15 Things Bosses Hate About Employees

We always seem to focus on what employees can’t stand about their bosses or the companies they work for; but what about how bosses feel about their employees?

In her book Live What You Love: When Passion & Purpose Change Your Life, Naomi Simson looks at the highest ranking habits and traits that drive bosses mad. In this book, Naomi looks at some research by Ms Susan Nicholson, corporate psychologist and partner at Mentors Psychology, who studied the things bosses hate about employees.

She found that ranking high on the list are:

Unreliability
Not ‘fessing up’ to mistakes
Missing deadlines
Saying one thing but doing another
Having an excuse for everything (bosses hate that — they just want you to get the job done, and on time)
Blaming the other person
Trying to cover up mistakes (instead of just owning up
To what you’ve done and working out how to fix it — not taking responsibility shows that someone has a weak of character, a real career killer)
Gossiping and talking about people behind their backs
Stirring up trouble or undermining what the boss is setting out to achieve
Griping (nothing is ever good enough for you)
Resisting change (The one constant thing in most businesses, especially growing ones, is change. How can you be a fast growth business without constantly challenging the status quo and doing things differently? Employers love employees who adapt and even embrace change; it is the way we do things. I can’t imagine what it would be like to work with people who love to grumble and criticise new ideas and processes.)

Other traits and behaviours that came up were:

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Tardiness (all those sick days or long lunches add up, and bosses notice — especially if you then lie about it)
Running your personal life from your desk
Being a bully (I was bullied by an employee some years ago, and it is really very distressing. Bullying includes needless swearing in the office and making threats. Bosses want happy peaceful teams, not dominating or passive aggressive ones.)

Next time you complain about your boss, spare a moment to think, ‘I wonder what I’m doing to bother them?’ What goes around come around, and people who are liked are the ones who get the promotions.