June 23, 2025 • 25 mins
Toxic bosses are more common than you think—and Kendall Berg isn’t afraid to name names and break down the real strategies you need to survive them. From micromanagers who hover over every move to credit-stealers who take your wins and make them theirs, this episode of Secrets of the Career Game reveals what actually works when your manager is the biggest obstacle to your career growth.
Kendall explains why emotional distance is the key to survival, how to proactively manage up, and what to do when your boss starts playing games with your reputation. Whether you're dealing with power-hungry leadership or just an insecure manager who’s in over their head, this episode gives you the insider blueprint for managing up, protecting your peace, and reclaiming your progress.
In this episode, we discuss:
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What are the 4 toxic boss types and how do you spot them?
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How do you deal with a micromanager without losing your mind?
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What’s the best way to protect yourself from a credit-stealing manager?
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Can you really get promoted under a defensive boss?
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What should you say when your boss makes a derogatory comment?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kendall Berg (00:00):
The four types of bosses that we're going to talk about are toxic personality, micromanagers, defensive, and those managers that steal credit.
If you're dealing with a toxic boss, I am sorry.
I have been there, I have dealt with it.
It sucks, okay?
It's mentally and emotionally draining, but hopefully this will help you make your situation a little more survivable in the interim.
(00:20):
Welcome back to this episode of Secrets of the Career Game.
So many people are trying to navigate a corporate world that is laden with secrets cleverly hidden and unspoken rul a game that most employees don't even know that they're playing.
On this podcast, we try to give you a peek behind the curtains and some tips and tricks to ultimately make you successful in your career and help you progress a little bit faster.
(00:45):
Welcome back, my lovelies, to another fabulous episode of Secrets of the Career Game.
Today we are going to talk about how to manage up a toxic boss.
So we're going to be covering four different types of difficult bosses, and you're going to see some overlap in some of the tools that we're going to use to manage them effectively.
Now, if you're in the unique situation of working for a great boss who genuinely cares about you, listens to your opinion, and is helping you propel your career forward, congrats.
(01:13):
This episode may not be for you right now, but at some point you've probably either already faced or will face in the future a difficult boss.
And so we're going to talk about the tips, the tricks, the secrets of the career game to navigate these difficult leaders in a way that's going to help you still be successful and feel like you're adding value.
Because, let's be honest, nobody wants to work super hard and get zero credit or feel like you can't do anything that's impactful because your boss won't let you.
(01:39):
So we're going to jump right in.
The four types of bosses that we're going to talk about are toxic personality, micromanagers, defensive, and those managers steal credit.
We're going to give you different tips and tools in order to manage each one successfully, set yourself up for the most.
We're going to give you different tips and tools in order to manage each one successfully, set yourself up for the most success.
(02:01):
Now, some of these can also be used with peers, stakeholders, other individuals we interact with in the workplace and have interpersonal conflict with in order to improve our situation.
So don't feel like this is exclusively limited to that difficult boss.
But let's be honest, most of our overall mental health and job well being comes from working for a leader that we respect, admire and have a good relationship with.
(02:25):
So how do we address that?
How do we make that better?
How do we start to improve that?
It starts with us showing up proactively rather than reactively.
Now I have whole other episodes on the pod that we'll link below about creating emotional distance so that we aren't as reactive in the workplace.
But what I mean by that is when we are super emotionally invested in our job, mostly invested in our title, and we're really not able to separate how we feel from the situations that we find ourselves in, we tend to be incredibly reactive.
(02:55):
Right.
We tend to feel negatively if somebody speaks badly about us in a meeting.
We tend to be quick to anger, quick to frustration, quick to argument, very defensive of our own work and our own objectives within the workplace.
And ultimately it's not exactly good for our long term career progression.
So like I said, I'll tag it below.
Go back and listen to the episode that we have about creating some more emotional decisions because I do think that's really key to being successful, especially if you're going to be working with a toxic boss.
(03:24):
But let's assume that you've been able to create that little bit of emotional distance.
You're reinvesting your time and effort outside of works and the things that fill your cup and fill your energy.
And now we just need to figure out how to manage the situation until we can A, find a new job, B, transfer to another team, or C, hope that boss retires.
Okay, so we're going to start first with our toxic personalities.
(03:46):
So the way that I define a boss who has a toxic personality is this is someone who's very mercurial.
We may not know how they're going to respond.
Some days if they're in a good mood, they think you're great and all the responses are positive.
Other days you go to work for them and they're yelling and they're angry and nothing you do is right and they're nitpicking everything that you're doing.
Okay.
So they can be very wishy washy and how they approach work.
(04:06):
They can also be very derogatory or talk down to you.
Right.
This could be comments about you not doing your job well, about you being stupid about any type of demographic issue that is coming up in the workplace.
Now I will say if your boss falls into this category, you should be looking for other employment.
Okay, we're going to give you some tools to survive in the interim.
(04:28):
But you should never be in a position where your boss is yelling at you in a meeting or slapping their hands down on the table or telling you that you're dumb or that you're a diversity hire, any of these things, right?
So if that's the situation you find yourself in, save yourself.
Okay?
But we'll give you some tools in the interim.
So these are kind of that toxic personality boss.
(04:49):
They're very inconsistent.
They may also gossip about other people on the team to you and say oh well, so and so messed this up or I wish they were better at this.
Or they need.
They're gossiping, they're wishy washy, they're derogatory, they fall into this category.
Congrats.
Your boss is a toxic personality.
And I'm sorry.
Okay, so what are some things that we can do that are going to help us face off with this personality and still be successful in our job?
(05:15):
So first up, we are to buffer with boundaries.
This means that we're going to create some separation from the last minute requests, the ongoing deprioritization and reprioritization, the wishy washiness of what they want you working on with trade offs and boundaries.
Again, this is a topic I talk about a lot, so there are other podcasts where I go really in depth.
But for the sake of today's discussion, think of this as your boss comes to you with a last minute request.
(05:39):
Hey, this needs to get done.
Why didn't you do it?
It's the first time you're hearing about it and it's Friday at 4pm the trade off to get it out the door is, hey, in order for me to deliver this the way that you're asking, I need to deprioritize this other thing.
I was going to get out today.
Are you okay with that trade off or hey, I understand this is super important since most people are going to be looking at this at 9:00am Pacific on Monday.
(06:00):
Do you mind if I pick this up Monday morning and get it out by 8:30?
