âHELL is other people.â French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartreâs famous words are nowhere more relevant than in the workplace. Yes, there are plenty of nice souls out there, but it only takes one bad apple in your lab or office to make everyoneâs lives a misery.
But never fear. Whether you are suffering in the company of a megalomaniacal principal investigator or a clueless colleague, we have the best advice out there to help you cope. You may never be able to exact the revenge you long for, but by following these handy tips, you can escape that gnawing feeling that you are a character in a depressing existentialist play.
The Worldâs Meanest Boss
Nothing is certain in life, except death, taxes and, it would seem, bad bosses. According to , half of the 100 million US citizens with full-time jobs say they are âsleepwalkingâ through work. A further 20 per cent hate their jobs so much they spend their time âroaming the halls spreading discontentâ. People who hold degrees, the study found, are likely to be the least happy of all.
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Why all the misery? Itâs not long hours or measly wages that are upsetting employees â the number one cause, the survey showed, was âmanagers from hellâ, which Gallup estimates costs the US economy about half a trillion dollars per year in lost productivity.
If you havenât had a brush with one of these tyrants, consider yourself lucky. There are plenty of horror stories out there. The website catalogues anonymous reviews of US-based professors, with entries reading: âanal retentiveâ, âtwists facts, or liesâ, âpeople ran from her labâ and âfrequent favouritism towards the people heâs sleeping with⌠just really a horrible human beingâ.
Scientist-turned-comedian , who has a PhD in molecular biology and has written a book titled Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to go to Grad School, recalls the story of one doctoral-student friend whose selfish principal investigator (PI) derailed one of her PhD research papers with disputes over authorship. The PI asked that his name be listed first on the paper, which the student agreed to, but then he insisted on adding another colleague â and that colleagueâs student, too â simply because he wanted to get a grant with that colleague. The paperâs submission was delayed for so long that Rubenâs friend was scooped. âShe ended up leaving that lab in disgust,â Ruben says.
Most people donât have it quite this bad. And assuming that your boss isnât a psychopath (they could be â more on that later), there are a few pieces of advice for those encountering problems like overwork, lack of training, boredom and bad communication from on high.
The first step is to realise that people are wired to assume the worst. âResearchers are very, very clear that the brain has a negativity bias,â says conflict-resolution specialist , author of How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress. âYour colleague is going to decide if youâre their ally or their adversary. And theyâre going to decide that in seconds,â she says. The best way to open any dialogue with your less-than-perfect boss is to say something nice about them, and something positive about a shared goal.
After you have put your boss in a good mood, itâs time to approach the issues. State the problems you have encountered and avoid assumptions â thatâs the negativity bias at work in you. The third step is to act curious, says Maravelas. Feel like your boss ignores you? Donât assume that itâs because they hate you or they are lazy â politely ask them about it. You could say, for example: âIâve noticed you donât come into my office to say hello anymore â can you help me understand why?â
If you feel your boss is unfairly overworking you, and refuses to acknowledge or do anything about it, the key is to collect evidence. âKeep a daily record of what youâve been asked to do,â says organisational psychologist Sigrid Gustafson. âAnd if you can, keep a record of what the norm is in the group, so you have some evidence supporting the fact that youâre being asked to do more than other people, or that youâre being unfairly treated,â she says. Once you have collected good data, Gustafson recommends taking your records to the human resources department, or your bossâs boss, if you have a decent relationship with them.
When dealing with a scatterbrain boss or confused management structure, get things in writing. âThat isnât just to make people feel like theyâre being pinned to the wall about what the requirements are,â says Gustafson. âItâs also to give clarity to everybody else.â
The Glory-Hogger
Thereâs nothing worse than someone stealing your ideas. Last year, one unfortunate postdoc shared his experience of a scheming lab mate on science video-sharing website . âDuring meetings and in private discussions with our principal investigator, this postdoc has labelled my work as âour workâ, and has been passing off my ideas as his own,â he lamented. âTo top it all off I found out that he has started writing the manuscript for the paper whose majority of data has come from my work.â
This type of theft represents a common problem in many work environments, but especially highly competitive ones like scientific research, where ideas are one of an employeeâs most valuable assets. A typical glory-hogger might undermine your abilities in front of your superiors, or claim they have put in more work than you.
Luckily this problem is relatively easy to solve, says conflict-resolution specialist Anna Maravelas. âYouâve got to be 5 per cent smarter than the person whoâs stealing your ideas,â she says. To keep a step ahead, avoid sharing your ideas with the person verbally in private. Instead, do so in an email, and include others in the discussion. âItâs valuable to get things in writing,â agrees , assistant professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and author of Coping with Toxic Managers, Subordinates and Other Difficult People. âTalk with mentors and people higher up, and talk with your boss,â he says. âLet them know what youâre doing.â
The one thing not to do, says Maravelas, is to talk about the troublemaker behind their back to other workers. âIf they get a sniff in the air that youâre an enemy, that youâre bad-mouthing them, theyâll go on the attack,â she warns. âSo you have to be very, very professional.â If either the troublemaker themselves or another colleague tries to draw you into gossip, be warm but assertive, and change the subject of the conversation.
