Renee...*

Love brownnosers, tattletales, and relatives who report to them. They choose favorite employees and cover up and make excuses for the poor work of their incompetent favorites.

• They ignore selected people and discriminate against many employees. They tend to give their favorites better schedules and assignments, more attention, and pal around with them outside of work.

• Bad bosses change their minds frequently leaving employees off-balance, change expectations and deadlines frequently. Employees have trouble knowing where they stand and whether they're meeting expectations. Employees fail to feel a sense of accomplishment when expectations don't exist.
• Fail to communicate, and may not even have clear expectations, timelines or goals. 
• Use disciplinary measures inappropriately when simple, positive communication would correct the problem. Bad bosses ignore employees until there is a problem, then pounce.
• They seek out the guilty when they want to correct a problem.
• Speak loudly, rudely, one-sidedly to staff. Bad bosses don't provide the air time for staff to respond to accusations and comments. They intimidate people and bully staff. They allow other employees to bully employees.
• Take credit for the successes and positive accomplishments of employees. They are equally as quick to blame employees when something goes wrong. They throw employees under the bus loudly and in public.
• Fail to provide rewards or recognition for positive employee performance.

These six were the top bad boss characteristics cited by readers. The following came up less frequently but were contributed by more than one reader.

The bad boss:

• *Is not qualified for the boss job by either skills or experience. The bad boss doesn't know how to lead and interact effectively with people.
• *Will not let go of problems or mistakes. The bad boss returns to discuss negative events continually and searches for faults in employees.
• *Will not accept constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement. The bad boss can't deal with disagreement from employees who have their own opinions about work-related issues.
• *Lacks integrity, breaks promises, and is dishonest. Bad bosses make up stories when they don't know the answer to an employee's question and they are too lazy to find out.
• *Does not have the courage to deal with a difficult situation despite knowing that it is the right thing to do.
• *Causes dissension among staff members by his or her actions and comments.
•  [Susan M. Heathfield-Updated April 25, 2017]