|
Home | Switchboard | Unix Administration | Red Hat | TCP/IP Networks | Neoliberalism | Toxic Managers |
(slightly skeptical) Educational society promoting "Back to basics" movement against IT overcomplexity and bastardization of classic Unix |
|
|
This type, in its extreme, can be venomous, difficult, and intentionally destructive. In a milder form, they are not intentionally harmful but display difficult behavior, aggressive communication, and bad manners.
The LONER - Perhaps this type is burned out or just doesn't care, but they prefer to stay in their own office without any interruptions. Better yet, they prefer to work from home or elsewhere so they do not have to deal with employee issues. Frequently these were the high achieving technical people promoted to jobs they were never suited for. They are physically uncomfortable dealing with any unpleasantness or problem and would prefer if you handled it alone. When working with this type of boss, do not expect much direction or support. You are on your own. And so are they. Concepts such as teamwork, networking, or finding time to discuss your career or life are foreign to them.
The PERFECTIONIST - Often known as the micromanager, this boss tends to over-control all of your work. Because of their own insecurities, this obsessive behavior sends you the message of "no trust". Over time you realize that you cannot satisfy their expectations and the work must be done again. No matter how much detail you provide, it is still not right. Eventually you become demotivated and lose your sense of competence.
The POOR COMMUNICATOR - This is the story about the poor listener. They are either too busy doing all the talking or preoccupied with their own dramas when you meet with them. These are also the managers who loathe doing performance reviews and clock record time for completing them. Expect very little in terms of feedback or constructive criticism. They will send you a brief email every time they want to see you rather than walk over to your desk. Never expect them to make a good hiring decision because they will learn very little about potential candidates.
The ECCENTRIC - Often these bosses have unrealistic expectations that are too high to be met by most of the staff. They have very unique ways of processing their work and want everyone to follow their lead. While they can exhibit some characteristics of the micromanager when they demand things their way, they can also be gentle but confusing when trying to explain a new project or policy. Other they are the ones counting their paperclips and lining up their paperwork in perfect order. Sometimes they play favorites because they gravitate to those with similar interests. Many of them would rather be doing something else.
The INEXPERIENCED - Frequently these managers can be ill-trained and in some cases, never wanted to be managers in the first place. Similar to the loner, they prefer working as individuals and not as team builders. Often they truly do not understand their own job requirements and competencies and have difficulty in grasping the nuances of the business. They lack a supportive mentor or role model and perform in a hit and miss style. Employees lose respect for this type of manager and over time act on their own accord.
Bill Wilkerson, President of the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health in Canada says it bluntly. "If you are a lousy leader, you are making people sick. Ambiguity, inconsistency, uncertainty, insecurity, bad decision-making, self-centredness, rewarding the wrong things in the office, the fostering of office politics, and the rewarding of political behavior - that's the earmark of weak leadership."
While organizations need to take responsibility for creating a healthy culture and disciplining inappropriate behaviors, not all organizations manage this process well. If you are an employee who loves your work and the organization, but not the boss, what can you do in the short term?
Society
Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers : Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy
Quotes
War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotes : Somerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose Bierce : Bernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes
Bulletin:
Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law
History:
Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds : Larry Wall : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS : Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development : Scripting Languages : Perl history : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history
Classic books:
The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month : How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite
Most popular humor pages:
Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor
The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D
Copyright © 1996-2021 by Softpanorama Society. www.softpanorama.org was initially created as a service to the (now defunct) UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) without any remuneration. This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively for educational use and is distributed under the Softpanorama Content License. Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.
FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to advance understanding of computer science, IT technology, economic, scientific, and social issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided by section 107 of the US Copyright Law according to which such material can be distributed without profit exclusively for research and educational purposes.
This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site written by people for whom English is not a native language. Grammar and spelling errors should be expected. The site contain some broken links as it develops like a living tree...
|
You can use PayPal to to buy a cup of coffee for authors of this site |
Disclaimer:
The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author (or referenced source) and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the Softpanorama society. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose. The site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. You you do not want to be tracked by Google please disable Javascript for this site. This site is perfectly usable without Javascript.
Last modified: March 12, 2019