Hi DL,
Does your boss have a boss? Do you have an Human Resources Department? Would you have the option to transfer to another boss? Have you documented anything that has been going on? Particularly how she is not following policy? Are there others that work with you that are seeing the same things?
I had a Narcissistic Boss for a 2 year period... .she liked to tell me what I was feeling, she liked to gaslight, our 15 minute huddles became and hour of the "Boss Show" and our staff meetings became an even more exaggerated version of the huddles. Our staff meeting had been 1 hour long, they got steadily longer the longer she was there. Her final staff meeting was 4 hours long
I received a promotion and raise and was told how she had my back... .translation you owe me for this... .hmmmm maybe I earned it?
Beyond the weird personality stuff (I just did my best to avoid her). She ignored compliance issues, because that wasn't glamorous or part of her big plans... .big plans that were all about making her look good. I brought these issues to my manager who took them to the boss who ignored them, I brought it to the boss directly was ignored too, I brought it up in staff meetings and was told that everyone was working on more important things. (I documented all of this)
Her behaviors were also causing issues with others in our organization as well. What began to happen was our department was working around our boss so that the needs of others in the organization were being met... .there was the unspoken recognition by us all that the boss was a problem. Others outside of our department were the first to complain, then our boss drove someone who was well liked in the organization to quit and she went to our boss' boss. Our boss' boss then said she would be open to hearing from anyone in our department that wanted to talk. I was nervous, because usually it's office political suicide to go over your boss' head, but I did it anyway. I like you liked my job (I had worked there 15 years) but I was already applying elsewhere because of what was going on so I didn't have anything to lose and what was going on around the compliance issues were putting my employer at risk legally & financially. I was not alone in speaking up.
I spoke of the personality stuff, but also had documentation that my boss was not doing what she was supposed to do with compliance which was truly a risk to the business.
She was fired.
So from my experience if you decide to come forward about your boss... .
I think whatever information you bring forward should primarily focus on how your bosses behavior impacts the business. (bring documentation if you have it... .I had reports that showed we were out of compliance and emails telling my manager and my boss about it) Followed by how it impacts you and your co-workers and customers. If there are other employees also being affected that would also come forward great. You might request that an Human Resources investigation take place.
I think you have to be prepared in case things don't go your way. You might want to have a back up plan for your own employment.
Or you can try and ride it out, learn some of the tools here and wait for them to shoot themselves in the foot.
Or if you don't have documentation you can start now and collect evidence of the problems and present it later and learn tools here to help you while you do this.
Panda39
