It’s tough to be a really bad manager. Really bad managers not only make their employees’ lives difficult, they can also seriously damage their own career prospects. (And they’ll get little sympathy from the people they manage!)
Really Bad Managers Have Trouble Retaining Staff
Working for a really bad manager can be frustrating; bad managers make employees feel disrespected, undervalued, and overworked. This leads to high turnover rates as disaffected staff quit or transfer to other departments and other managers.
Because of this, really bad managers have to constantly deal with employee churn. They’re constantly trying to cope with employees leaving with little or no notice. They’re constantly hiring and just as constantly training new employees. They spend a significant amount of time dealing with the kinds of employee issues that don’t exist in more stable teams. It’s nonproductive for the entire team and makes the really bad manager look really bad in the eyes of upper management.
Really Bad Managers Get Less Work Done
Really bad managers are, more often than not, less productive than better managers. Not only do they have to spend more time hiring and training employees to replace those who’ve quit, they also spend much more time micromanaging their employees’ work. This leaves less time for the manager to actually do their real jobs.
In addition, employees who suffer under a really bad manager tend not to work as hard as employees on a more nurturing team. Really bad managers do not inspire their employees and, in fact, may actively discourage them from doing their best work. Who wants to go above and beyond the call of duty for a manager who doesn’t recognize or respect that work—or even accept it?
This lack of productivity is not good for the team or the company. Upper management will eventually take note of a team’s lagging performance, which does not bode well for the (really bad) manager of that team.
Really Bad Managers Are Universally Disliked
Nobody likes a really bad manager.
Certainly not their employees, who struggle under micromanagement, overwork, lack of recognition, and other toxic management traits. Employees end up hating a bad boss, talking trash about that person to other workers, and often sabotaging the team’s efforts just to spite the guy who’s making their lives miserable. Morale suffers.
Perhaps not surprisingly, really bad managers are seldom held in high regard by their peers, either. Really good managers quickly recognize the bad seeds in the organization and gain nothing from helping or even associating with those really bad colleagues. Most really bad managers don’t make a lot of friends in a company; they end up having to go it alone, even when they could benefit from other managers’ assistance.
Also know that as management comes to recognize bad players in their midst, really bad managers are often excluded from key meetings and decisions. Nobody wants to work with a really bad manager, up or down the org chart.
Really Bad Managers Damage Their Own Reputations
All of the negative effects caused by a really bad manager eventually damage that person’s reputation. Not only is a really bad manager often held as a pariah within a company, that person’s reputation can quickly spread to other companies in the same industry. (Professional people do talk…) If a manager gains a reputation for micromanaging and bullying their employees, creating a hostile work environment, and producing poor results, other people and other companies will eventually hear about it.
If you’re a really bad manager, your reputation will precede you—which can significantly impact your long-term career prospects. The worse the manager, the less likely that person will advance in their current company or find new opportunities elsewhere. Nobody wants to deliberately hire a known really bad manager.
Really Bad Managers Eventually Pay for Their Sins
The bottom line is that there’s little upside and much downside to being a really bad manager. Really bad managers end up underperforming their peers, working unnecessarily long hours, and experiencing career stagnation. Some end up being fired—and rightly so.
All of which are good reasons not to become a really bad manager. Good managers reap their just rewards; bad managers get their just desserts.
