by Tom Snee

Toxic workplaces and bad bosses are more than just a productivity issue, says Stephen Courtright. 

He sees them as a public health issue. 

“People who work for bad bosses or on dysfunctional teams exhibit a lot of mental and physical health issues, such as PTSD or alcoholism,” said Courtright, professor of management and entrepreneurship in the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business. “I think that if we can bring more humanity to business and corporate management, we can solve a lot of these problems.”

One of Courtright’s research areas is to find out the root cause of toxic workplaces and dysfunctional teams and develop strategies to fix them. And the front-of-the-line problem is the bad boss, from the ranter and raver who lies to his employees and calls them incompetent, to the benign passive-aggressive who ghosts her employees and quietly retreats from leadership obligations. 

“You go into the office and you feel harassed or constantly put on your guard when you’re around them,” he said, causing workers unnecessary stress that leads to a variety of health problems that could otherwise be easily avoided. 

An expert in toxic bosses and dysfunctional workplaces, Courtright offered his thoughts on how to deal with both.

Q: So, what can you do when you have a bad boss? 

One of the most common questions I get when talking about bad bosses is how employees should deal with them. It's a legitimate and sincere question. But I don't always think it's the right question. It puts too much onus on the employees. It's kind of the same thing as telling someone in an abusive or manipulative romantic relationship all of the things they can do to fix the other person's behavior rather than telling them to just get out of the relationship. It's not fair to the employees to put the responsibility on them to manage or set boundaries around the toxic boss because of power differences.

- my research suggests that the best ways to minimize toxic boss behaviors are for the employer to simultaneously hold them accountable while creating an environment where managers can be happy and thrive.

Q: How can an employee modify their boss’ personality so they’re not so toxic or dysfunctional?

One thing you shouldn't try to do is think you can change the boss's personality. You can’t. Research is clear that parents have a difficult time changing their kids' personalities, so it's totally unreasonable for us to expect that we can change a boss's personality. It doesn't work! It's outside of our control.

Q: What can someone do, then, to deal with a bad boss? 

One of the things that happens when we have a bad boss is that we feel a loss of personal control, which leads to a bunch of negative outcomes, like lower satisfaction, lower performance, worse health, even "revenge" behaviors. To restore that sense of control, setting boundaries with a bad boss is incredibly important and all about restoring for ourselves a sense of control over the situation and avoiding those things that make us further lose control. 

Q: What strategies can we use to set those boundaries and restore a sense of control?

Managing your personal resources carefully, ranging from your energy and equipment to your relationships. When we conserve and try to maximize these other resources, we regain a sense of control over those things we can control, which allows us to get our job done while still having a life. That could mean avoiding interaction with the manager unless necessary, seeking advice from trusted colleagues, and cognitively disengaging from the job after work is done and do things you enjoy, such as spending time with family or friends, religious rituals, meditation, exercise, or other similar leisure activities.

That said, an effective way to get those resources is to try engaging in "ingratiating" behaviors toward the boss when you do have to interact with them – telling the boss about their positive qualities, complimenting them, doing favors for them. In other words, suck up. Although, on one hand, this feels like surrendering control to a boss, it's actually a pathway to obtaining and conserving the kinds of resources you need. And in the end, research shows it can help reduce some of the stress experienced by working for a bad boss, although it doesn’t eliminate it entirely.

Media contact: Tom Snee, 319-384-0010 (o); 319-541-8434 (c); tom-snee@uiowa.edu