Have You Ever Had a Boss That's Hated You?

This piece from MSNBC about bosses that hate employees made me want to ask this question:

Have you ever had a boss that's hated you?

I've detailed my entire work history, so you all know a lot about my work life. But the one thing I didn't cover is the boss who hated me. Unfortunately, I ran into this boss in my first job out of business school.

I detailed in that post the reasons she had for hating me -- I was dating a woman the boss hated, I made a few mistakes in managing projects, I tried to do some new things in new ways in an old, this-is-how-we-do-it company, and so on. Add to these that our personalities just didn't click. Not at all. Not one little bit.

So what did I do? I bailed and moved. After determining that I had zero future at the company (I had a friend go to my bosses' boss and ask what the future held for me and got a "not much" response), I found a great job at a great company and moved on.

How about you? Have you ever had a boss that's hated you? What did you do about it?

Comments

[Crystal]

I haven't had a boss that hated me, but I would bail if I ever do. I put a high value on a good working environment...life's too short for that kind of stress every day!

[Rod Ferguson]

I've had one boss that hated me. Shortly after I started with the company, a member of the Board wanted to have lunch with me where they recruited me to do some research on the CEO for them. I was new, had no allegiances and in a position to have access to almost every facet of the company's books. I was a little hesitant about this at first, but when I started digging I discovered he was committing fraud and receiving kickbacks (being paid to sign with a certain vendor, or paid to order something that was never delivered). Needless to say, when this came to light, I was the target of all manner of retribution from him. Eventually he was let go, but his allies kept the pressure on me after he left. I left myself within a few months after it was over. So, I did leave, but so did he.

As a postscript, since then I've been approached one other time to do the same sort of research. I politely refused, then quickly went looking for another job. My advice to anyone in this situation - don't. Unless you are about to leave the company anyway, the repercussions of doing this could mean your job regardless of any assurances you may receive.

[David C]

Yeah, I had a boss who hated me. Once a co-worker, she was promoted to department head (lots of politics and some services rendered, to put it nicely) and things went downhill immediately. She considered me a threat. Because I had a college education and possessed a more in depth knowledge of what we were building, I was looked on in a more favorable light by the people who did the actual work. Under her regime, this was not a good thing. I was a threat and would need to be persuaded to leave. After seven years of sterling performance reviews and decent enough raises, I suddenly (in her eyes) was as useful as the gum stuck underneath a school desk. This was my first real experience in office politics to the extreme, as I had never faced sabotage before. Needless to say, this was a real eye opener.

I stuck it out for another year and finally bailed on the firm. Up until the regime change, I truly loved my job and had intended to retire there. To the company's surprise and her delight, I resigned. I wasn't the only one to jump ship over the next year. My new job was fantastic, the work wasn't as cool, but the boss definitely was. He was the best. Unfortunately, cancer claimed him about seven years later. We still use him as the benchmark to describe the ideal manager.

[Stacie]

I was fired by a boss that hated me. He was an outside hire and made it very clear early on that he didn't appreciate what I knew about the company. Not that he asked me directly, but often heard from other people, "Stacie does that." In general, several women who worked with him were often not considered reliable sources; he constantly double and triple checked anything that we did (peers or reports.)

After he'd been my supervisor for two months, I knew it was only a matter of time, and started looking for a new job. Unfortunately, he was able to group me in with a massive layoff.

Fortunately, my new company is fab.

Just to make it a bit sweeter, he was fired about 3 months after me.

[The BigTymer]

This actually happened to me recently.

I had taken a job with a great company with a great boss. The great boss was promoted, and a guy from within the department was promoted up. Unfortunately, he was more interested in trying to further his so-called "songwriting" or trying to pick up women.

I made a complaint to his boss. I thought it was anonymous, but it wasn't. Ever since I did that, I was dubbed "unprofessional" and "difficult to work with". It deteriorated over a 4-month period until I was fired.

At least I learned from talking to people after I was let go that nobody really likes this guy and how the department functioned after he took over.

[Paula]

I was hired through a talent scout for a company and the day I started my boss was having his going away party. My new boss was the next in line and I found out later he had friends that ran a software company that he wanted to outsource my job too.

