How to Empower Yourself when Your Boss is Making Your Life Hell

By

Alejandro Diaz

Our jobs play a big role in our daily lives and can cause immense distress if not going well. There is a direct correlation between the work environment and a person’s wellbeing. Having an abusive boss can lead to emotional, psychological, and physical stress. Harassment at work is much more common than one thinks.

A massive 20% of workers say they face hostile or threatening environments at work, according to the American Working Conditions Survey.

The problem is that most people experiencing this do not know how to properly deal with it. I’m going to let you know how to avoid being a sitting duck when it happens to you.

Examples of a boss zeroing in on you could be — micromanaging, disparaging emails pointing out your every missed step, negative write ups, being placed on an action plan, and a bad performance review. If you find yourself in this situation, you probably feel confused, anxious, and depressed. Your livelihood may be at stake here; this is serious. What should you do? Do you just put your head in the sand and hope it goes away? This is the worst option. Chances are that this boss, for whatever reason, is not going to let up until you quit or she/he fires you; which may cause even more anxiety. At this moment, there will be many decisions that must be taken that could have repercussions, so you have to muster up all of the courage that you can find and face this unfortunate circumstance head on. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather, the ability to forge ahead in spite of fear. Our authoritarian corporate environment has been structured to tilt the balance of power toward upper management, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t even out the scales a bit.

Do you confront the abuser boss and call her/him out on his/her harassing behavior? This may work, if you’re dealing with a reasonable human being. But if not, it may lead to an aggressive confrontation, especially if you’re at your wits end, which can result in an ugly scene where you get canned right on the spot, being led out by security. This may play right into your horrible boss’s hands; for you to lose it, giving her/him the excuse to fire you then and there. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Some…