HRGuru

“There’s a lot of dysfunctional people in the world. You remember them in high school? Well, they grew up,” says Deborah Singer Dobson, co-author of Managing Up.

And now, these less-than-healthy individuals could be your boss. Even if they aren’t dysfunctional, many supervisors lack the skills it takes to be an effective manager.

“Management is probably the only professional job in this country that we will give someone without giving them any training,” says Diane Tracy, author of Take This Job & Love It!

Working for a difficult boss can make life miserable and can sap your inner drive and creativity. But letting your boss know how you feel is a high-stakes game.

Holding in pent-up frustration won’t make the problem go away. “Those issues go underground and they eat at the relationship,” Tracy says. Then again, voicing your discontent may heighten hostilities and could even jeopardize your position in the organization.

Don’t get into a game of cat and mouse. No matter how angry or annoyed you are, remember your boss has the upper hand. He or she controls how much money you make and what you do during the majority of your waking hours.

Not getting enough respect from the boss is a frequent source of worker discontent. Tracy says this feeling usually stems from needs the boss isn’t fulfilling, like feedback, clear guidelines and expectations, recognition or trust.

The problem may take a form that doesn’t sound like a major issue to an outsider, but can be incredibly discouraging to a worker interpreting the subtext of a manager’s behavior.

Someone who feels micromanaged, for example, may be angry his boss doesn’t think he’s up to the job. A worker who doesn’t get enough feedback, on the other hand, might resent her boss for not taking her work seriously.

These seemingly minor thorns can fester into a complete breakdown in the work relationship.

But some situations aren’t worth trying to fix. If a boss is verbally abusive, for instance, you may be better off leaving the company than waiting for a change.