One of the most important factors that determines how long people stay at their jobs is the relationship they have with their boss. When that relationship is healthy, the sky’s the limit; but when it’s not, productivity and morale are at risk.
Comparably recently asked users to reveal which quality they find to be the worst in a boss. The data comes from more than 2,000 employees from small, midsize, and large public and private U.S. companies, predominantly in the tech sector.
‘Micromanager’ was the No. 1 response overall
Thirty-nine percent of respondents said being a micromanager was the worst offense, making it the most popular response. The next most-popular response was “overly critical” (22%). The least popular responses were “disorganized” (16%), “know-it-all” (14%) and “impatient” (9%). This group includes people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, experience levels and educational backgrounds.
To women, being overly critical is almost as bad as being a micromanager
While male and female respondents both chose “micromanager” as their top response (44% vs. 32%, respectively), the percentage of women who chose “overly critical” was also high at 28%. Men, on the other hand, ranked “overly critical” (17%) almost as equally as they ranked “disorganized” (16%) and “know-it-all” (15%).
Gen Z was the only age group to rank ‘disorganized’ as the top response
When looking at the results by age, those 18 to 25 were the only group to choose “disorganized” (26% of the vote) over “micromanager” (22%). All age groups ranked “impatient” as the bad trait that is least important to them.
Ages 18 to 25
Entry-level employees are particularly sensitive to disorganized bosses
Workers at every experience level chose “micromanager” more than any other response, except for entry-level workers, who were more put off by a disorganized boss than any other. Twenty-five percent of entry-level respondents chose disorganized.
Entry-level
Tech designers were split between ‘micromanager’ and ‘overly critical’
Thirty percent of respondents who work in design at a tech company chose “micromanager” while another 30% chose “overly critical.” This was the only job role where ‘micromanager’ wasn’t decidedly the top response.
Methodology
- The results were compiled from the anonymous responses of 2,248 Comparably users
- People of all ages, educational backgrounds, ethnicities and experience levels were included.
- Employees hail from small, mid-size, and large tech companies (VC-funded, privately-held, and public) to household brands like Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Uber, etc.
- Data was collected between February 2018 and March 2018.
