By Ana Cervantez

We spend most of our time each day at work. So, if your relationship with your manager isn’t good, you might look at those hours as punishment or sacrifice. While some choose to keep the angst within and toughen themselves out, there are better ways you can do to make your daily work life easier. 

By doing certain habits and implementing career skills, it is indeed possible to manage your bad boss. Here are a few tips to start:

Solve the problem instead of being the problem

Work issues do happen and when they do, you must try your best not to contribute or be part of it. Help solve the problem by not adding fuel to the fire. Don’t add problems that will heighten the crisis. If you cannot come up with a solution or strategy to help your boss deal with it, you might as well be neutral and don’t do anything that will force them to put their stress on you. 

Accept full responsibility and don’t blame your co-workers

Your career and reputation could be some of the most important assets to you, but there are times that we make mistakes or fail at something. When this happens, do not put the blame on others. Instead, think deeply about what you did wrong and what you can do to make up for it. In addition, it’s good to think of ways to prevent mishaps from happening again. Once you’ve learned how to practice accountability, you’d be able to establish a responsible reputation in the workplace.

Keep calm and deal with the chaos

Remember the famous “Keep calm” meme circulating on social media? Keep it in mind and do it even if all things seem to fall apart at work. You may already know this, but we can’t stress enough that you might say things you don’t really mean when you’re mad. That said, keep your cool, be level-headed, and deal with chaos the professional way.

Know your limits

All things should have a limit, especially at work. Since a lot of bosses require you to be 100% available most of the time, you must let them know where exactly work and your personal life start and stop. However, you don’t need to say it impolitely or apologetically — simply speak your mind calmly and diplomatically and for sure, your boss will understand what you’re trying to impose.

Build your boss up

Not all bosses are good at what they do at work. If your boss is one of them, make an effort to improve the outcome of your projects. This will not only make your manager look good to the higher-ups, you might also get the credit from those efforts.

Skip the excuses

Of course, we don’t want to take the blame, especially if something goes seriously wrong. However, the truth is, making excuses will only make you look bad as an employee. In addition, your superior and teammates might not really care about them. Be responsible enough to own your fault and find ways to make it better.

Stay positive in a negative situation

Troubles and pressure call for negative thoughts, but you should let these get the best of you. At work, it’s very helpful if you can speak, think, and act positively. Doing these will help you find a better workaround for every problem, and will also keep stress at bay when everybody else can’t think properly of a solution. Maintain this discipline and surely, your boss will notice your good approach and will make you a valuable member of your department for as long as you’re there.

Just like other relationships, your relationship with your boss is a significant one. After all, we all depend on our career to support our needs and family so it always pays to establish a good working relationship with your workmates, whether lower, higher or at the same level as you. 

It could be a bit challenging at first, but if you invest a great deal of time, energy, and determination in this relationship, you have the potential to come to a rewarding career and workplace every day. In addition, this might get you more chances to be promoted, considering that you can handle work and coworkers quite well.