Dealing With A Toxic Boss: The Pandemic Edition

Whether we like it or not, working from home is the new reality. Businesses have found measures and tools to facilitate remote work in order to generate revenue in these tough times. At the same time, remote learning has become easier with tools like LMS. Moreover, because of their flexible pricing structure businesses of all kinds are able to afford an LMS.

It’s quite easy to pick an LMS that aligns with your training goals and fits your budget by comparing it’s features and pricing structure. For instance, the Absorb LMS pricing model is subscription-based and its payment plans are optimized to scale as your business grows, making it a popular choice for employee training. 

But working from home has blurred the boundaries between work and home. Remote employees have to be available for work calls regardless of the working hours. Unlike the old times where they could walk out from the workplace and get an escape from the stress of work, working remotely does not provide this luxury. 

Work from home means you have to be in regular touch with your colleagues and your boss throughout the day to ensure you are doing your job correctly. But what if you have a horrible boss and have no option but to talk to them every now and then? To help you out, we have listed below 4 ways to deal with a toxic boss during Covid19 quarantine.

• Take a call on whether to stay or quit:

Firstly, you need to recognize how working with your boss is impacting you. If the situation feels highly toxic and you have the luxury to quit a job without having to worry about your expenses, go ahead and quit.

But if you feel that you can work your way around the situation and decide to stay, you need to develop a strong mindset to ensure your bad boss does not affect your mental health. This helps you establish how to interact with them. 

• Don’t get emotionally involved:

One of the most difficult parts of working with a bad boss is feeling emotionally drawn in by their negative behavior. It can get highly frustrating to work with someone like that and compel you to behave unprofessionally. 

However questionable their behavior is, try not to give them any kind of triggering reaction that can escalate the issue and cause more harm than good. Keeping an emotional distance and treating them as just one aspect of your work and not a big deal will help you stay calm.

• Don’t bad-mouth them in front of colleagues:

It may feel tempting to rant out about them in front of your colleagues and share how they have been behaving. But speaking negatively about a bad boss constantly will only affect your mental health. 

Moreover, if the gossip reaches the boss there is a high chance they can make your life even more difficult. And considering you have to constantly stay in touch with them in this quarantine phase, it can get really difficult for you to get any clear information from them. It’s best to share your thoughts with someone who is not related to you work-wise.

• Clearly communicate with them:

Things can get really challenging if you and your boss prefer different ways to communicate. For instance, you may prefer meetings after a certain hour to avoid distractions from your family since you are working from home. 

It is best to communicate these details clearly to avoid any misunderstandings and give them a chance to adapt to the situation. Lack of clear communication or a direct NO to a meeting can cause friction and make things worse for you.

Conclusion:

Working with a bad boss during a pandemic is hard, but with the above-mentioned ideas, you can find some common ground and make it work.