Welcome to Episode #6 of my weekly video blog Work You Love!
Today, I’m addressing a powerful question I received from Tina about a challenging relationship with her boss:
“My boss is out to get me. I have more experience than she does. She’s threatened by my work, and my solid community of friends and supporters. She undermines me, and keeps me from gaining exposure to senior leadership. I’m considering going to HR to talk about this situation, but I’m reluctant to take that step. What do you think?”
Here are my thoughts on that:
Don’t despair – you CAN deal with these challenges, and find a way to take control. Get some outside support in the form of a sponsor, mentor, or coaching buddy to help you brainstorm and pursue new, effective ways to address this problem. There are other alternatives besides fight or flight.
Today’s top message (and tweetable):
CLICK TO TWEET: If your boss undermines you, take control of the situation – you don’t have to remain a victim.
Thank you for watching Work You Love, and many happy breakthroughs. See you next week!
(If you have a burning career question you’d like me to answer, SUBMIT IT HERE! I’ll do my best to address it in some form in the weeks to come.)
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This resonates strongly with me and goes back to a comment I just made in the Professional Woman’s Network on LinkedIn. There came a point in previous job when my boss went from being my mentor to my surpassing him in my ability to manage our department. He ended up having me do his job plus my own and became very verbally abusive to me, telling me I was intimidating. I finally ended up going to HR about him. They basically made him retire, but instead of giving me the position of Director they brought someone else in who was not qualified to do the job and then laid me off 9 months later.
I’m so sorry to hear that, Elizabeth. Craziness. I pray that things will be much better for you now that you’re out of there. So often, these crises or “breakdown” moments pave the way to breakthrough. All best.
Thanks for your input, Yvonne. Yes, it’s true that sometimes, when we speak out against our bosses, we’re punished in the long wrong (I’ve lived that experience myself). But to me, that doesn’t mean we should keep our mouths shut. It means that we’re in the wrong place to thrive, and it’s best that we embracing leaving and find a work culture that doesn’t tolerate this type of behavior from the boss in the first place. Thanks for sharing.
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up!
I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back later.
Many thanks
Hi, I thoroughly enjoyed your video on how to deal with a boss that’s threatened by you. I have a boss who I don’t feel advocates for me. I work to complete all of the projects that I am given on time, above and beyond but often my work isn’t acknowledged to senior leaders or for the few meetings I am invited to she always presents the work without allowing me to provide input. I often feel like a statue in these meetings. Also, I use to be invited to a few meetings with the president but I am no longer invited to these meetings. I am demotivated and I feel devalued. You mentioned that persons should consider finding a mentor or sponsor, but to be frank, many times it is hard for racial minorities to find sponsors or mentors who understand some of the deeper issues that come with being a minority in a heavily layered corporation. I am demotivated and frankly do not know what to do. Also, she is well liked by the senior leadership team. It feels like a lose/lose situation and I am actually thinking of leaving the company.