Adebola Alabi
Work is meant to be enjoyed not endured. Your career should make you grow and not groan. Your job should bring satisfaction to you and not pain, regret, or sorrow. It should come with some healthy dose of challenges which will ensure that you continue to learn, grow, and get better on the job.
It is true that for the majority of the primary purpose of working is to earn a living but living also includes being happy. Living means you are happy and thriving at what you do but should not be all about the paycheck you receive at the end of the month. I am a strong believer that to be our best we must love what we do. To love what you do, you need to work in an environment that is friendly, challenging, and which will help you grow and also free from oppression or any intimidation. The workplace must be a place you are happy to go to, not just a place you have to go to in order to earn money alone.
Employees want to work in an organization where their views and opinions matters, where they can put in their efforts towards the organization’s objectives and have opportunities for career advancement. There are several factors that can make a workplace suitable, friendly, and attractive. Some of these include flexible working arrangement, paid time off, company 401K match and so on. There are also several factors that can make a workplace repulsive with high employee attrition. According to an article published in Harvard business review, one of the major reasons why employees leave their job was as a result of horrible bosses.
Your boss has a big influence on whether you enjoy your job or not. A good boss helps to make the job of his subordinate a little easier by clearing obstacles in their path, equipping them with what they need to get the job done and setting them up for success. A micromanaging, task-oriented, and critical boss is not a healthy boss to have. They often wear off their subordinates with their constant nagging and complains thereby creating a hostile work environment which will ultimately lead to employee disengagement.
To reduce the unintended disengagement of a good employee, all people’s leaders need to receive adequate training so that they will know how to be better bosses. Doing this will help corporate organizations to foster a healthy work environment where employees are more engaged, reduce employee attrition and boost productivity. I recommend Kevin Kruse LeadX podcast for anyone wanting to be a better boss. He has wealth of information that he shares with his audience.
If you work for a difficult boss that is making life rather unpleasant and your job unenjoyable, then you should consider firing your boss. Of course, you cannot literarily issue a pink slip to your boss, but you can remove yourself from his or her team by looking for opportunity elsewhere either within the same organization or change job if you find yourself in a toxic environment. It is not healthy to hate your job or boss, you will not be able to stay productive or find fulfillment if you stay on in that job. Here are some steps you can take to fire your boss and find satisfaction in your job.
How to achieve satisfaction with your job
- Develop your competency: People value and respect knowledge. If you can become a subject matter expert in your domain, you will earn the respect of your colleagues and manager. Most conflicts with bad bosses are often as a result of not being able to deliver on tasks. If you are able to show your boss that you know what you do, and you can prove yourself right on one or two occasions he will learn to trust you to deliver on tasks.
- Attach values to your job: Attaching values and purpose other than monetary rewards to your job will help you to deal with a bad boss. Values are mostly non-tangible things that bring satisfaction to you. Money is good, but it should be secondary, the values you are adding to your organization or people’s lives should be your primary drive. For example, a teacher that put values on her job will appreciate the fact that she is impacting knowledge on her students and help shape their future. A Doctor that makes adding value a priority will be more concern with taking care of his patients and nursing them back to health. A policeman adds values by protecting the community. The cleaning crew adds values by making sure that the office environment is clean. If you can put strong values in what you do, temporary discomfort from a bad boss will not cause you to lose your happiness.
- Be kind and friendly: According to one of my favorite quotes “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about – be kind always”. This quote can help you when you are dealing with a tough boss. If you can change your perspectives, you may realize that he is probably going through a difficult time and things can eventually change. Being kind and friendly will also help you attract nice people that may help you find another job somewhere else. I have some friends that got their jobs through solid recommendations from others in their network.
- Manage Up: Communication is a two-way street. I’ve learned that expectation gaps between an employee and a manager is another major source of conflict and contributors to stress in the workplace. You have a role to play too. Are you delivering on tasks assigned? Are you meeting expectations for which you were hired? You need to search yourself, and if you find out that you are slacking off in any area, you need to step up and get back in the game. You are being paid for your service and you must meet those expectations and surpass them if you really want to grow and thrive in the organization.
- Take a break: As simple as the advice is, it might be of help – just take a break. A break can help to reset your views about your boss and your workplace. It will refresh you and energize you to be the best you. Sometimes, we get on the edge around people when we are tired physically and emotionally and taking a break do the trick back to life. It might help you to develop new strategies for life.
- Love what you do: Life is too short to spend too many years being miserable on a job, you need to create your happiness, do what you love, and love what you do. Loving what you do starts from knowing your passion and understanding your areas of strengths and weaknesses. If you love what you do, you will be able to tolerate a critical boss because the love you have for what you do will ultimately be stronger than the frustration you have working with your boss. That love will keep you going, help you to stay engage and productive, and empower you to withstand the pressure from your boss.
Take Away
Firing your boss, in my opinion, can include changing your job or developing strategies that will help you to tolerate a bad boss and stay happy in your job. My first recommendation will always be to find ways to manage him with the tips that I shared. If that fail, then you should consider disengaging from that job and seek opportunities elsewhere. Some friends and I now have a common saying. We call it “One-life”. It means we all have only one life to live, and we intend to live it to the fullest. Ultimately, if you cannot stand a boss for 8 hours there is no need staying in that organization for 8 years. Be bold, go ahead and fire your boss.
