How much have you found the rapport and relationship you have (or don't have) with your supervisor to affect your job satisfaction and happiness at work?

It wasn’t the relationship I had with my bosses that had impact on whether or not I liked the job. I don’t CARE if he LIKES me. I’m not there to be liked. I’m there to do a job. Instead it was HOW GOOD the boss was as a boss that made the difference.

He should appreciate high quality work. If he knows you do high quality work, he’ll appreciate you. And public reprimands are a definite “No No”.

The relationships I’ve had with supervisors at their respective jobs has always had an impact. Leaders aren’t chosen only for their work experience and skills. A good company will take great care in only employing supervisors with the proper ‘people’ skills and character that will create desirable relationships between management and subordinates. Unfortunately, there have been times where (not at the fault of Human Resources) I’ve worked under tyrannical, horrible bosses. In other cases, I’ve had to suffer through bosses who were in power simply because they owned the place.

The influence of a boss upon the workplace and the people in it is tremendous. I can tolerate almost any environment with a good or bad boss. I won’t enjoy the bad, and I delight in the good. But what it comes down to is, once I’ve finally had enough of the boss man’s crap…whether he will be able to tolerate ME.

It depends on the situation. A really toxic boss can make your day-to-day life very stressful.

It is usually not worth it.

My boss pretty much leaves us alone and let’s us do our work, but we do have a good rapport and I believe he appreciates the good job I do. I have had micro-managers that had to look at every single thing that was done whether it concerned them or not. Those kinds of bosses are the pits. I love my job – but it is more the work that I love. I get to read trial transcripts and I get to sit in Court for oral arguments before the highest court in my state. It rocks as a job, believe me. I don’t know that I have ever had a boss that I really hated, but a few have made life on the job less tolerable.

At the job I’m in now, my boss has become one of my best friends. While I’m sure it has some negative aspects, I can be honest with him and I feel he’s got my back. In turn, he can confide in me issues that he doesn’t want to share with his colleagues. Because we are in an academic setting, he doesn’t have any influence over things like my salary or promotions.

Working under a boss I didn’t respect was tough but they did respect me so I went as far as I could with it until a better prospect was found.

Working with bosses I respect makes a huge difference in my feeling of well being, I still put forth the same quality of effort and work because that is a reflection of me, I wouldn’t jeopardize that even for a bad boss. The perk of working where you feel well and appreciated is there are usually more opportunities, more positive networking beyond the immediate.

I had one boss that I couldn’t work with – at all. I was getting ready to quit when another department asked if I would transfer and work with them, instead of leaving.

The boss that I didn’t get along with was constantly complaining that I was trying to take her job – of course she didn’t say it directly to my face, she was real mature about it and told everyone else I was after her job.

Two weeks after I transferred, she was demoted. I had never been so miserable at a job before working with her, she was horrible. After I transferred, someone sat me down and explained how many people quit because of her, I took no comfort in other people feeling the way I felt, while trying to work with (and for) her. I know it had an impact on my attitude. I was miserable. When she was out of the office, I was much happier…people noticed.

She didn’t respect anyone that was beneath her, she treated anyone below her like crap. No management skills, at all.

I’ve had only one disastrously bad boss. I was recruited from a pastry job in Texas to go work in a tiny pastry shop in Juneau, AK. I thought it would be an interesting adventure at the very least, so I agreed after just talking to the guy on the phone.

Turned out that the whole town hated this guy. He routinely insulted customers and threw some out of the shop if they dared complain about the goods (and there was plenty to complain about). Shortly after moving in, one of my new neighbors said, “Can I ask you a question? How can you work with that son of a bitch?” He was a long distance runner, and at a local marathon one of the volunteers manning a water stand handed him a cup of kerosene as he ran by. A former employee, a karate brown belt, had attempted to kill him.

So I found myself working as his sole assistant in the tiny, dank basement kitchen. He (an American) spoke to me (also an American) only in French. Kafkaesque is the best way to describe it. The only thing that preserved my sanity was being able to purge my psyche on long walks in the nearby forests and mountains after hours. I lasted 5 months, and that was only because Juneau is such a magnificent place in the warmer months.

This was about 25 years ago now, but my morbid curiosity prompts me to wonder what became of him. The shop is no longer there as far as I can tell, and I can find no mention of him anywhere on the web. In my darker moments, I can imagine a pitchfork-wielding mob of grizzled locals dragging him off into the abandoned gold mines east of town and walling him in. It would have been so easy.

My previous supervisors at work were very immature. If you were one of their drinking buddies, you got the prime assignments and first crack at all the overtime. They (so far) are “untouchable” because of who they know in the department, but their day will come.

My present supervisors are wonderful, and I enjoy my job again. The last two years were far too long. This year is flying by!

My former manager told me that in a management class she took, she learned that by far the greatest number of people who resign (she named a percentage, but I’ve forgotten it) give as the reason either their manager or their manager’s manager. And she added that HR departments are told to look to the manager if a group has a number of resignations.

My manager was making it possible for me to stay. She might have been just about the only reason. She was laid off a few months ago, and now I am having a very hard time just showing up every day and doing my job. She was not only an excellent boss but a strong buffer between my little group and the forces that are now making it such an unpleasant place to be—the very same forces that did away with her. That’s why I feel so sure I’ll be pink-slipped within the year. I won’t have it in me to be very sorry, either.

My boss’ husband gave me a bag full of lingerie, pearl earrings and perfume called “beautiful” by estee lauder. I think she knows about it because she literally yells at me everyday for things the other employees get away with.

My last job, I loved…and I also liked both bosses. We still talk and I miss working for them