What are some of those trade offs we can do that are going to help us keep our peace, keep our mental sanity without totally derailing a conversation depending on the level of toxicity.
I'm going to be honest with you, this tip may or may not work.
Okay?
I worked for toxic bosses that were Everything has to be done yesterday, it has to be done this way.
(06:22):
I don't care if you're on till 10 o' clock at night on a Friday to get it done, just do it.
If you work for one of those bosses, the boundary maintenance is going to be challenging, all right?
It's going to be more difficult for you.
And this type of buffering with boundaries is not going to work.
However, if you just have a boss who's a little more mercurial, who maybe has a tendency to get really angry, this may be a place where we're able to establish boundaries in a way that's more effective and can protect us a little bit.
(06:46):
So keep that in mind.
The second thing that we want to do with a toxic personality is we want to anticipate what they need as much as possible in advance.
The best way to keep a mercurial boss happy or to keep them from anger is to make sure that they're getting what they need in advance of when they need it in the way that they like it so that there's less for them to complain about.
(07:07):
Now, this doesn't necessarily come naturally to a lot of people.
This can come with a lot of questions in the early stages.
Hey, help me understand what your expectations are.
How do you prefer to be communicated with?
What are some of the deliverables that are repetitive that you would like me to own?
And make sure you're getting ahead of time.
We want to make sure we're able to anticipate those things.
I used to joke, I had a boss once who told me that I was like Jean Gray from the X Men because I knew what he needed before he needed it.
(07:33):
And by the time he asked me for it was already in his inbox.
And so finding that way of, okay, this individual likes to have data head of big meetings with the executive team.
Great.
Can you work with their EA to understand when those executive team meetings are going to be so that you have all the materials prepped ahead of time?
They like updates every month from the team members.
Great.
Let's get on a cadence where we're getting all the team members, things consolidated, organized, ready to go and to them before they need it.
(07:56):
Start to think of how you anticipate.
Another great part of anticipating the needs of your boss is to build a broader network with your boss's peers.
If we understand what's going on at their level and what's important to them and what they're going to need, we can get ahead of those asks from your boss and make things run a lot smoother.
This is one of those areas where it is going to be a little bit of trial and error, but you should be listening to the feedback.
(08:19):
Your boss Gives the type of things that do make them angry, the types of things that don't feel done to them and start to learn how to incorporate that.
It could be attention to detail.
They're just really specific on the numbers.
It could be formatting.
It could be time sensitivity.
Hey, why isn't this ready?
And they never asked for it, but it's due.
It's my favorite one personally.
But start to learn to anticipate.
(08:40):
That's really going to protect you a lot from backlash and keep you safe while you're out there searching for your next job.
Something tangentially related to the anticipate that people are not going to like hearing is oftentimes in order to anticipate we have to spend more time with them.
And this can be really challenging if your boss is really toxic because we don't want to be around that, we don't want to expose ourselves to it any more than is absolutely necessary.
(09:03):
However, it's very hard to know what's going on and what they're going to need from us if we're never talking to them.
And so having those one ones putting ourselves in a position to understand what's going on again, building relationships with their peers, these types of things are going to help us be more successful in this role.
Now this does not apply if your boss is the type to yell at you or throw things or speak to you in derogatory terms.
(09:25):
I'm not saying spend more time with people who are dangerous or who are detrimental to your mental health.
This is more for that wishy washy boss who's just gossipy and doesn't have a good culture in his team and isn't consistent or her team.
Okay, the last thing that we're going to do, and this is for that toxic personality that is derogatory, that yells, it slams their hands on the table.
(09:47):
That's like the extreme.
If you work for a boss, who is the extreme.
Quick side note, I'm not a huge fan of HR as a business unit.
Love them.
They do great stuff for employee relations.
HR's job is to protect the company.
This doesn't mean that there aren't great people in hr.
This doesn't mean that your HR BP doesn't want what's best for you.
It doesn't mean that they won't take your side.
But on the whole, HR does not care that you do not like your boss.
(10:09):
Now they say something really egregious, file an HR complaint.
99% of the time HR does care about that because you could sue the company.
Right?
I gave a mini episode recently where I talk about a particular VP that I worked for that made some derogatory comments in that situation, HR was waiting for me, like, okay, would you like to sue the firm?
Now we're ready.
Because something really egregious is going to get the attention that we think it deserves.
(10:33):
But if your boss is just a little wishy washy, a little mercurial, honestly, they just don't care.
And it's not your fault.
The individual may care, but hr, employee relations, the business unit, it's not going to be a priority.
So don't hurt your own career, but keep yourself safe.
If this is a safety concern, if this is super derogatory comments, if this is sexual harassment, please, please file a complaint.
(10:54):
Please.
Okay?
But I am talking about, like, the other.
Like, I just don't like my boss.
That's more for you to navigate, which is the whole purpose of this episode.
That being said, if you have a boss who makes derogatory comments, who slams their hands on the table, is doing these things, I'm hoping you're documenting these things and you're sending them to hr.
Okay?
In the absence of that, say your boss says something bad to you in a meeting.
(11:14):
We're going to use a PC example for the sake of my podcast.
But they say you're dumb and you don't know what you're doing.
Okay?
After they say that, I want you to look at them and go, can you repeat that?
It's going to make them so uncomfortable.
All right?
Because they don't want to repeat it.
They said it once in the heat of the moment, in anger.
They were frustrated.
They don't want to say it again because they know they're not supposed to say that, right?
(11:37):
So, hey, can you just repeat that for me?
It's going to put them on the spot.
And if they do repeat it, then we're going to ask, hey, can you help me understand why you would say that?
What's your objective here?
This is going to create more distance for you and put them in their place a little bit.
Because they're not going to want to argue with you.
They're not going to want to hear about how they shouldn't have said that or how that's a mean thing or how that hurts your feelings or how that's not constructive.
(12:00):
They.
They don't want that.
They want you to be sad.
And so if you don't get sad and you say, hey, can you just repeat that?
For me, help me understand why you would say that.
What exactly are you trying to achieve now?
They've been put in their place and you have a little bit of space and a little bit of a buffer of protection.
Okay, so again, this is for like, extreme circumstances.
This is also a great tool to employ with like a toxic coworker.
Just saying.
But this isn't something we want to use super often.
(12:21):
This is for those extreme cases.
Right.
Boss type number two is the micromanager, everybody's favorite.
This shows up on every survey that I do.
Shows up in my own list of don't wants.
