Have you ever had a job where the boss treated you like you were incompetent? (self employed, profit)

[sslainey]

Originally Posted by stava

Bosses like that typically are very insecure and threatened by anyone who is actually competent, like a previous poster said. They try to make you look bad because they are deathly afraid of you making THEM look bad. You are probably a conscientious person who would never treat someone else like that even if you WERE feeling insecure, so the whole thing is upsetting for you. Understandably.

When I've been in that situation, I just crank out the work in an A+ manner that the boss simply can't ignore. You really have to stand your ground these days in the workplace and not let anyone tell you that you can't do something, or trick you into thinking that one mistake is the END for you. It's not.

The last boss I stood up to in this fashion ended up really, really liking me because I could do things that she couldn't do. So, instead of trying to make me feel small for that, she used my skills to make herself look better. Which, in a case of a bully boss, is not a bad deal.

I agree with most of this reply; however, I would start looking for another job. Yes, your boss is threatened by your (meaning you are brighter, more competent and he/she is scared of you). That's a terrible way to work. If you work harder, then your manager is more threatened. If you work less or less up to par then you'll be criticized for that. This is no win. Either find another job or leave your brain at home so your incompetent boss isn't threatened. I would leave.

[MLSFan]

Do people not look into this before they take a job? An interview is suppose to be a two way street.
They interview you to see if you would fit in. You interview them to see if you can accept working with them.

Outside of a new manager coming in, you should already have a pretty good picture of the type of manager you'll be working under before you accept the job.

Not sure about OP's case, can't tell from the rambling about feeling sorry for himself over a bad manager but it sounds like it has been that way since the start. Something he could have figured out a long time ago whether he fits in or not

find a boss that appreciates you working there so they can worry about their own job and leave you to do your job with little oversight because they trust you to do it. Here, they test our competency a few times a year, and unless there are procedural changes/problem/training sessions, we just do our jobs and everyone gets along and works together professionally

jobs aren't all that scarce that you have to just jump at the first one that pops up even if you know you won't do well there

I agree with most of this reply; however, I would start looking for another job. Yes, your boss is threatened by your (meaning you are brighter, more competent and he/she is scared of you). That's a terrible way to work. If you work harder, then your manager is more threatened. If you work less or less up to par then you'll be criticized for that. This is no win. Either find another job or leave your brain at home so your incompetent boss isn't threatened. I would leave.

Do people really think this? If someone is so bright, they should have applied for the manager's job in the first place. I haven't ran into a manager that was so insecure that they took it out on their workers. Yes, I know employees can know more about their job than manager, that's fine since they got hired for it. But what makes you think the manager's job is something anyone can do? Manager's have their own skill set, just not liking them doesn't mean they don't do their job.

[tnff]

Originally Posted by eyeb

Do people not look into this before they take a job? An interview is suppose to be a two way street.
They interview you to see if you would fit in. You interview them to see if you can accept working with them.

Outside of a new manager coming in, you should already have a pretty good picture of the type of manager you'll be working under before you accept the job.
...
Do people really think this? If someone is so bright, they should have applied for the manager's job in the first place. I haven't ran into a manager that was so insecure that they took it out on their workers. Yes, I know employees can know more about their job than manager, that's fine since they got hired for it. But what makes you think the manager's job is something anyone can do? Manager's have their own skill set, just not liking them doesn't mean they don't do their job.

Just a couple of things to consider. First of all, managers often change jobs, get hired too. So it's not uncommon to hire in under one manager and get a different one afterward.


I also want to address the bolded statement. That's one of the big fallacies which I addressed in my earlier post. Just because you haven't met that type manager doesn't mean they don't exist. Someday you will. Likewise, many of us know what a manager's job is because we have done it. Even so, with experience comes the ability to know whether a manager is good at their job or not. Because you know what your abilities are and because you now have multiple managers and work backgrounds to judge against.

[dude1984]

Originally Posted by eyeb

Do people not look into this before they take a job? An interview is suppose to be a two way street.
They interview you to see if you would fit in. You interview them to see if you can accept working with them.

Outside of a new manager coming in, you should already have a pretty good picture of the type of manager you'll be working under before you accept the job.

