Describe your worst boss, how would you handle it?

John, the title almost had me! I have had different bosses and each one has been different. I have never believed in bad bosses, i take it as a personal challenge to crack their codes. It made my life easier when they get it that "i understand my job is to make them look good and not take their job". Subordinates or junior associates need to understand that the boss is a person first, who is aware they can be fired or their circumstances can change. So most "bad bosses" operate out of fear of looking bad or losing their job for incompetence. They tend to take it out on others. I managed my bosses by getting to know what it is they want and getting it to them in record time.
As a manager myself to get over the bad boss impression, i let my people know that i have an open door policy in getting to solve problems, and not assigning blame. I tell them, as a leader, i strive to inspire them to be better but as a manager, it is all about me dotting the i's and crossing the t's for management. With that, we get to work and they know it is all about getting things done with expectations of becoming better at it. They becoming better analysts, and i becoming a better leader and manager.

Tuff boss we can handle but worst boss we can survive till it reaches threshold if it goes beyond find another job/boss......

Not here to change someone or not to prove it every time .....move on world is big.....life goes on...

My worst boss was a PM in charge of a high-profile multimillion dollar project for a major pharmaceutical company. I worked as one of several Senior Business Analysts. This PM was deceitful and incompetent. He knew he was unsuited for his position, but he put on a good show for Executives who knew nothing about project management and couldn’t question anything he said or did. My boss couldn’t manage a schedule, and so inevitably ran into problems finishing deliverables on time. In response, he made the Business Analysts work ridiculous hours to compensate. This was 2008 at the height of the recession and the Business Analysts were contractors, so we counted ourselves lucky to have jobs and bore the situation as best we could.
How did I deal with him? I just finished out my initial six-month contract, and didn’t renew. Sometimes a situation is so completely untenable that a strategic retreat is the only available course of action.

Interview questions are so tricky... They are like Microsoft test questions... there is the expected answer and then there is the real world answer. :) You can only hope you get it right.

For me personally, my worst boss was a woman who treated me like she owned me. Basically, she expected me to be available whenever she wanted me and to do whatever she wanted. If I protested, she would threaten to fire me. I was a single mom at the time and had told her that I was available for overtime, but needed to know ahead of time so I could make arrangements for my child. This never stopped her from coming in at 5:30 and demanding for me to stay and run reports for her or running errands for her on my personal time.

This woman taught me how to stand up for myself and I learned a valuable lesson that people will push as far as you let them. It served me well in future positions. She "fired me" three times over silly stuff (apologizing profusely the next day when I showed up for work) before I finally quit and went elsewhere.

However, she is not the one I tell potential employers about when asked this question. Instead, I tell them about the guy that asked me to do something unethical and being fired when I told him that I wouldn't do it. shrug I could find another job. I couldn't live with myself for doing something wrong.