It's something that's talked about in every leadership training.
But how do we actually avoid the micromanager?
So there's a few things that are helpful here.
So again, similar to what I talked about with the toxic personality boss, we do want to anticipate their needs as much as possible.
(12:45):
What are you going to need?
When are you going to need it?
How do I get it to you ahead of time?
The biggest issue for a micromanager is getting things on the due date.
I know this sounds very contrary because they said, get it to me Thursday and you get it to them Thursday.
But the biggest issue for them is that they don't know what's happening Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and they don't want to wait till Thursday to find out.
So anticipating what they need and getting them a file they need on Thursday by Tuesday is going to be your biggest saving grace.
(13:09):
Because it's there, they don't have to ask you about it.
The micromanagement decreases, that proactivity is going to put you in their good graces.
Additionally, with a micromanager, we want to understand their preferred style and frequency of communication.
Do they like teams updates?
Do they want an email update?
Do they need daily, weekly, monthly?
What does that look like now?
Monthly, they're probably not a micromanager, but daily, maybe they are.
(13:32):
Right.
So I had a boss once, very in the weeds.
This is in the days of cubicles and used to like, come stand behind me in a cubicle.
So I had to, like, set up a mirror so I would know when they were coming.
Not that I was doing anything I wasn't supposed to, but just because it would give me a literal heart attack if I was like, you're right behind me.
Okay, but very much in the weeds.
And what I came to find was that this individual wanted to know daily what I was working on.
(13:54):
Not because they didn't trust me, not because I wasn't autonomous, but because they felt that they were out of the loop if their boss asked them what was going on.
So what ended up working really well for us is each morning I would send a quick note in the equivalent of what is now teams and say, hey, just want to let you know today I'm working on these three things.
I have meetings at these times.
I'm going to be pretty busy, but just wanted to let you know in case you stopped by my desk and I wasn't there or hey, I don't have many meetings today, but I'm going to be working on these three reports.
(14:21):
I'll send them to you by end of Tuesday.
A daily quick message like that, proactive on my part, kept them from having to reach out and micromanage because they knew what I was doing, they were informed.
They felt like if their boss came to them and said, hey, what's Kendall doing today?
Oh, she's working on finishing this report.
She's got a couple meetings in the afternoon.
Why, did you need something?
Now they have the information they feel that they need.
(14:41):
So understanding the driver behind why your micromanager is micromanaging and being proactive with your communication can be really important.
Even as I became a more senior level executive level, I tend to still send at least monthly updates to my leadership of, hey, this is everything that's going on in my space.
We talk every week, multiple times generally, but I like to give a formal update here.
(15:02):
Here's all the projects in my space.
Here's what's going on in each.
Here's who's in my team that owns them.
Here's the progress we've made, here's the anticipated delivery dates.
Because in the absence of that, your leadership honestly doesn't know what's going on.
The more senior you get, the less they know what's going on.
But even in those middle management junior levels, micromanagers are usually there because they feel that they don't know what's happening and they're afraid somebody's going to ask them what's happening and they're not going to have answer.
(15:27):
So being proactive with that communication, their frequency and preferred method is really going to help you feel like you're not being managed so much.
You have autonomy to do your job, but they feel informed enough that they'll let you do it.
And that's kind of the balance we want to strike with that type of personality.
Third type of boss is the defensive boss.
So this is the boss who is very protective of their own scope.
They get very Defensive if try to ask them questions or if you try to get their advice or if you try to explain things to them.
(15:53):
They can also be kind of stingy with scope.
They don't want to give you something else to do because they're afraid that it infringes on what they've been doing or what their scope is.
So this boss is really just generally defensive and very protective.
And this becomes a challenge for people who are looking to increase their scope and grow in their career because we feel held under by this boss who's above us, who's not getting us the opportunities that we think we want.
(16:15):
So with this boss, there's a few things that we can do that are really going to help us.
The first is we're going to ask forgiveness and not permission.
Now this one's dicey.
So learn the personality of your boss.
Learn the culture of your company, personality of your boss's boss, your boss's peers.
Learn the lay of the land before you employ this one.
Okay, that's my caveat here.
If you ask forgiveness and not permission, meaning, hey, I've identified a problem, rather than asking my boss if I can go fix this problem, I'm just going to go fix it.
(16:44):
I'm going to work with all the partner groups, I'm going to build a solution, I'm going to it, and then I'm going to tell my boss about all the great work that I did that prevents them from stifling our scope, from keeping us out of certain meetings, or taking the work away from us.
Now, that being said, it does one run the chance that we won't get credit for the work that we did because weren't asked to do it right.
So you have to self advocate on the back end of this with stakeholders, with your broader network, which we're going to talk about in a minute, and with your boss so that they understand the value of the work that you've done.
(17:11):
The second risk that comes with this one is if your boss hears it through the grapevine and you didn't tell them directly, they could blow up and take it away from you anyway.
So again, this one's a little dicey.
Learn your boss's style.
If your boss is just defensive of their stuff and they don't really care what you're doing, this can be a great way for you to learn the business, interact with other groups.
I once had a boss who is very much like this, didn't want his team involved in things, gave very little direction, wasn't clear on his requirements or expectations.
(17:37):
So what I ended up doing is going for walks every day with a big group across the firm and learning what everybody did, what problems they were facing.
By the time I left, I was running 80 different projects across all of these different teams that my boss had no idea about.
Now, for me, that was better because I had all these stakeholders who liked me and all these groups I got to work with and I got to do all these cool projects.
(17:57):
And so even though my boss wasn't necessarily in the loop, it was better for me and my career progression because it gave me opportunities that aligned with where I wanted to go.
So this can be a really helpful tool.
But again, read the room, protect yourself.
Don't put yourself in a bad position being a little bit careful with this.
But the benefit of this is get to do cool stuff.
And then if somebody says, hey, you shouldn't be doing that, you go, oh, I'm sorry.
(18:19):
Who did you want to work on this?
Happy to work with them.
This feeds into the second tip, which is you need to be building a broader network.
Okay?
When you have a boss who is stifling your growth, stifling your scope, they're not supportive of you.
You need to be making relationships with their peers, with your boss's boss, with your peers, with individuals and other teams you may want to work at in the future for two main reasons.
(18:39):
One, we want job opportunities because long term, you're not going to get what you want out of this boss.
You're not going to get the level of seniority you want.
You're not going to get those opportunities, progress to the next level or those cool, high profile projects.