He made my life miserable. I didn't get the software I needed to do my job. It was a small company and he worked the politics against me. Toward the end he became so obvious that the head of the company noticed and talked with him. But he still founds ways. I stuck it out the three months needed for the talent scout to get paid. I didn't want to burn bridges with them. As soon as I know they got the paid, I was outtie and never looked back.

I found out after I left that his friends where doing the work for exorbitant prices and six times the timeframe of what I could do all by myself.

[Jeff]

Oh yes, I've had some who've hated me. In my first job out of college I got on the wrong side of my boss (for one incident of admittedly immature behavior on my part). Aside from that I was performing at a high level, finishing projects ahead of schedule with high quality. When she decided to leave the company a few months later she had to write performance reviews for everyone and absolutely skewered me hours before she left on her last day! This was the first performance review of my career and hadn't known what to expect. Only after talking to some co-workers some time later did I realize how bad of a review it was. If I had to do it over again I would have communicated with her more effectively and not harbored resentment towards her for as long as I did.

[Senan]

'Hated' is a strong word. I've had a little run in with a previous boss. It was along the lines of a disagrement over hiring requirements. The atmosphere was awful. It kinda passed but it was still at the back of my mind so a couple of months later I bailed. He didn't turn up to the leaving drinks!

[guinness416]

No never been in that situation but I had a great coworker who was. For some reason (perhaps a one-off mistake or something) one the partners we worked for just took against the guy. This despite the high quality of his work and the fact he worked very hard and was universally liked by everyone else. Totally inexplicable. He quit, of course, and the company suffered from having lost the guy.

[Sierra Black]

I was thinking about this just today. I had a boss at a newspaper a few years back who absolutely bullied me. She had a habit of picking on one of the reporters in the newsroom until they quit, and then starting in on someone else. I'd been there about six months when she started targeting me.

It was miserable, and did terrible things to my self-esteem. After trying to work with her and trying to get transferred out, I finally quit. At my HR exit interview, I told them I was leaving because she'd mistreated me and they had been unable or unwilling to help when I'd brought it up with them before.

"Twelve people have quit in the year I've worked here," I pointed out. "Only one of them had another job lined up. I think you should look very closely at how she's managing people."

I went back to visit a friend there a year later and heard she'd been forced to resign only a few weeks after I did.

[Corporate Barbarian]

I applied for a job doing maintenance work at a mini golf course. The manager was and older man who was recently divorced. For whatever reason, he thought his ex-wife had recommended me for the job, and I think he hired me to make my life miserable. He did nice things, like sending me home after working for only 2 hours, and bad mouthing me to the other workers. Due to my stubborn nature, I refused to quit, and he eventually changed his views about me. Tragically, he became disabled shortly after he began to tolerate me, and our work relationship ended. He was a lesson that came early in my life, and I've never forgotten it.

[Mike Hunt]

My boss hated me in my previous company. It was because I was hired by the COO of the company, my bosses direct superior... The COO was looking for an alternate to my boss but told me he didn't want to pull the trigger until after some restructing. I foolishly joined the job and stated to the COO that I wouldn't be looking to sabotage my boss- I will do my best to make him successful because either we rise or fail as a team.

6 months after I joined the COO got canned. Kept giving 100% but after my 2 year contract started to end my boss made every effort to get me canned. He never warmed up to me and while not hostile, he did nothing to support me and was certainly looking forward to the end of my contract.

It is actually a good experience having a boss who doesn't like you- in hindsight!

-Mike

[Mr. Not the Jet Set]

Yeah, I had a boss that eventually hated me. At first we clicked - we were totally on the same page. Would even show up wearing similar shirts some days. Never the less, things changed. He changed, the business changed.... I went from secure in my position to a year later when I wondered which day would be my last.

I made the mistake of thinking it actually was my fault as he insisted, which lead me to believe that my actions could also fix it. Wasn't possible. In the end, I held on too long and things got messy - very messy. There wasn't enough work, so he needed to lay someone off, but yet he didn't want to be hit with unemployment taxes or admit that business was down, so he really wanted to make me look bad and fire me.

I got my confirmation a month later when former clients were unsatisfied with the work from my former employ and consequently began seeking me out.