如何对付难弄的上司（1/5）

By Donna Brown Hogarty

 （翻译：钱妮娜） 

Harvey Gittler knew his new boss was high-strung---the two had worked together on the factory floor. But Glitter was not prepared for his co-worker’s personality change when the man was promoted to plant manager.

哈维·吉特勒一向知道他的新上司有些神经过敏——他们在公司的同一层楼面上共事过。当此人被提升为工厂经理后，吉特勒可不指望他这位同事的性格会有所改变。

Just two days later, the boss angrily ordered a standing desk removed because he’d seen a worker leaning on it to look up an order. He routinely reprimanded employees at the top of his lungs. At one time or another he threatened to fire virtually everyone in the plant. And after employees went home, he searched through trash cans for evidence of treason.

就在两天前，这位老板大发雷霆，叫人把一张好好的桌子抬走了，因为他看见一个工人靠着上面查询一份订单。他如往常一样声嘶力竭地训斥着手下的员工。时不时地威胁要把我们所有人都开除。然后等员工们都下班了，他又开始在垃圾箱里找寻那些对他不忠的证据。

For many workers, Gittler’s experience is frighteningly familiar. “Virtually all bosses are problem bosses, in one way or another,” says psychologist Mardy Gorthe, co-author with Peter Wylie of Problem Bosses: Who They Are and How To Deal With Them. The reason, he says, lies in lack of training. Most bosses were promoted to management because they excelled at earlier jobs —not because they have experience motivating others.

对很多工人而言，吉特勒式的经历是再熟悉不过的了。“事实上，每个老板都是‘问题老板’，要么是在这个方面，要么是在那个方面，”与彼得·怀利合著《问题老板：他们是谁，如何与他们过招》一书的精神病专家马帝. 葛罗斯说。他指出：其原因就在于他们缺乏训练。大部分被提拔为管理者的老板是源于他们之前出色的工作，而不是因为他们懂得如何激发、带动他人的积极性。

Uncertain economic times exacerbate the bad-boss syndrome. “There is an acceptance of getting results at any price,” says Stanley Bing, a business executive and author of Crazy Bosses. “As a result, the people corporations select to be bosses are the most rigid and demanding, and the least able to adapt to difficult situations.”

经济年代的风云变幻使得魔鬼老板综合症日益恶化。“不惜一切代价来获得成功的观点现今已被人普遍接受，”公司执行官兼《疯狂的老板》一书作者斯坦利·宾说。“由此造成的后果是，公司选拔的管理人员通常严厉且苛求，但对怎样处理一堆烂摊子却没有心得。”

Bad bosses often have a recognizable modus operandi! Harry Levinson, an American management psychologist, had catalogued problem bosses, from the bully to the indecisive jellyfish to the disapproving perfectionist. If you’re suffering from a bad boss, chances are he or she combines several of these traits and can be dealt with effectively if you use the right strategy.

糟糕的老板都有众所周知的伎俩！美国管理心理学家哈里·莱文森将问题老板做了个分类，从欺压下属的恃强凌弱型到缺乏主见的优柔寡断型，再到求全责备的完美主义型。如果你正被一个糟糕的老板折磨，那很可能他或她综合了以上特征，只要方法运用得体，他们就能被轻松地应付过去。

The Bully. DURING his first week on the job, a new account manager at a small advertising agency agreed to return some materials to a client. When he mentioned this at a staff meeting, the boss turned beet red, his lips began to quiver and he shouted that the new employee should call his client and confess he didn’t know anything about the advertising business, and would not be returning the materials.

欺压下属类。一家小型广告代理公司新上任的会计主管在上班的第一个星期里被获准将一些材料退还给客户。当他在一次员工会议提到这件事时，他老板开始涨红了脸，嘴唇颤抖，然后大叫着说新进的员工应该告诉他的客户，自己对广告业务一无所知，而资料也不应该退还。

Over the next few months, as the account manager watched co-workers cower under the boss’s brow-beating, he realized that the tyrant fed on fear. Employees who tried hardest to avoid his ire were most likely to catch it. “He was like a schoolyard bully,” the manager recalls, “and I’ve known since childhood that, when confronted, most bullies back down.”

在接下来的几个月里，这位会计主管看到同事们在老板的恫吓下战战兢兢地工作，（下属的）畏惧使得暴君式的老板变本加厉，越发得意。那些卖力工作以求免于被他责骂的员工却往往沦为他发火的对象。“他就像操场上的小霸王，”这位主管回忆道，“而我从小就知道，当有人针锋相对时，大多数的恃强欺弱者都会退缩。”

Armed with new-found confidence and growing knowledge of the ad business, he matched boss’s behavior. “If he raised his voice, I’d raise mine.” the manager recalls. True to type, the boss started to treat him with grudging respect. Eventually, the young man moved up the ranks and was rarely subjected to his boss’s outbursts.

随着广告业务知识的增加和新建立起的信心，他开始和老板顶真起来。“如果他拔高嗓门，我也跟着拔高。”主管回忆道。本色的彰显使老板对他勉勉强强表现出了尊重。最后，这个年轻人被晋升了，很少再屈从于他老板的盛怒之下。