And so we need to be building those relationships now for where we want to go in the future so that we don't inadvertently get ourselves stuck.
The second reason this network is so important is because these people now know what's going on.
(19:04):
They know who's doing the work.
They know why it's important.
They understand your value, your impact, your personal brand.
And so if it comes to performance reviews or promotion reviews, your boss may walk in and say, oh, you know, Kendall doesn't really work on much.
She's terrible.
I don't like her.
And you've got 10 other voices in that room going, kendall just helped me with this and she's great.
(19:25):
Or, Kendall just delivered this and it's awesome.
Or I was just talking with Kendall last week and she rolled out this large initiative.
And so it's really hard for a defensive, protective Boss to stand in that room and talk about his employees when those employees have advocates in that room with them.
So building this network can be really key.
It's also a great way to drop those breadcrumbs of like, oh, I worked on this project with your team.
(19:45):
How has that been going?
And start to build that credit and that reputation for yourself without trying to be showboaty or, hey, I'm so great.
Look at me, right?
So allow yourself those relationships where you can drop those breadcrumbs.
I did have a client in the last couple of years who came to me, wanted to get promoted.
Boss is very defensive, protective.
We had an issue with it, came to me, said, what do I need to do?
(20:06):
I said, you need to be building relationships with everybody else.
Everybody.
So about two months ago, pings me and says, hey, so turns out VP of our division just realized my boss does nothing.
I'm like, huh?
Well, they're asking me if I'm doing all this stuff.
I said, okay, so what are you going to say?
He's like, well, do I lie?
I'm like, no, you tell them, yes, I've been running this and this.
Was there something specific you needed?
(20:26):
Play dumb.
And you know what's happening.
That boss, who's defensive protective is not going to get the credit and the kudos and the accolade that they need to stay in their role.
And this individual is now going to get the opportunity to either switch teams or get promoted.
Right?
And so that's what we want to build.
It takes time.
This is a long game when you're working for defensive protective.
But if you put in that effort, if you build those relationships, you're going to set yourself up for success, which is ultimately really what we want in our careers.
(20:50):
And the last piece with this role type is we're going to do a lot of assurance.
And this is unfortunate.
I talk a lot on my channel about how to play the game authentically.
And this is that one piece of advice that kind of straddles the line between being authentic and not.
Which is if your boss is really defensive, doesn't want you to do this, we want to make it really clear, like, hey, I'm not trying to take this on because I want your job.
(21:11):
I'm trying to take it on because I want to work with these people or I want to learn this part of the business, or I want this opportunity to do this type of project work.
And we do have to do a little bit of catering to their personality of I don't Want you to feel threatened by this.
I'm doing this to help you.
I'm doing this to support you.
I'm doing this to learn something.
It's not about taking over your scope.
And that's a delicate line to walk because we don't want to put ourselves in a position where our boss feels constantly threatened by us.
(21:36):
That's going to be exhausting for them and for us.
But it does require a little more assurance than maybe we would give naturally because we are in such a sensitive circumstance.
So again, read the room, understand your boss, and if this is going to be a tactic that works for them.
But I do find there are certain personalities that I've worked with where I'm like, hey, I just want to make sure that I'm helping this person.
If you want to do it, I'm totally fine with that.
(21:58):
But I thought I could take that off your plate because I know how busy you are.
Sometimes that's easier and more palatable for the individual.
So close.
The fourth and final type of toxic boss is the one that takes credit for your work.
And I feel like I can hear so many listeners nodding in this moment.
We have all worked for this boss who has you stay on late, do all this work, and then takes that deck themselves and runs it up the chain to senior leadership without asking you to be present, without getting you exposure, without allowing you to grow and expand your influence.
(22:29):
And it's exhausting, right?
It's really challenging.
So here are some things that we can do when it comes to that boss.
So similar to the defensive protective boss, we want to expand that network.
We want tons of people advocating for us.
We want tons of people who know what we're doing.
We want tons of people that we can speak to about, hey, the intricacies of this project, or who on your team should I work with on this?
(22:49):
Or hey, this is something that were just able to do.
Have you guys seen any results?
We want those relationships in place for the exact same reason that I described for defensive protective.
We want more advocates in that room.
We also want more people who know what we're doing, especially if our boss is running this credit up the chain and not giving that credit to us.
Right.
The example I gave of my client is still applicable here.
(23:09):
Now, the second thing that we want to do if we're working for a defense.
The second thing that we want to do if we're working for a toxic boss who steals credit, is we don't want to take the bait.
We want to document and this can be really hard.
Going back to that emotional distance that we talked about at the start of the episode.
It's really easy to get dragged into the weeds and feel so emotionally connected and get so frustrated because we're like, hey, like I did all this work and they're taking it and I just want to yell at them because I hate them so much and it's wasted effort.
(23:37):
Instead, we want to document everything.
Uia, cover your behind.
Okay?
I want you to be documenting what you're working on, who you're working with, what was the impact?
Again, this is going to help us advocate with that broader network, but it's also going to protect you.
I have had times in my career where I had bosses ask me to falsify reports.
(23:57):
I always bring this up because it still to this day, like blows my mind.
And they wouldn't put it in writing, right?
Because they don't want it in writing because they're telling you to lie to the executive committee.
And so we would have conversations where they're like, hey, I need you to change this percentage.
I'm like, yeah, well that percentage isn't, it isn't, right?
It doesn't match what we're seeing in the data.
And they're like, but it needs to be this percent.
And I would send an email back and say, hey, based on our conversation, you asked me to adjust these three numbers to be these percentages.
(24:22):
As a reminder, I do not have data that supports that, but I went ahead and updated it in the deck as you requested.
Document, document, document.
Okay, if they're stealing credit, document who you're working with.
Document your one ones.
Hey, as a reminder, these are the things I'm working on that I shared with you today.
This is the feedback you provided me.
If you create all this documentation, not saying it's going to get to an HR case level, but now you have proof.
(24:44):
These are all the things that I did.
And again, this is a boss type that you're probably going to want to move away from.
You're probably going to take a different role in a different company or a different team in order to start getting credit for your work.
But if we're documenting, then think of all the resume fodder we have.
Look at all these great projects I worked on, all these stakeholders I got to work with, all these impacts that I drove.
Here's all the presentations I made, yada, right?
(25:06):
So it's empowering us for our long term career.
It's protecting us in our current role.