I've made many in HR or management visibly nervous with multiple questions that aren't softballs. I usually get the feeling that my interview of them is more competent than their interview of me. Sometimes I get somebody that only asks dumb questions, so I reformat them and throw them back at them because if you have that representing your company I'm out, but I'll do a little trolling so I haven't completely wasted my time

[Manimuni]

A supervisor at UPS who probably thought I was retarded just because I was quiet and socially awkward (didn't care about talking about sports, which they obsessed over, so I kept quiet and to myself). And I had friends there, but this supervisor was such an ass. If I were talking with friends, he'd send us to different areas, just to isolate me or stick me with someone who assumed would make me work harder. Mind you I was already one of the hardest workers on that shift. They like to work everyone in packaging like dogs, but he and others treated me particularly like I was some feral tool with no mind and no worth other than serving them. Sometimes they probably thought I was dumb just because I often took my time and put my SAFETY first instead of clumsily and recklessly rushing like they wished I would. I put up with him for almost a year until I got sick of it and quit. He was petty. And he was at least ten years older than me. A shame. Some may say I'm taking it too seriously. NAH! I always felt the animosity that idiot had towards me. And I wasn't the only one he did it to either.

[Rkstar71]

The company's owner has a habit of prefacing almost all his instructions with
"employee name, employee name, just listen to me, ok?" And then proceeds to talk to us slowly like he is explaining something to a 4 year old. He does this with all the employees.
I answered his call and put it on speaker one day in front of the wife. She asked what his problem was that he talks down to people.

I overheard him on the phone with a client and his tone changed to like he was talkng to another adult.

[mo8414]

Pretty much anyone in my trade in their early - mid 20's is considered a kid and will be looked down on most of the time. My current boss used to always tell me how I should set up a job and I would just look at him blankly. I think he finally figured out it annoys me and now when he does it he will cut him self off and say "well, you know how to do it" lol.

There is still one guy who used to be plant manager in my shop that there is no pleasing. I fixed a machine better than he did after my boss told me to go behind him and try to make it better. since then nothing I do is right in his eyes and he goes out of his way to not interact with me. I've been doing my job over 10 years and I have been in a ton of shops so I have picked up a lot of ways to do things just from working with so many differant people. He is the type that thinks he is the best and it must have hurt his ego when I did it better.

Any more, now that I have experience I won't take to much bs even from bosses, there are plenty of other shops looking for people.

[Teddyterp]

Originally Posted by Mnseca

I wonder if it's my imagination or if other people will know what I'm talking about. I have been in my field for a long, long time and have become accustomed to being considered a person who can get things done. So I'm having a hard time with one particular person, who is the supervisor at a volunteer job I've been doing for about a year.

First, when I was new at the "job," the person in charge went to another employee and made comments about being very worried about something I was working on. Not naming me in particular, just that she was worried it would all fall apart and be a disaster. I was insulted, but figured she didn't know me yet. But it hasn't changed. I'm working on something similar for them now, and although my last project was a complete success, she has again expressed concern.

Worse, she has begun to micromanage. I am planning an evening gala for all the volunteers, and although I'm using the same vendors as last year, she recently handed down a complicated set of directives (to me only) about requirements for vendors. The emphasis seemed to be on things like having a signed contract (it's not even her organization's money at stake), not leaving them alone in the building after the event and other obvious things. Things I would never mess up and didn't mess up last year, and yet her directives seem to indicate she feels she needs to tell me these things.

It makes me feel just....crappy and demeaned. It just feels bad to be treated like an incompetent person, when I've done nothing to earn that and everything not to. Everyone else was surprised and said in all the years people have done this volunteer job, they've never seen anything like it. Opinions? I guess I should just quit. It's not like they pay me to put up with this nonsense. I even feel like the others are beginning to look at me funny also, like her attitude it contagious.

If this is a volunteer job, why don't you just resign? Life is too short to go through unappreciated. My wife was " fired" from a volunteer job several years ago. It drove me nuts. I'm sure there are many other volunteer jobs that you can do to help others where your efforts will be appreciated. Best of luck.

[LiveLoveLaugh]

Imo even a volunteer job can be very hard to leave...after all we are doing it because we are passionate about the cause. I would certainly leave and ask myself ...what am I just as passionate about and offer to volunteer somewhere else.

[longneckone]

10 years ago I started a new job which was quite different from anything I had ever done before. The employees I worked with treated me terribly. Now only 2 of us are left from that period. One of those who really did not like me is now the manager and often asks my opinion.