鈥淗ELL is other people.鈥 French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre鈥檚 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 everyone鈥檚 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 World鈥檚 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 鈥渟leepwalking鈥 through work. A further 20 per cent hate their jobs so much they spend their time 鈥渞oaming the halls spreading discontent鈥. People who hold degrees, the study found, are likely to be the least happy of all.
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Why all the misery? It鈥檚 not long hours or measly wages that are upsetting employees 鈥 the number one cause, the survey showed, was 鈥渕anagers from hell鈥, which Gallup estimates costs the US economy about half a trillion dollars per year in lost productivity.
If you haven鈥檛 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: 鈥渁nal retentive鈥, 鈥渢wists facts, or lies鈥, 鈥減eople ran from her lab鈥 and 鈥渇requent favouritism towards the people he鈥檚 sleeping with鈥 just really a horrible human being鈥.
杏吧原创-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 鈥 and that colleague鈥檚 student, too 鈥 simply because he wanted to get a grant with that colleague. The paper鈥檚 submission was delayed for so long that Ruben鈥檚 friend was scooped. 鈥淪he ended up leaving that lab in disgust,鈥 Ruben says.
Most people don鈥檛 have it quite this bad. And assuming that your boss isn鈥檛 a psychopath (they could be 鈥 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. 鈥淩esearchers are very, very clear that the brain has a negativity bias,鈥 says conflict-resolution specialist , author of How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress. 鈥淵our colleague is going to decide if you鈥檙e their ally or their adversary. And they鈥檙e going to decide that in seconds,鈥 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, it鈥檚 time to approach the issues. State the problems you have encountered and avoid assumptions 鈥 that鈥檚 the negativity bias at work in you. The third step is to act curious, says Maravelas. Feel like your boss ignores you? Don鈥檛 assume that it鈥檚 because they hate you or they are lazy 鈥 politely ask them about it. You could say, for example: 鈥淚鈥檝e noticed you don鈥檛 come into my office to say hello anymore 鈥 can you help me understand why?鈥
If you feel your boss is unfairly overworking you, and refuses to acknowledge or do anything about it, the key is to collect evidence. 鈥淜eep a daily record of what you鈥檝e been asked to do,鈥 says organisational psychologist Sigrid Gustafson. 鈥淎nd if you can, keep a record of what the norm is in the group, so you have some evidence supporting the fact that you鈥檙e being asked to do more than other people, or that you鈥檙e being unfairly treated,鈥 she says. Once you have collected good data, Gustafson recommends taking your records to the human resources department, or your boss鈥檚 boss, if you have a decent relationship with them.
When dealing with a scatterbrain boss or confused management structure, get things in writing. 鈥淭hat isn鈥檛 just to make people feel like they鈥檙e being pinned to the wall about what the requirements are,鈥 says Gustafson. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also to give clarity to everybody else.鈥
The Glory-Hogger
There鈥檚 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 . 鈥淒uring meetings and in private discussions with our principal investigator, this postdoc has labelled my work as 鈥榦ur work鈥, and has been passing off my ideas as his own,鈥 he lamented. 鈥淭o 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.鈥
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 employee鈥檚 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. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to be 5 per cent smarter than the person who鈥檚 stealing your ideas,鈥 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. 鈥淚t鈥檚 valuable to get things in writing,鈥 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. 鈥淭alk with mentors and people higher up, and talk with your boss,鈥 he says. 鈥淟et them know what you鈥檙e doing.鈥
The one thing not to do, says Maravelas, is to talk about the troublemaker behind their back to other workers. 鈥淚f they get a sniff in the air that you鈥檙e an enemy, that you鈥檙e bad-mouthing them, they鈥檒l go on the attack,鈥 she warns. 鈥淪o you have to be very, very professional.鈥 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. 鈥淎lmost always, if you have enough patience, they trip up,鈥 says Maravelas. 鈥淭hey will screw up, big time. They will go after the wrong person and they will fall on their own sword. They don鈥檛 last long, in my experience.鈥