And then if we have that network, it's allowing us to advocate for ourselves in a way that's going to protect us a little bit.
So hopefully you guys found these tips and tricks helpful if you're dealing with a toxic boss.
I am sorry.
I have been there.
I have dealt with it.
It sucks, okay?
It's mentally and emotionally draining, but hopefully this will help you make your situation a little more survivable.
(25:30):
In the interim, if you have any questions or any other pieces of advice for dealing with toxic bosses, leave them in the comments below.
Otherwise, check back in next week for another great episode.
The four types of bosses that we're going to talk about are toxic personality, micromanagers, defensive, and those managers that steal credit.
If you're dealing with a toxic boss, I am sorry.
I have been there, I have dealt with it.
It sucks, okay?
It's mentally and emotionally draining, but hopefully this will help you make your situation a little more survivable in the interim.
(00:20):
Welcome back to this episode of Secrets of the Career Game.
So many people are trying to navigate a corporate world that is laden with secrets cleverly hidden and unspoken rul a game that most employees don't even know that they're playing.
On this podcast, we try to give you a peek behind the curtains and some tips and tricks to ultimately make you successful in your career and help you progress a little bit faster.
(00:45):
Welcome back, my lovelies, to another fabulous episode of Secrets of the Career Game.
Today we are going to talk about how to manage up a toxic boss.
So we're going to be covering four different types of difficult bosses, and you're going to see some overlap in some of the tools that we're going to use to manage them effectively.
Now, if you're in the unique situation of working for a great boss who genuinely cares about you, listens to your opinion, and is helping you propel your career forward, congrats.
(01:13):
This episode may not be for you right now, but at some point you've probably either already faced or will face in the future a difficult boss.
And so we're going to talk about the tips, the tricks, the secrets of the career game to navigate these difficult leaders in a way that's going to help you still be successful and feel like you're adding value.
Because, let's be honest, nobody wants to work super hard and get zero credit or feel like you can't do anything that's impactful because your boss won't let you.
(01:39):
So we're going to jump right in.
The four types of bosses that we're going to talk about are toxic personality, micromanagers, defensive, and those managers steal credit.
We're going to give you different tips and tools in order to manage each one successfully, set yourself up for the most.
We're going to give you different tips and tools in order to manage each one successfully, set yourself up for the most success.
(02:01):
Now, some of these can also be used with peers, stakeholders, other individuals we interact with in the workplace and have interpersonal conflict with in order to improve our situation.
So don't feel like this is exclusively limited to that difficult boss.
But let's be honest, most of our overall mental health and job well being comes from working for a leader that we respect, admire and have a good relationship with.
(02:25):
So how do we address that?
How do we make that better?
How do we start to improve that?
It starts with us showing up proactively rather than reactively.
Now I have whole other episodes on the pod that we'll link below about creating emotional distance so that we aren't as reactive in the workplace.
But what I mean by that is when we are super emotionally invested in our job, mostly invested in our title, and we're really not able to separate how we feel from the situations that we find ourselves in, we tend to be incredibly reactive.
(02:55):
Right.
We tend to feel negatively if somebody speaks badly about us in a meeting.
We tend to be quick to anger, quick to frustration, quick to argument, very defensive of our own work and our own objectives within the workplace.
And ultimately it's not exactly good for our long term career progression.
So like I said, I'll tag it below.
Go back and listen to the episode that we have about creating some more emotional decisions because I do think that's really key to being successful, especially if you're going to be working with a toxic boss.
(03:24):
But let's assume that you've been able to create that little bit of emotional distance.
You're reinvesting your time and effort outside of works and the things that fill your cup and fill your energy.
And now we just need to figure out how to manage the situation until we can A, find a new job, B, transfer to another team, or C, hope that boss retires.
Okay, so we're going to start first with our toxic personalities.
(03:46):
So the way that I define a boss who has a toxic personality is this is someone who's very mercurial.
We may not know how they're going to respond.
Some days if they're in a good mood, they think you're great and all the responses are positive.
Other days you go to work for them and they're yelling and they're angry and nothing you do is right and they're nitpicking everything that you're doing.
Okay.
So they can be very wishy washy and how they approach work.
(04:06):
They can also be very derogatory or talk down to you.
Right.
This could be comments about you not doing your job well, about you being stupid about any type of demographic issue that is coming up in the workplace.
Now I will say if your boss falls into this category, you should be looking for other employment.
Okay, we're going to give you some tools to survive in the interim.
(04:28):
But you should never be in a position where your boss is yelling at you in a meeting or slapping their hands down on the table or telling you that you're dumb or that you're a diversity hire, any of these things, right?
So if that's the situation you find yourself in, save yourself.
Okay?
But we'll give you some tools in the interim.
So these are kind of that toxic personality boss.
(04:49):
They're very inconsistent.
They may also gossip about other people on the team to you and say oh well, so and so messed this up or I wish they were better at this.
Or they need.
They're gossiping, they're wishy washy, they're derogatory, they fall into this category.
Congrats.
Your boss is a toxic personality.
And I'm sorry.
Okay, so what are some things that we can do that are going to help us face off with this personality and still be successful in our job?
(05:15):
So first up, we are to buffer with boundaries.
This means that we're going to create some separation from the last minute requests, the ongoing deprioritization and reprioritization, the wishy washiness of what they want you working on with trade offs and boundaries.
Again, this is a topic I talk about a lot, so there are other podcasts where I go really in depth.
But for the sake of today's discussion, think of this as your boss comes to you with a last minute request.
(05:39):
Hey, this needs to get done.
Why didn't you do it?
It's the first time you're hearing about it and it's Friday at 4pm the trade off to get it out the door is, hey, in order for me to deliver this the way that you're asking, I need to deprioritize this other thing.
I was going to get out today.
Are you okay with that trade off or hey, I understand this is super important since most people are going to be looking at this at 9:00am Pacific on Monday.
(06:00):
Do you mind if I pick this up Monday morning and get it out by 8:30?
What are some of those trade offs we can do that are going to help us keep our peace, keep our mental sanity without totally derailing a conversation depending on the level of toxicity.
I'm going to be honest with you, this tip may or may not work.
Okay?
I worked for toxic bosses that were Everything has to be done yesterday, it has to be done this way.
(06:22):
I don't care if you're on till 10 o' clock at night on a Friday to get it done, just do it.
If you work for one of those bosses, the boundary maintenance is going to be challenging, all right?
It's going to be more difficult for you.
