If you are working under a boss who is demanding, pushes you over the limit and never gets satisfied with your work, here are few tips to deal with him.
(1) Admit it as reality of life
(2) They are demanding for everybody.
(3) See the brighter picture.
(4)Limit his importance.
(5) Respect his ego.
(6) If all fail try this.
Let us learn all these tips one by one
(1) Admit it as reality of life:
You may hate it or ignore it; the fact is that a demanding boss is a reality of life. A majority of us will have to deal with a demanding boss at some point of time in our life. Even, if technically, you are not working under a Boss, you may have to deal with a demanding colleague, business associate, client or a customer. In fact life is full of demanding people.
(2) They are demanding for everybody:
If you observe the behaviour of your boss, in all likelihood, you will find that he is demanding towards everybody. In fact his demanding attitude is not only towards you, he is rather stuck in a role of being demanding. The fact that he is your Boss itself means that he has been entrusted with the responsibility to accomplish a certain task. And for that, he has no option but to ensure that those under him accomplish the task efficiently within a reasonable time frame. How can anybody behave in such a situation without being demanding?
One you understand that your Boss is demanding to everybody, you will stop thinking that he is ‘out to get’ you. Otherwise you would take his demanding behaviour personally and feel pressurized. You might think about his hidden motives and make a case as to why you have a right to be angry with him. Once you understand his all inclusive demanding behaviour, you will stop making complaint to your spouse about him.
(3) See the brighter picture:
You may like it or not, there is a sunny side of this situation too. It’s often the most demanding people who bring the best out in us. These demanding people keep pushing us to the limit asking for more and more. On one hand it looks very annoying if somebody pushes us to the limit. On the other hand the truth is that a demanding attitude forces us to move out of our comfort zone and help us rise to a new level of competence. It helps us learn new things on the job, improve our productivity and make us more disciplined, focused and efficient. Further, it acts as an invaluable training experience of working in demanding situation. You never know where this experience can help you.
(4) Limit his importance :
Please don’t make a big deal about his demanding behaviour. Unless he is a pathetic devil creating havoc in your life (most Bosses are not that bad), take him as just another guy who happens to be your superior. Take the things in their totality and decide yourself whether his demanding behaviour is too much for you to handle. This is really very important.
In order to elaborate this point, I would like to narrate a real life incident. My friend Ranjan was working in a Government office under an Administrative Officer who was very demanding. He kept criticizing Ranjan for his work. He was in the habit of finding mistakes in draft/ note prepared by Ranjan, was never satisfied with the English Ranjan used in his note and if everything was right, made petty correction of punctuations. He never allowed Ranjan to wear casuals in office and insist on formal dress. He was very particular about attendance and punctuality of entire staff under him.
Although the Boss was very demanding, the general nature of work in the office was quite relaxed. Ranjan always managed to find spare time for miscellaneous work, for playing games on PC and talking with friends on phone. As he was a quick learner, he soon attained perfection in his work and started finishing his work very quickly. Despite having a demanding Boss Ranjan was managing his job with quite ease. However, one day Ranjan became very angry with his Boss on a petty issue. He simply refused to do the work assigned to him. The result : he hurt the ego of his Boss and was transferred immediately to another department. In this new Department, though his new Boss is quite cooperative, the workload is too much. Further, the Boss of his immediate Boss is a very demanding military man. Now there is so much work pressure on Ranjan that it’s almost impossible for him to find any free time. Whenever I call him, I find him busy with some important official matter. A few days ago, Ranjan told me how sorry he feels about his bad behaviour with his previous Boss. He said that though the Boss was very demanding, the working condition there were quite congenial. Here, on his new job, the workload is at least five times than it was in his earlier Department. Further since the Boss of his boss is a demanding military man, he can’t dare to refuse any of his orders.
The example of Ranjan is a classic case where somebody failed to see the bigger picture of thing and take things too personally for his own disadvantages. Sometimes a bad boss is better than a good boss. It all depends upon the workplace where we work. So before taking any decision see the entire situation from a broad perspective. Don’t give too much importance to a demanding boss. There are other important things too.
(5) Respect his ego :
When I asked Ranjan about whether he ever tried to understand the demanding behaviour of his previous Boss, he told me that his previous Boss was being ignored by the administration for his next promotion since the last many years. All his colleagues had been promoted a long ago whereas he was regularly ignored in every promotion panel. This has resulted into a lot of frustration in him. As a result, he had become a demanding person. As a matter of fact, his arrogant behaviour towards his subordinates (including Ranjan) was a way to ventilate his frustration towards the administration. His Boss was simply trying to boost his ego by making orders to his subordinates so that he can prove his ability as an administrator – something which was being ignored by the administration.
Ranjan was well aware of it, yet, he still misbehaved with his Boss. Had he been a little sympathetic towards his Boss and could see through his arrogant behaviour, he would have still been working there. Since he failed to do so, he is stuck in this new place where situation is worse. So next time you become angry with your Boss, instead of cursing him for his devilish attitude, try to figure out what has made him that bad. If you try genuinely, you will certainly find the root cause of his problem. It may be either a problem of career progression (like in case of Ranjan’s Boss), a family problem, a health problem or any other personal problem.
I know that just finding out a problem behind your Boss’s demanding attitude is not going to change your Boss. However, it’ll certainly change you for the better. You will find innocence in the whole situation. You will be more adjusting and understanding towards him. In all likelihood it will make you a better worker and a better human being.
(6) If all fail try this :
Now some word for those Bosses who are hell to work with. If you feel that your Boss is demanding for no other reason than to be demanding, if he keeps criticizing you, is never satisfied with your performance, keeps demanding for more, have no respect for your feeling and is always looking for an opportunity to humiliate you than it’s going to be a really tough situation to tackle. However, even in such a hostile environment try to find the reason for his devilish behaviour. If you can’t find any thing wrong with you, take advice of your colleagues who might give you some hint about his ill feelings towards you. It may be the case that somebody has backstabbed you by projecting a very wrong image of yours in the Boss’s mind. If you find anything like that make the record straight by talking directly to your Boss. There is no point in allowing a wrong impression of you in somebody’s mind.
However, even after trying all the tricks in the trade you still can’t find any reason for your Boss’s animosity towards you, the only option available with you is to seek a transfer to other department (if possible) or to seek a new job. Though that will be a very extreme step and is not recommended in most of the situations, there may be some cases where this is the only way out. However, one thing is sure, if a guy is being unnecessarily demanding towards his subordinates, he is doing a big harm to himself. This will not only make him unpopular, his image with his own Boss will be affected.
All in all, in majority of cases you will find that Bosses are normal human being who have to adopt a demanding attitude as a result of being assigned a demanding role. Try to understand them, learn from them and keep in mind the bigger picture of things.
Bullshit. Not everyone works well under an a-hole. But the fact remains if you challenge him/her you will lose. The best way is to either find a new job/position or as mentioned above, limit their importance.