week telling him exactly what I thought of him and his management style. I was rewarded with a “free’ week of vacation. 6 months later he was fired.

make sure that when you actually leave you let the people OVER him know what he’s like.