And this type of buffering with boundaries is not going to work.
However, if you just have a boss who's a little more mercurial, who maybe has a tendency to get really angry, this may be a place where we're able to establish boundaries in a way that's more effective and can protect us a little bit.
(06:46):
So keep that in mind.
The second thing that we want to do with a toxic personality is we want to anticipate what they need as much as possible in advance.
The best way to keep a mercurial boss happy or to keep them from anger is to make sure that they're getting what they need in advance of when they need it in the way that they like it so that there's less for them to complain about.
(07:07):
Now, this doesn't necessarily come naturally to a lot of people.
This can come with a lot of questions in the early stages.
Hey, help me understand what your expectations are.
How do you prefer to be communicated with?
What are some of the deliverables that are repetitive that you would like me to own?
And make sure you're getting ahead of time.
We want to make sure we're able to anticipate those things.
I used to joke, I had a boss once who told me that I was like Jean Gray from the X Men because I knew what he needed before he needed it.
(07:33):
And by the time he asked me for it was already in his inbox.
And so finding that way of, okay, this individual likes to have data head of big meetings with the executive team.
Great.
Can you work with their EA to understand when those executive team meetings are going to be so that you have all the materials prepped ahead of time?
They like updates every month from the team members.
Great.
Let's get on a cadence where we're getting all the team members, things consolidated, organized, ready to go and to them before they need it.
(07:56):
Start to think of how you anticipate.
Another great part of anticipating the needs of your boss is to build a broader network with your boss's peers.
If we understand what's going on at their level and what's important to them and what they're going to need, we can get ahead of those asks from your boss and make things run a lot smoother.
This is one of those areas where it is going to be a little bit of trial and error, but you should be listening to the feedback.
(08:19):
Your boss Gives the type of things that do make them angry, the types of things that don't feel done to them and start to learn how to incorporate that.
It could be attention to detail.
They're just really specific on the numbers.
It could be formatting.
It could be time sensitivity.
Hey, why isn't this ready?
And they never asked for it, but it's due.
It's my favorite one personally.
But start to learn to anticipate.
(08:40):
That's really going to protect you a lot from backlash and keep you safe while you're out there searching for your next job.
Something tangentially related to the anticipate that people are not going to like hearing is oftentimes in order to anticipate we have to spend more time with them.
And this can be really challenging if your boss is really toxic because we don't want to be around that, we don't want to expose ourselves to it any more than is absolutely necessary.
(09:03):
However, it's very hard to know what's going on and what they're going to need from us if we're never talking to them.
And so having those one ones putting ourselves in a position to understand what's going on again, building relationships with their peers, these types of things are going to help us be more successful in this role.
Now this does not apply if your boss is the type to yell at you or throw things or speak to you in derogatory terms.
(09:25):
I'm not saying spend more time with people who are dangerous or who are detrimental to your mental health.
This is more for that wishy washy boss who's just gossipy and doesn't have a good culture in his team and isn't consistent or her team.
Okay, the last thing that we're going to do, and this is for that toxic personality that is derogatory, that yells, it slams their hands on the table.
(09:47):
That's like the extreme.
If you work for a boss, who is the extreme.
Quick side note, I'm not a huge fan of HR as a business unit.
Love them.
They do great stuff for employee relations.
HR's job is to protect the company.
This doesn't mean that there aren't great people in hr.
This doesn't mean that your HR BP doesn't want what's best for you.
It doesn't mean that they won't take your side.
But on the whole, HR does not care that you do not like your boss.
(10:09):
Now they say something really egregious, file an HR complaint.
99% of the time HR does care about that because you could sue the company.
Right?
I gave a mini episode recently where I talk about a particular VP that I worked for that made some derogatory comments in that situation, HR was waiting for me, like, okay, would you like to sue the firm?
Now we're ready.
Because something really egregious is going to get the attention that we think it deserves.
(10:33):
But if your boss is just a little wishy washy, a little mercurial, honestly, they just don't care.
And it's not your fault.
The individual may care, but hr, employee relations, the business unit, it's not going to be a priority.
So don't hurt your own career, but keep yourself safe.
If this is a safety concern, if this is super derogatory comments, if this is sexual harassment, please, please file a complaint.
(10:54):
Please.
Okay?
But I am talking about, like, the other.
Like, I just don't like my boss.
That's more for you to navigate, which is the whole purpose of this episode.
That being said, if you have a boss who makes derogatory comments, who slams their hands on the table, is doing these things, I'm hoping you're documenting these things and you're sending them to hr.
Okay?
In the absence of that, say your boss says something bad to you in a meeting.
(11:14):
We're going to use a PC example for the sake of my podcast.
But they say you're dumb and you don't know what you're doing.
Okay?
After they say that, I want you to look at them and go, can you repeat that?
It's going to make them so uncomfortable.
All right?
Because they don't want to repeat it.
They said it once in the heat of the moment, in anger.
They were frustrated.
They don't want to say it again because they know they're not supposed to say that, right?
(11:37):
So, hey, can you just repeat that for me?
It's going to put them on the spot.
And if they do repeat it, then we're going to ask, hey, can you help me understand why you would say that?
What's your objective here?
This is going to create more distance for you and put them in their place a little bit.
Because they're not going to want to argue with you.
They're not going to want to hear about how they shouldn't have said that or how that's a mean thing or how that hurts your feelings or how that's not constructive.
(12:00):
They.
They don't want that.
They want you to be sad.
And so if you don't get sad and you say, hey, can you just repeat that?
For me, help me understand why you would say that.
What exactly are you trying to achieve now?
They've been put in their place and you have a little bit of space and a little bit of a buffer of protection.
Okay, so again, this is for like, extreme circumstances.
This is also a great tool to employ with like a toxic coworker.
Just saying.
But this isn't something we want to use super often.
(12:21):
This is for those extreme cases.
Right.
Boss type number two is the micromanager, everybody's favorite.
This shows up on every survey that I do.
Shows up in my own list of don't wants.
It's something that's talked about in every leadership training.
But how do we actually avoid the micromanager?
So there's a few things that are helpful here.
So again, similar to what I talked about with the toxic personality boss, we do want to anticipate their needs as much as possible.
(12:45):
What are you going to need?
When are you going to need it?
How do I get it to you ahead of time?
The biggest issue for a micromanager is getting things on the due date.
I know this sounds very contrary because they said, get it to me Thursday and you get it to them Thursday.
