Survival In The Workplace Archives

Is My Boss Manipulating Me? 12 Signs To Look For

Workplace Experiences

Is My Boss Manipulating Me? Here Are 12 Signs Of A Manipulative Boss

Working in a toxic environment is what I consider a ‘silent killer’. Maybe you can relate to this. The effect settles in over time, not all at once. You start feeling less enthusiasm for your work. You start questioning you own abilities and skill. You take home a little more baggage with you each day. You’re working more to ‘keep up’. You feel worn out, tired, and Monday mornings are your worst enemy. You feel like you’re being drained of your life force one day at a time. Let’s get into the ways bosses manipulate employees, and what to do about them!

Pat Finnegan April 3, 2022

Workplace Experiences

My Boss Doesn’t Have My Back: What Should I Do? My 5 Personal Tips

Do you ever feel betrayed by your boss? Does it seem like the two of you are always at odds, or that you simply can’t trust them? Unfortunately, this is something many of us can relate to. While we hope to have positive, productive relationships with our bosses, it’s certainly not a guarantee. Many of us feel like our bosses are only out for themselves – or even worse, working against us. In the land of the modern workplace and corporate culture, it can feel like work is just as much about office politics, individual advancement and covering our butts as it is about actually doing our jobs, and our bosses are no more exempt from this than we are. While our relationships with our bosses may feel worse in our minds than they really are, we may also notice certain patterns of behavior in them over time. Whether it be that our boss rarely offers us support, disagrees with us in front of others, throws us ‘under the bus’ or just plain doesn’t like us, we eventually reach the point where we think “My boss doesn’t have my back! What should I do?”. As someone who’s definitely been there, I’m happy to share with you the techniques I’ve used to mitigate this situation with success. Let’s get into them.

Pat Finnegan May 27, 2021

Workplace Experiences

6 Things I Learned While Working For A Failing Company

Not all companies are meant to last unfortunately. Whether it be due to poor management, changing times, a rise in competition or even economic recession, many businesses end up closing their doors as the years go on. While some of these closures are sudden, other companies take several years before they’re completely shut down. As you probably know already, the daily experience employees have at a failing company is not always great – the atmosphere can range from unmotivated to extremely stressful and everything in between. This experience can also apply to your department or specific branch closing too, even if the company as a whole is not going out of business. If this is your experience, I can relate. The last two years at my previous company were spent seeing the ‘tidal wave’ coming in slow motion; most of us knew our division – once one of the largest in the company – would be shut down eventually given our overall performance, but no one knew exactly when. Here are six things I learned while working for a failing company that’ll hopefully be helpful!

Pat Finnegan April 16, 2021

Workplace Experiences

Surviving A Two-Faced Boss: A Few Tips From Experience

Most of us have worked for a bad boss at some point. Whether they’re mean, incompetent, selfish or manipulative, bad bosses all have one thing in common – the ability to drive their subordinates nuts. The vast majority of people just want to come to work, have a decent day and head home when it’s over. Unfortunately, the ‘vast majority’ still doesn’t mean everyone. Some people can’t help but to get involved in drama or negativity at work – even if they must start it themselves. Other people don’t crave drama per se, but their personality and mindset effects others anyways. That brings us to our main topic: dealing with a two-faced boss. Let’s talk about how they act and how to ‘survive’ working for one.

Pat Finnegan March 19, 2021

Project Manager Soft Skills

When Your Boss Criticizes You in Front of Others, Do These 5 Things

Bad bosses are the bane of many employee’s existences. No matter what industry you work in, how old you are or even what your position is, the vast majority of us have dealt with a bad boss at some point in our careers. There’s plenty of ways a boss can be “bad”: poor understanding of the company’s needs, terrible at planning ahead, being clueless on what’s happening day-to-day, and so on. Situations like those are surely annoying to deal with, but few boss behaviors are more insidious than bullying. One common way bosses bully employees is through humiliating them in front of others. These reasons bosses behave this way are varied and complex, but one thing is for sure – we all want to put an end to it. If you’re wondering what you should do when your boss criticizes you in front of others, don’t miss the five tactics we discuss below.

