The Manifesto for Malignant Managers

Patti Gilchrist, PMP, is a Senior Technical Manager with more than 20 years of IT experience. Visit her website at www.freepmstudy.com

  Leadership   Talent Management  

At one time or another, most of us have encountered a bad manager--and are all too familiar with the challenges of working for a bad boss. According to the statistics, many more of us than we might have imagined have worked for a bad boss at least once during our career.

A Gallup poll that surveyed more than 1 million U.S. workers concluded that the No. 1 reason employees quit their jobs is due to a bad boss or immediate supervisor. According to the survey, "People leave managers not companies...in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue.” (See “Reason People Quit Their Jobs”)

According to data analysis firm Evolv, a recent study found that supervisors who engage with their teams are more effective at retaining resources than the “drill sergeant” type of leader (see “Bad Bosses Bad Business”). And another survey indicated, “Three out of four employees report that their boss is the worst and most stressful part of their job.” (see “Real Cost of Bad Bosses”)

These stats are pretty grim, particularly when “65% of employees say they’d take a new boss over a pay raise.” (“Real Cost of Bad Bosses”) 

So the question is, why are there so many bad bosses? Where are all these bad leaders coming from? Are they receiving “specialized” training to …

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