But the biggest issue for them is that they don't know what's happening Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and they don't want to wait till Thursday to find out.
So anticipating what they need and getting them a file they need on Thursday by Tuesday is going to be your biggest saving grace.
(13:09):
Because it's there, they don't have to ask you about it.
The micromanagement decreases, that proactivity is going to put you in their good graces.
Additionally, with a micromanager, we want to understand their preferred style and frequency of communication.
Do they like teams updates?
Do they want an email update?
Do they need daily, weekly, monthly?
What does that look like now?
Monthly, they're probably not a micromanager, but daily, maybe they are.
(13:32):
Right.
So I had a boss once, very in the weeds.
This is in the days of cubicles and used to like, come stand behind me in a cubicle.
So I had to, like, set up a mirror so I would know when they were coming.
Not that I was doing anything I wasn't supposed to, but just because it would give me a literal heart attack if I was like, you're right behind me.
Okay, but very much in the weeds.
And what I came to find was that this individual wanted to know daily what I was working on.
(13:54):
Not because they didn't trust me, not because I wasn't autonomous, but because they felt that they were out of the loop if their boss asked them what was going on.
So what ended up working really well for us is each morning I would send a quick note in the equivalent of what is now teams and say, hey, just want to let you know today I'm working on these three things.
I have meetings at these times.
I'm going to be pretty busy, but just wanted to let you know in case you stopped by my desk and I wasn't there or hey, I don't have many meetings today, but I'm going to be working on these three reports.
(14:21):
I'll send them to you by end of Tuesday.
A daily quick message like that, proactive on my part, kept them from having to reach out and micromanage because they knew what I was doing, they were informed.
They felt like if their boss came to them and said, hey, what's Kendall doing today?
Oh, she's working on finishing this report.
She's got a couple meetings in the afternoon.
Why, did you need something?
Now they have the information they feel that they need.
(14:41):
So understanding the driver behind why your micromanager is micromanaging and being proactive with your communication can be really important.
Even as I became a more senior level executive level, I tend to still send at least monthly updates to my leadership of, hey, this is everything that's going on in my space.
We talk every week, multiple times generally, but I like to give a formal update here.
(15:02):
Here's all the projects in my space.
Here's what's going on in each.
Here's who's in my team that owns them.
Here's the progress we've made, here's the anticipated delivery dates.
Because in the absence of that, your leadership honestly doesn't know what's going on.
The more senior you get, the less they know what's going on.
But even in those middle management junior levels, micromanagers are usually there because they feel that they don't know what's happening and they're afraid somebody's going to ask them what's happening and they're not going to have answer.
(15:27):
So being proactive with that communication, their frequency and preferred method is really going to help you feel like you're not being managed so much.
You have autonomy to do your job, but they feel informed enough that they'll let you do it.
And that's kind of the balance we want to strike with that type of personality.
Third type of boss is the defensive boss.
So this is the boss who is very protective of their own scope.
They get very Defensive if try to ask them questions or if you try to get their advice or if you try to explain things to them.
(15:53):
They can also be kind of stingy with scope.
They don't want to give you something else to do because they're afraid that it infringes on what they've been doing or what their scope is.
So this boss is really just generally defensive and very protective.
And this becomes a challenge for people who are looking to increase their scope and grow in their career because we feel held under by this boss who's above us, who's not getting us the opportunities that we think we want.
(16:15):
So with this boss, there's a few things that we can do that are really going to help us.
The first is we're going to ask forgiveness and not permission.
Now this one's dicey.
So learn the personality of your boss.
Learn the culture of your company, personality of your boss's boss, your boss's peers.
Learn the lay of the land before you employ this one.
Okay, that's my caveat here.
If you ask forgiveness and not permission, meaning, hey, I've identified a problem, rather than asking my boss if I can go fix this problem, I'm just going to go fix it.
(16:44):
I'm going to work with all the partner groups, I'm going to build a solution, I'm going to it, and then I'm going to tell my boss about all the great work that I did that prevents them from stifling our scope, from keeping us out of certain meetings, or taking the work away from us.
Now, that being said, it does one run the chance that we won't get credit for the work that we did because weren't asked to do it right.
So you have to self advocate on the back end of this with stakeholders, with your broader network, which we're going to talk about in a minute, and with your boss so that they understand the value of the work that you've done.
(17:11):
The second risk that comes with this one is if your boss hears it through the grapevine and you didn't tell them directly, they could blow up and take it away from you anyway.
So again, this one's a little dicey.
Learn your boss's style.
If your boss is just defensive of their stuff and they don't really care what you're doing, this can be a great way for you to learn the business, interact with other groups.
I once had a boss who is very much like this, didn't want his team involved in things, gave very little direction, wasn't clear on his requirements or expectations.
(17:37):
So what I ended up doing is going for walks every day with a big group across the firm and learning what everybody did, what problems they were facing.
By the time I left, I was running 80 different projects across all of these different teams that my boss had no idea about.
Now, for me, that was better because I had all these stakeholders who liked me and all these groups I got to work with and I got to do all these cool projects.
(17:57):
And so even though my boss wasn't necessarily in the loop, it was better for me and my career progression because it gave me opportunities that aligned with where I wanted to go.
So this can be a really helpful tool.
But again, read the room, protect yourself.
Don't put yourself in a bad position being a little bit careful with this.
But the benefit of this is get to do cool stuff.
And then if somebody says, hey, you shouldn't be doing that, you go, oh, I'm sorry.
(18:19):
Who did you want to work on this?
Happy to work with them.
This feeds into the second tip, which is you need to be building a broader network.
Okay?
When you have a boss who is stifling your growth, stifling your scope, they're not supportive of you.
You need to be making relationships with their peers, with your boss's boss, with your peers, with individuals and other teams you may want to work at in the future for two main reasons.
(18:39):
One, we want job opportunities because long term, you're not going to get what you want out of this boss.
You're not going to get the level of seniority you want.
You're not going to get those opportunities, progress to the next level or those cool, high profile projects.
And so we need to be building those relationships now for where we want to go in the future so that we don't inadvertently get ourselves stuck.
The second reason this network is so important is because these people now know what's going on.
(19:04):
They know who's doing the work.
They know why it's important.
They understand your value, your impact, your personal brand.
And so if it comes to performance reviews or promotion reviews, your boss may walk in and say, oh, you know, Kendall doesn't really work on much.
She's terrible.
I don't like her.