Pat Finnegan July 14, 2020

Workplace Experiences

Why Do Idiots Get Promoted? 7 Reasons To Consider

We all know at least one person at work who’s…….not great. They make mistake after mistake, act like jerks, gossip, bring negative energy and seem totally incapable of doing any job well, let alone a job in upper management. “They’re so stupid, a trained monkey could do a better job!”. Dumb managers and coworkers are so common that it’s a storyline repeated all over TV and movies. We can all relate to this regardless of industry and geographic location and in that, we at least have each other. But it does beg the question – how does this keep happening? Why do idiots get promoted? In this article, we’re talking about 7 common reasons why this is the case.

Pat Finnegan May 27, 2020

Project Manager Soft Skills

How To Deal With A Coworker You Don’t Trust: The Do’s & Don’ts

Trust is a vital aspect of any relationship. This applies to our family, friends, romantic partners and coworkers alike. Just like our family and romantic partners, we must see our coworkers for an extended amount of time every day. In most instances, we spend more waking hours with our coworkers while working full-time than we spend with our families – that’s a lot of time at work! When we have great coworkers who we can trust, this doesn’t feel nearly as harsh as it sounds. What happens when we just can’t trust coworkers? It could be something they’ve done, rumors we hear or just our gut feeling – regardless, a situation like this puts a tremendous strain on our work life. In this article, we’re talking about how to deal with a coworker you don’t trust!

Pat Finnegan December 19, 2019

Project Management

Managing Jerks As A Project Manager: What To Act On & What To Accept

As Project Managers, we get the ‘pleasure’ of working with people of every variety. Not only are we expected to work alongside everyone else involved with the project, but we’re also expected to help them, answer questions and provide direction. Simple enough, right? Well, on paper it is. Management gets difficult when personalities begin to clash. Maybe a teammate thinks you’re stupid and doesn’t want to listen to you. Perhaps they think you’re too smart and are threatened by you. Even more vague – they might just not like you for their own reasons. While this seems like a big deal when it’s happening to us, it’s statistically inevitable – no one can please everyone. Manage enough people over time and you’ll run into difficulty with some. Today, we’re taking about managing jerks as a Project Manager, along with which behavior we should act on vs. let slide. Let’s get into it!

Pat Finnegan December 17, 2019

Workplace Experiences

Is Dating A Coworker A Bad Idea? My Honest Opinion

Ah, dating in the workplace. The stuff sitcoms, dramas and movies are made of. We live in a society that idealizes the concept of finding ‘the one’ for you at work. But maybe that’s not what we’re after at all – perhaps we just want a casual fling with a coworker. Whatever the case may be for you, we’re going to go deep on answering this burning question: Is dating a coworker a bad idea? I will also give my honest opinion. Let’s begin.

Pat Finnegan December 12, 2019

10 Email Sins At Work To Avoid At All Costs! Do These Sound Familiar?

Project Manager Soft Skills

Email Etiquette In The Workplace: 10 Email Sins To Avoid At All Costs!

Emails are thoroughly engrained in the work culture of our modern society. On average, Americans spend several hours of their day on work-related email activities! That’s an incredible amount of time when you consider that email barely existed at work 25 years ago. Make no mistake – email is incredibly useful. The rate at which information is exchanged is unreal. With this great power comes great responsibility, though. Many people wield the power of email with reckless abandon, wreaking havoc in its’ path. In all seriousness, we’re talking about 10 email sins at work to avoid at all costs! Do any of these sound familiar?

Pat Finnegan November 26, 2019

CATEGORY | Survival In The Workplace

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Is My Boss Manipulating Me? Here Are 12 Signs Of A Manipulative Boss

My Boss Doesn’t Have My Back: What Should I Do? My 5 Personal Tips

6 Things I Learned While Working For A Failing Company

Surviving A Two-Faced Boss: A Few Tips From Experience

When Your Boss Criticizes You in Front of Others, Do These 5 Things

Why Do Idiots Get Promoted? 7 Reasons To Consider

How To Deal With A Coworker You Don’t Trust: The Do’s & Don’ts

Managing Jerks As A Project Manager: What To Act On & What To Accept

Is Dating A Coworker A Bad Idea? My Honest Opinion

Email Etiquette In The Workplace: 10 Email Sins To Avoid At All Costs!

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CATEGORY | Survival In The Workplace

About This Topic

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

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WORK LIFE

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STAY IN TOUCH!