Survey reveals Britain’s worst manager habits

Research shows that two in every three UK employees is experiencing the wrath of a bad boss. With so many people unhappy with management, job site Glassdoor wanted to find out exactly what annoyed them most about their execs.

Interestingly, the average rating for senior management on Glassdoor is three out five, whereas overall company satisfaction stands at 3.3 out of five. To find out why employees are so unhappy with their bosses, the survey asked respondents what their biggest issue with management is. 43% cited ‘disrespectful’ behaviour, including ignoring staff and taking credit for someone else’s work. Meanwhile, 34% claim their boss has a negative attitude.

Female participants were the most likely to say they found their boss disrespectful, with 40% reporting they felt this way. Nearly one in 10 women said they’d been the target of sexist comments and 23% found their boss to be lazy.

It’s not just disrespect that annoys workers; more than 7% said their boss made sexist comments on a regular basis, while 4% have experienced racist remarks and 10% have heard their manager use inappropriate humour at the office. Going beyond personality clashes, 4% reported their boss has bad body odour.

10 most common bad boss traits

1. Disrespectful – 43%
2. Negative attitude -34%
3. Lazy – 23%
4. Always talking about himself/herself – 16%
5. Inappropriate humour – 10%
6. Comes in late – 10%
7. Leaves early – 10%
8. Swearing 8%
9. Loud phone calls – 8%
10. Sexist comments -7%

Despite find their managers less than satisfactory, the majority don’t do anything about it. 40% said they try to ignore a bad boss, while 18% simply gossip about it to their colleagues. Only 12% stated they would confront the situation by telling their boss they were upset and the behaviour needed to stop. Women are more likely to talk to colleagues about their exec behind his or her back than men (22% compared to 16%, respectively), but more men (17%) than women (13%) said they would go to the next level of management to make a complaint.

However, terrible managers are having a big impact on productivity – 41% of respondents said they’ve not turned up for work because of a bad boss, 21% have resigned from a job (2% of which simply left without telling anyone) and 20% have been forced to take sick leave to escape their executive.

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