How not to tolerate an irritating boss

Saralananda Prakash

An irritating and dominating boss

Caught in a web

Staring at the ceiling Mr. Z was sitting in his cabin alone. A heap of paper was lying in front of him on his table; but, he was not at all in a mood to even look at it. He almost hated his damn work, more precisely the environment of his office. The office politics, the bootlicking mentalities of his colleagues, the kind of gossip, and most importantly the irritating, egotistical, dominating boss of the office made his life kind of hell! A sense of helplessness constantly engulfed his mind. He used to ponder what the hell he had been doing in that suffocating environment. What had compelled him to stick to that job which he didn’t like at all? Financial security? His lack of ability to find a better job? Fear of carrying the tag of being unemployed? Whatever the reason he wished he could somehow get the freedom from this situation! If anyone like a Messiah could only save him from that pit! Oh! Indeed someone was behind him watching him from close-– suddenly he could feel that. Unfortunately, it was not his saviour though.

Again a victim of boss’s wrath

“What the heck you are doing so cosily? Are you here to enjoy the comfort of the office? Have you completed the tasks I have assigned you yesterday? Why haven’t you reported me in the morning? Why did you leave office in the yesterday evening without informing me? Show me now the progress of that accounts file. Show me right now? You dumb, are you getting what I’m saying?” Like a machine gun shooting relentlessly bullets at the enemy, the boss right in front him was now firing question after question to him animatedly. And as always he tried to defend himself muttering few explanations in vain. “Just show me the file!” The boss retorted. “Sir, it’s not done yet. But, sir, just a few works are left.” The boss must have expected this reply from him! No sooner Z had replied, than his mouth transformed into an expletive spitting machine, and Z just could watch the continuous change of contour of his lips and saliva spitting out from it.
Suddenly the curious faces near Z’s cabin found amusement in an otherwise boring office. They were peeping cautiously at them with grins on their faces. Any moment on a particular day, they might be in place of Z, but, for that moment they were just enjoying the free entertainment happening in front of them!

The climax

Then an unthinkable, actually a long overdue incident happened. Enough is enough! Z’s tolerance probably had vanished magically at that moment. With utter disdain, Z lifted the water bottle on his table, opened it, and splashed the water right on the face of the rebuking machine. The sheer audacity of Z and the sudden attack shocked the boss to his core. But, before he could react further, Z pulled him over the table holding his tie. “Hey! Hey! I will see you! You, you, you fool.. you are finished… I..I aah ..will…. terminate you..Are you getting it..” The boss exclaimed agonisingly while he was being dragged. “Terminate, my foot!!!” This word made Z’s blood boil more. All his frustrations probably climaxed and he just could not help to punch incessantly the boss’s face like a madman. After quite a thrashing, exhausted Z threw the Identity Card tagged around his neck on the boss’s face and roared– “I quit!” Then he stormed off in long strides in front of the bewildered eyes gathered all around.

A far fetched wish!

In reality, nothing as such happened. Standing meekly, Z was thinking if he could throw the file right in the face of this babbling buffoon. But, this damn job! He couldn’t think of quitting it. He needed the job, desperately needed it! No way, he could take such a risk! This feeling added more frustration to his inner being. But, at that moment what he could do was just stand there helplessly hanging his head low.

Kind of bosses

It would be an exaggeration if we consider all the bosses as negative as shown above. No way we can generalise them. However, here we would like to focus only on the darker sides of the relationship between the boss and his junior workers, so, let’s find a few categories of bosses based on their negative aspects of personalities and behavior toward their subordinates:

• Egoistic boss: He considers himself the lord of the establishment. All employees working under him must fear him, and show utmost respect and obedience in all situations. More than getting the work done, he is interested in pleasing his bloated ego.
• Cunning boss: He will use his cunningness to get supremacy, power, and anything he wants from his position and the establishment he is working. He is a self-centred person and his position or office is just a tool to fulfill his vested interests.
• Angry boss: Anger is his basic emotion or reaction to any situation. Or perhaps, he thinks being angry is his right as a boss. Whatever the reason, his subordinates must be on their toes to keep themselves safe from his wrath.
• Irritating boss: His presence and demeanor generally evoke nothing but irritation amongst the staff. He may not be highly egotistical or cunning (or maybe all), but he doesn’t possess the required leadership qualities. We often find him taking pride or seeking credit in every project or at the same time he will irritate everyone with his unnecessary so-called pep talk, and instructions.
• Doormat boss: He does not have any kind of authority in the office. His personality (or maybe inefficiency) can’t evoke any sense of respect amongst his staff. Everyone takes him for granted and the office or the establishment is generally in a state of chaos or may function haphazardly.

So, to deal with such a boss without losing your peace of mind is not a mean task. You can ignore your colleagues if they show some irritating, undesirable behaviors. However, it is impossible to do so in the case of your boss or all the people who hold an authoritative position. So, what can we do in this situation?

How to insulate yourself from an irritating boss?

Don’t be a minimum guy!

In the second season of the web series “The Family Man” on Amazon Prime, Srikant Tiwari, the character played by Manoj Bajpayee was forced to do a corporate job under an irritating boss. An undercover agent of an Intelligence Agency, Tiwari understandably was an aloof, inactive, underperforming employee in an unfamiliar environment. He was regularly reprimanded and egged on by his boss to perform better repeatedly saying this phrase- “Don’t be a minimum guy!”
But how do you “maximize” yourself to please your boss?
One way to do so is to maximize your ‘N’ game all the time– do whatever he instructs, follow whatever he says, even if it is harming your colleagues; flatter him, and be a good boy in his book by hook and crook. In this process, you may earn some of his power which may make you a de facto micro boss too. On the other hand, it may cost you few genuine friends or well-wishers, pure relationships; but why should you care? Anyway, how many genuine friends do you have? Probably none. Everyone is playing their tune. So, carry on your game of pleasing the boss and there will be no issue of underperformance. You will always be a maximum guy in his view, and never will be a minimum one!

Being well equipped to counter the negativities

Keeping aside the sarcasm and the ‘fantasy of a frustrated man’ described above, on a serious note, we need to devise a way out to evade the unpleasant effects of criticism and rude behaviour from a person in a position of power or privilege without losing the sanity of our minds.

In his insightful article– How to deal with criticism, Om Swami writes–

To deal with criticism, and to protect yourself, it’s important to understand that your freedom, inner bliss, is entirely in your own hands. It is your state of mind. What you do not accept can never affect you. Just like you, everyone has a right to their opinion.

So, the nature of our inner worlds determines how we can weather the storms in the ocean of life. Whatever we do in our lives, sometimes life would catapult us to an inconvenient place for sure. That inconvenience may come in the form of a difficult person, horrible situations, deadly diseases, and many other things we don’t want to face. All of these will thrash us, shake us to the core. But, we must sail through it like a sturdy boat, which may wiggle severely but will not lose its balance. For that to happen, we need inner strength; our inner sanctuary must be a site of tranquility.

Probably, most of us will need a great transformative effort to be in a state where we will be unperturbed by others’ opinions and rudeness no matter what. Otherwise, such challenges we face in a modern world will take a toll on us.

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