How do you deal with an insufferable boss?

Suffer and be employed

Frankly, I don’t know how people do. I quit a job because of one. Does your boss do the public reprimand thing?

Carefully. Make sure you don’t let yourself get too hungry or dehydrated so you can avoid snapping. The Insufferable Boss has superpowers of endless prickly energy and thinks if you’re too well adjusted then you just need more of his/her attention.

Weigh your need for money, experience or advancement (away from IB) against the stress you’re bearing up. You could try the typical troubleshooting IB move to find some way you are valuable to them in a way no one else has already tapped but beyond that, it’s on you.

waterboarding.

In my case, I pretended she was crazy and so was never surprised.

It helps to have someone else act as a buffer. If you can manage to get someone else to be your direct supervisor, that will take some of the load off.

Another trick is to suck buddy up to them. At least that way, the wrath will go somewhere else. That option requires a lot of fakery and maintenance.

Start looking for another job, but do it surreptitiously. (A transfer within the company counts.) Until then, spend as much time as you can away from work doing things that recharge you.

I’m right there with you. Develop Stockholm Syndrome? I will have a serious answer for you this evening, but for now, brevity or risk wrath of said boss.

I don’t recommend this, but I put up with a boss who was insufferable for five out of the twelve years I spent with him. I did it for two reasons: first, I really believed in the work we were doing, and I know I wouldn’t have an opportunity like that anywhere else.

The second reason is that I never believed that anyone would hire me. So anything else would be worse. I never believed I would be paid anything decent, but why move to something worse?

Anyway, I was miserable there the last two years, and did as little as possible, and finally he let me go during a mass layoff. I was so happy to not have to deal with him any more. My main criteria for my next job was having a good boss. FOrtunately, I was able to do just that.

Yes, sir. No, sir. I’ll get right on that, sir. Insufferable? Maybe. But you ARE employed, so I’m thinking in this crappy economy (no matter WHAT country you might be in), even an insufferable boss is better than standing in the unemployment line. You might remind yourself regularly of all the things you might have to give up if you were to lose your job. For me, that would include eating and living indoors…

I spend my entire shift mentally composing (in meticulous detail) the things I would say as I walked out from my ridiculous job. I never actually say them, but it makes me feel better to yell about them in my head.

Enjoy adding skills to your resume and then get out at the first available exit.

What I’m about to say is very petty, but very true. I never gloated, in public, but I did at home – for quite some time. terrible, I know!

She was awful, berated people – talked behind everyone’s back. She often took credit for things she never even touched. A lot of things that I did, she took credit for – it all blew up in her face, during a meeting. She tried to do something that I normally did, looks wise, sure it looked identical, but she couldn’t get it to function. (a database) She had no idea what to do, or how to explain why should couldn’t get it to work. She was completely clueless. As she finally had to ask for my help, it registered, in everyone’s mind, that she was not doing the work. I was.

I accepted a transfer into another department and enjoyed the transfer. I was finally working with adults, not a petty child.

I never once said a word. She was let go, not too long after that event. I feel bad for the people that worked under her, she had been there for quite some time, she had made many people, very miserable.

@3or4monsters
I’m trying to find humor in the situation and oh my, it’s all there. There’s no shortage of humor I’m this scenario

I’m in a good spot here and I can wait him out. Just taking care of my stuff in the meantime.

Pulling a Patty Hearst will definitely not be the outcome.

I have always felt if you’re not happy, look for another job. complaining is justfied if you are looking for another job, otherwise, don’t complain. I’m not an ass kisser, never was. I find that if i like the job but hate the boss it makes me hate the job. if i hate the job but i like the boss it makes it tolerable. a good boss seems to make me content, a bad boss makes me want out NOW!