Stupid, Rude, Inadequate and Bad Bosses: One of the Main Reasons that People Decide to Work for Themselves

What decides people to work for themselves? A great idea, the opportunity or is it something else that has not been fully understood? In an informal UK survey conducted over the period May 2005 – September 2006, talking to people who had started their businesses within the previous 12 months, it was discovered that one of the main reasons for people starting their own business was the low quality of the bosses (owners and managing directors) of the SMEs (Small and Medium Sized companies) they left behind. The sentiment they expressed was “if stupid, rude, inadequate and plain bad bosses could run businesses, so can I”. From the anecdotes this survey noted the following characteristics and behaviours summarise the bosses they left behind:

THE STUPID BOSS: This type can be found surrounded by YES MEN. Often they have been given their position through parental indulgence. The welfare of their employees is low on their list of priorities, in some extreme cases they flout Health & Safety Legislation either by calculation or through ignorance. They promote stupid people over those that have achieved far more. They promote people they fancy rather than people who have achieved more.

THE RUDE BOSS: S/he ignores you. You work unpaid overtime and receive no acknowledgement. You supply simple ideas that transform processes and receive no acknowledgement. You achieve over target and receive no acknowledgement. Their lives, families and friends are of maximum importance but yours don’t exist while you are on their premises.

THE INADEQUATE BOSS: These take your ideas and make them their own. They talk often about how they have achieved their position and their qualities as they see them. They declare they know people very well at least once a week. You can do a much better job than them. You may find yourself carrying the INADEQUATE BOSS.

THE PLAIN BAD BOSS: Signs include no pension scheme, no sick pay, erroneous disciplinary actions. No understanding of what is happening under their noses. Demotivated workforces. Discrepancies in salary scales – women often paid less than men and usually find out as much. Mistakes, errors, mistakes and more mistakes happen regularly.

Some bosses manage to combine some or all of the characteristics and behaviours above…and more! 

Would the world’s economy be better or worse without low quality bosses?

Nowadays – during the Credit Crunch and banking crises – it is all too easy to overlook bad bosses as a cause of some, if not the majority, of the trouble.  This survey suggests that we do not let bad bosses hide behind the crises.  Instead we should and do as much as you can to expose these menaces for what they are – essentially unable to run any aspect of a business, the enemy of meritocracy and contributors to any negative socio-economic problems.  If there’s a need to kick start the world economy we should kick bad bosses out before anything else.

It’s not all doom and gloom however as some respondents were grateful to their ex-employers for illustrating how companies should NOT be run and for providing additional impetus to them when deciding to become self employed, a decision they were glad they had made.