And you've got 10 other voices in that room going, kendall just helped me with this and she's great.
(19:25):
Or, Kendall just delivered this and it's awesome.
Or I was just talking with Kendall last week and she rolled out this large initiative.
And so it's really hard for a defensive, protective Boss to stand in that room and talk about his employees when those employees have advocates in that room with them.
So building this network can be really key.
It's also a great way to drop those breadcrumbs of like, oh, I worked on this project with your team.
(19:45):
How has that been going?
And start to build that credit and that reputation for yourself without trying to be showboaty or, hey, I'm so great.
Look at me, right?
So allow yourself those relationships where you can drop those breadcrumbs.
I did have a client in the last couple of years who came to me, wanted to get promoted.
Boss is very defensive, protective.
We had an issue with it, came to me, said, what do I need to do?
(20:06):
I said, you need to be building relationships with everybody else.
Everybody.
So about two months ago, pings me and says, hey, so turns out VP of our division just realized my boss does nothing.
I'm like, huh?
Well, they're asking me if I'm doing all this stuff.
I said, okay, so what are you going to say?
He's like, well, do I lie?
I'm like, no, you tell them, yes, I've been running this and this.
Was there something specific you needed?
(20:26):
Play dumb.
And you know what's happening.
That boss, who's defensive protective is not going to get the credit and the kudos and the accolade that they need to stay in their role.
And this individual is now going to get the opportunity to either switch teams or get promoted.
Right?
And so that's what we want to build.
It takes time.
This is a long game when you're working for defensive protective.
But if you put in that effort, if you build those relationships, you're going to set yourself up for success, which is ultimately really what we want in our careers.
(20:50):
And the last piece with this role type is we're going to do a lot of assurance.
And this is unfortunate.
I talk a lot on my channel about how to play the game authentically.
And this is that one piece of advice that kind of straddles the line between being authentic and not.
Which is if your boss is really defensive, doesn't want you to do this, we want to make it really clear, like, hey, I'm not trying to take this on because I want your job.
(21:11):
I'm trying to take it on because I want to work with these people or I want to learn this part of the business, or I want this opportunity to do this type of project work.
And we do have to do a little bit of catering to their personality of I don't Want you to feel threatened by this.
I'm doing this to help you.
I'm doing this to support you.
I'm doing this to learn something.
It's not about taking over your scope.
And that's a delicate line to walk because we don't want to put ourselves in a position where our boss feels constantly threatened by us.
(21:36):
That's going to be exhausting for them and for us.
But it does require a little more assurance than maybe we would give naturally because we are in such a sensitive circumstance.
So again, read the room, understand your boss, and if this is going to be a tactic that works for them.
But I do find there are certain personalities that I've worked with where I'm like, hey, I just want to make sure that I'm helping this person.
If you want to do it, I'm totally fine with that.
(21:58):
But I thought I could take that off your plate because I know how busy you are.
Sometimes that's easier and more palatable for the individual.
So close.
The fourth and final type of toxic boss is the one that takes credit for your work.
And I feel like I can hear so many listeners nodding in this moment.
We have all worked for this boss who has you stay on late, do all this work, and then takes that deck themselves and runs it up the chain to senior leadership without asking you to be present, without getting you exposure, without allowing you to grow and expand your influence.
(22:29):
And it's exhausting, right?
It's really challenging.
So here are some things that we can do when it comes to that boss.
So similar to the defensive protective boss, we want to expand that network.
We want tons of people advocating for us.
We want tons of people who know what we're doing.
We want tons of people that we can speak to about, hey, the intricacies of this project, or who on your team should I work with on this?
(22:49):
Or hey, this is something that were just able to do.
Have you guys seen any results?
We want those relationships in place for the exact same reason that I described for defensive protective.
We want more advocates in that room.
We also want more people who know what we're doing, especially if our boss is running this credit up the chain and not giving that credit to us.
Right.
The example I gave of my client is still applicable here.
(23:09):
Now, the second thing that we want to do if we're working for a defense.
The second thing that we want to do if we're working for a toxic boss who steals credit, is we don't want to take the bait.
We want to document and this can be really hard.
Going back to that emotional distance that we talked about at the start of the episode.
It's really easy to get dragged into the weeds and feel so emotionally connected and get so frustrated because we're like, hey, like I did all this work and they're taking it and I just want to yell at them because I hate them so much and it's wasted effort.
(23:37):
Instead, we want to document everything.
Uia, cover your behind.
Okay?
I want you to be documenting what you're working on, who you're working with, what was the impact?
Again, this is going to help us advocate with that broader network, but it's also going to protect you.
I have had times in my career where I had bosses ask me to falsify reports.
(23:57):
I always bring this up because it still to this day, like blows my mind.
And they wouldn't put it in writing, right?
Because they don't want it in writing because they're telling you to lie to the executive committee.
And so we would have conversations where they're like, hey, I need you to change this percentage.
I'm like, yeah, well that percentage isn't, it isn't, right?
It doesn't match what we're seeing in the data.
And they're like, but it needs to be this percent.
And I would send an email back and say, hey, based on our conversation, you asked me to adjust these three numbers to be these percentages.
(24:22):
As a reminder, I do not have data that supports that, but I went ahead and updated it in the deck as you requested.
Document, document, document.
Okay, if they're stealing credit, document who you're working with.
Document your one ones.
Hey, as a reminder, these are the things I'm working on that I shared with you today.
This is the feedback you provided me.
If you create all this documentation, not saying it's going to get to an HR case level, but now you have proof.
(24:44):
These are all the things that I did.
And again, this is a boss type that you're probably going to want to move away from.
You're probably going to take a different role in a different company or a different team in order to start getting credit for your work.
But if we're documenting, then think of all the resume fodder we have.
Look at all these great projects I worked on, all these stakeholders I got to work with, all these impacts that I drove.
Here's all the presentations I made, yada, right?
(25:06):
So it's empowering us for our long term career.
It's protecting us in our current role.
And then if we have that network, it's allowing us to advocate for ourselves in a way that's going to protect us a little bit.
So hopefully you guys found these tips and tricks helpful if you're dealing with a toxic boss.
I am sorry.
I have been there.
I have dealt with it.
It sucks, okay?
It's mentally and emotionally draining, but hopefully this will help you make your situation a little more survivable.
(25:30):
In the interim, if you have any questions or any other pieces of advice for dealing with toxic bosses, leave them in the comments below.
Otherwise, check back in next week for another great episode.
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