Then you can bide your time until the idea-stealer crashes and burns. âAlmost always, if you have enough patience, they trip up,â says Maravelas. âThey will screw up, big time. They will go after the wrong person and they will fall on their own sword. They donât last long, in my experience.â
The Slacker
When Adam Ruben was doing his PhD at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, he encountered a fellow grad student who took a rather cavalier approach to safety regulations. âHe used to microwave his lunch in the lab microwave where we had ethidium bromide â a carcinogen â and tell us that we were all too afraid of the chemicals in the lab,â Ruben recalls. âIt was such a safety violation.â It took a team effort to get the unruly grad student to change his ways. âAll the other grad students told him, âlook, if you want to put your lunch in there and endanger yourself, thatâs one thing. But youâre putting your lunch in there and then bringing the plate into the lunch room.'â
While safety violators are a breed that should be confronted or reported, incompetence is not always so clear-cut. One personality type that , a professor of counselling at Monmouth University in New Jersey, and author of Toxic Coworkers, has highlighted is the passive-aggressive â someone who never hits deadlines and always worms their way out of doing work.
Of course, the easiest way to cope is to avoid working on projects with the slacker altogether. If thatâs impossible, make sure you document each personâs responsibilities in a group meeting. The shirker is more likely to agree to take on work in this environment, says organisational psychologist Sigrid Gustafson. Then regularly check back in with the group and keep a record of what is and isnât being done. âDocumentation is the key to survival,â she says.
Cavaiola also suggests using written contracts that are very concrete about what work is due when. Consequences can also help motivate slackers. Carrots can work, he says: âHey, if you finish the work, you get Friday afternoon off.â On the other hand, so can sticks: âIf you donât finish the work, you get written up.â
The best way to deal with a slacker is to play it cool. âWhat motivates the passive-aggressive is the sheer delight they get in pushing your buttons,â says Cavaiola. These inherently negative people live by the motto âmisery loves companyâ, he says. âThey love to see you frustrated and fuming because you missed a deadline or because they didnât do their part of the work. Do not react.â
The Micromanager
Some bosses abandon you without guidance and then freak out when what you have produced isnât to their liking. Others monitor your every move, peering over your shoulder to make sure you are doing everything ârightâ.
âWe call them controlling perfectionists,â says Alan Cavaiola, author of Toxic Coworkers. âTheyâre control freaks â you can do nothing right in their eyes.â Unfortunately, such micromanagers are common in science, where precision is valued above all else. But they can make life a misery for their colleagues. âThis type of personality can become really overbearing,â he says. âTheyâre not just interested in precision for the sake of science, theyâre more into it for proving that theyâre better than you are.â
One way to deal with a micromanager is to be aware that they tend to have their fingers in a thousand pies. âThey go off into a lot of directions,â says Cavaiola. âTheyâll focus on minutiae, and sometimes lose the bigger picture.â Often itâs a co-worker that ends up dealing with the consequences. If you find yourself in that situation, face the micromanager and tell them they have given you too much to do. You could say, for example: âYouâve given me eight things to do â letâs prioritise.â
It is also important to remember that their behaviour doesnât say anything about you. âDonât put your self-worth into the hands of this type of administrator, because youâll always end up on the short end of the stick,â says Cavaiola. âYou have to be able to say, âI did this work, I did it well, and Iâm going to try to make it as perfect as possible, but sometimes perfection is an elusive goalâ.â
The Bully
Most workplace conflicts can be traced back to a simple cause â a staff shortage or lack of skills, for example. Sometimes, however, the person behind the rift is simply a bully.
The bullyâs tools are threats, intimidation and humiliation, says social psychologist Gary Namie, founder of the US-based . Yelling and cursing are rare, but more subtle abuse is common, he says.
Organisational psychologist Sigrid Gustafson agrees. âConning, manipulation and a lack of empathy are key characteristics, as well as lying,â she says. âItâs extremely insidious because what they are really good at is finding your vulnerabilities and playing on them, very subtly sometimes.â
âThese people generally have quite strong psychopathic traits,â says Roy Lubit at the the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. âThey get off on having power over other people â a power really to hurt. And that makes them feel strong and vital.â
The workplace bully might affect your performance by withholding funding or training. He or she might undermine your confidence and isolate you from others, and convince you that your options are limited and that you are lucky to have a job at all.
In this tough economy, it is easy to feel like there really are no other options. But itâs worth considering the alternative â being the victim of bullying day-in and day-out can damage your health. Besides the increased stress levels, .
If you find yourself a victim of a workplace bully, avoid them as much as possible. âI would generally just get the heck away from the bully,â says Lubit. If the bully is a co-worker, standing up to them and letting them know their behaviour is unacceptable may be enough to shut them down, says Lubit. He also advises seeking out allies and mentors in the company who may be able to help.
If the bully is your boss, however â and â confrontation may not be the best approach. If you are intent on fighting back, donât take it for granted that your colleagues will stand with you, says Namie. Prepare a dispassionate, logical case outlining the financial cost in turnover and lost productivity as a result of a bully and bring it to the highest-ranking person who isnât clearly allied with your boss.
Itâs a strategy that has its risks. If a worker goes to someone above the bully, âthey may find that the person above them has already been co-optedâ, says Gustafson. â[Bullies] tend to find patrons, so they may well have flattered and seduced the people above them.â This could mean it takes a long time for the truth to come out, and for the underling to be believed.
The best strategy of all is to leave that workplace of your own accord and find another job. âThere are other jobs. People think often that there are no options, but there usually really are,â says Gustafson. She advises bullied workers to seek support and build up their sense of self. âYou do have a life outside of this,â she says. âThis isnât your life.â
To read more from Âéśš´ŤĂ˝âs 2014 Careers Guide, or .
This article appeared in print under the headline âEscape workplace hellâ
