How to Deal with a Toxic Boss

Whether we like it, working from home is a new reality. As a result, businesses have found measures and tools to facilitate remote work to generate revenue in these challenging times.

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 when they could walk out of the workplace and escape from work stress, working remotely does not provide this luxury. 

Working 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 now and then? To help you out, we have listed below four ways to deal with a toxic boss.

4 Ways to Deal With a Toxic Boss

Make a Decision

Decide whether you need to stay or quit.

Firstly, you need to recognize how working with your boss impacts you. If the situation feels highly toxic and you have the luxury to quit a job without worrying 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. 

Get Uninvolved

Don’t get emotionally involved.

One of the most challenging parts of working with a lousy 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 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.

No Bad-Mouthing

Don’t bad-mouth your boss in front of your colleagues.

It may feel tempting to rant out about them before your colleagues and share how they have been behaving. But speaking negatively about a lousy 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 stay in touch with them in this quarantine phase, it can get tricky for you to get any clear information from them. Therefore, it’s best to share your thoughts with someone not related to you work-wise.

Communicate

Communicate with your boss.

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

It is best to communicate these details clearly to avoid 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 you can find some common ground and make it work with the ideas mentioned above.