It’s hard enough to go to work every day, but when you have a difficult or even abusive boss to deal with on top of that it can really turn your life and emotions upside down. Narcissism is a term that is thrown around a lot. Narcissistic or not, dealing with a disrespectful and abusive person is never easy.
The following are qualities you may find in a narcissistic boss or at the very least a boss who has narcissistic tendencies.
Your boss brings up their workers faults constantly:
That’s not very professional, is it? If you have a boss that leaps at the opportunity to bring up the faults of workers and perhaps even embarrass those workers in front of other people, then you like are dealing with a narcissist. Narcissists love to put people down and embarrass them because it puts sets them in a place or authority and power. They know where they want to be and they have little regard for who they hurt along the way.
Your boss will place blame on the first person they can find:
When anything goes amuck in any way shape or form in their place of employment, a narcissistic boss will always point fingers. They don’t care if it’s your fault or not, as long as it’s not their fault when something goes wrong. The concept of teamwork an personal responsibility does not exist. Being right, perfect, and validated is more important to them than creating a comradery work environment.
Your boss will never listen to any other reasoning, their way is the only way:
You may have smart ways of looking at working systems, you may have a new perspective, your way could truly be the best way to go about something, but a narcissistic boss does not care. They care more about bending your will to conform to theirs than they do about getting things done efficiently.
Your boss loves to spread negativity. They are not happy unless you are miserable:
This is probably one of the worst qualities in bosses with narcissistic tendencies. They take great pleasure is bringing down morale, when in fact a boss should be doing the exact opposite for their employees. It’s kind of a crazy thought, isn’t it? Tear down an employee to get them to work harder. From personal experience, it creates the opposite effect.
Your boss always needs someone to argue with or attack:
A narcissist must always have a victim. Someone to bring down and argue with. You will notice when working with a narcissistic boss that they are always trying to bring someone down. They rarely take the blame for something within the organization failing.
Communication is non-existent and somehow that’s your fault:
Yep, a narcissistic boss will communicate horribly and blame you for it. They expect you to be a mind reader and when you are not, they will blame you and say you are not paying attention or you are not observant, or “come on, I thought you were smarter than that.”
Your boss is extremely sensitive to criticism of any kind:
They can dish it out, but they can’t take it. Any kind of criticism at all will make them blow their lid. After that, watch out because they are coming for you. Remember, they are perfect(in their mind) and won’t let anyone point out a fault that they may have.
You boss name drops, exploits, blames and gossips:
Workplace gossip is extremely unprofessional, yet a narcissistic boss will name drop until their face turns blue. In fact, it is quite common for them to turn an entire workplace against one person who is that day their victim through the means of name dropping and gossip.
Working with a narcissistic boss or a boss with narcissistic tendencies is not easy and it can make for a miserable time at work. Check out our other blogs on how to cope with a narcissistic boss:
3 Ways to Cope With a Narcissistic Boss Before You Go Crazy
The Narcissistic Boss Handbook
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