If you ask a room full of professionals who have at least 20 years of experience “have you ever worked for the boss from hell,” about 40 – 60% will raise their hands. If you ask entrepreneurs, 90% will raise their hands. There is explicit evidence that the quality of a person’s boss has a dramatic effect on how they preform and on how they feel. For Japanese salarymen, upwardly mobile professionals, the stress levels at work can become so high that the Japanese have a term to describe the worst effect – work death. One little known characteristic of these managers is they are oblivious to their effects on their direct reports. Having interviewed literally thousands of people in organizations, I have compiled a list of the most onerous behaviors of such managers and the three origins these characteristics. Perhaps the worst thing that can happen to an employee is to have a boss with all three of these attributes. Do you have any of these attributes?
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