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. 鈥淗e used to microwave his lunch in the lab microwave where we had ethidium bromide 鈥 a carcinogen 鈥 and tell us that we were all too afraid of the chemicals in the lab,鈥 Ruben recalls. 鈥淚t was such a safety violation.鈥 It took a team effort to get the unruly grad student to change his ways. 鈥淎ll the other grad students told him, 鈥榣ook, if you want to put your lunch in there and endanger yourself, that鈥檚 one thing. But you鈥檙e putting your lunch in there and then bringing the plate into the lunch room.'鈥
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 鈥 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 that鈥檚 impossible, make sure you document each person鈥檚 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 isn鈥檛 being done. 鈥淒ocumentation is the key to survival,鈥 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: 鈥淗ey, if you finish the work, you get Friday afternoon off.鈥 On the other hand, so can sticks: 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 finish the work, you get written up.鈥
The best way to deal with a slacker is to play it cool. 鈥淲hat motivates the passive-aggressive is the sheer delight they get in pushing your buttons,鈥 says Cavaiola. These inherently negative people live by the motto 鈥渕isery loves company鈥, he says. 鈥淭hey love to see you frustrated and fuming because you missed a deadline or because they didn鈥檛 do their part of the work. Do not react.鈥
The Micromanager
Some bosses abandon you without guidance and then freak out when what you have produced isn鈥檛 to their liking. Others monitor your every move, peering over your shoulder to make sure you are doing everything 鈥渞ight鈥.
鈥淲e call them controlling perfectionists,鈥 says Alan Cavaiola, author of Toxic Coworkers. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e control freaks 鈥 you can do nothing right in their eyes.鈥 Unfortunately, such micromanagers are common in science, where precision is valued above all else. But they can make life a misery for their colleagues. 鈥淭his type of personality can become really overbearing,鈥 he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not just interested in precision for the sake of science, they鈥檙e more into it for proving that they鈥檙e better than you are.鈥
One way to deal with a micromanager is to be aware that they tend to have their fingers in a thousand pies. 鈥淭hey go off into a lot of directions,鈥 says Cavaiola. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l focus on minutiae, and sometimes lose the bigger picture.鈥 Often it鈥檚 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: 鈥淵ou鈥檝e given me eight things to do 鈥 let鈥檚 prioritise.鈥
It is also important to remember that their behaviour doesn鈥檛 say anything about you. 鈥淒on鈥檛 put your self-worth into the hands of this type of administrator, because you鈥檒l always end up on the short end of the stick,鈥 says Cavaiola. 鈥淵ou have to be able to say, 鈥業 did this work, I did it well, and I鈥檓 going to try to make it as perfect as possible, but sometimes perfection is an elusive goal鈥.鈥
The Bully
Most workplace conflicts can be traced back to a simple cause 鈥 a staff shortage or lack of skills, for example. Sometimes, however, the person behind the rift is simply a bully.
The bully鈥檚 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. 鈥淐onning, manipulation and a lack of empathy are key characteristics, as well as lying,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 extremely insidious because what they are really good at is finding your vulnerabilities and playing on them, very subtly sometimes.鈥
鈥淭hese people generally have quite strong psychopathic traits,鈥 says Roy Lubit at the the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. 鈥淭hey get off on having power over other people 鈥 a power really to hurt. And that makes them feel strong and vital.鈥
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 it鈥檚 worth considering the alternative 鈥 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. 鈥淚 would generally just get the heck away from the bully,鈥 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 鈥 and 鈥 confrontation may not be the best approach. If you are intent on fighting back, don鈥檛 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 isn鈥檛 clearly allied with your boss.
It鈥檚 a strategy that has its risks. If a worker goes to someone above the bully, 鈥渢hey may find that the person above them has already been co-opted鈥, says Gustafson. 鈥淸Bullies] tend to find patrons, so they may well have flattered and seduced the people above them.鈥 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. 鈥淭here are other jobs. People think often that there are no options, but there usually really are,鈥 says Gustafson. She advises bullied workers to seek support and build up their sense of self. 鈥淵ou do have a life outside of this,鈥 she says. 鈥淭his isn鈥檛 your life.鈥
To read more from New 杏吧原创鈥檚 2014 Careers Guide, or .
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淓scape workplace hell鈥