{"id":3632,"date":"2018-03-28T18:30:56","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T18:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/?p=3632"},"modified":"2018-03-28T18:31:09","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T18:31:09","slug":"study-the-worst-traits-in-a-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/study-the-worst-traits-in-a-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: The Worst Traits in a Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s the limit; but when it\u2019s not, productivity and morale are at risk.<\/p>\n

Comparably<\/b><\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u2018Micromanager\u2019 was the No. 1 response overall<\/b><\/p>\n

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 \u201coverly critical\u201d (22%). The least popular responses were \u201cdisorganized\u201d (16%), \u201cknow-it-all\u201d (14%) and \u201cimpatient\u201d (9%). This group includes people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, experience levels and educational backgrounds.<\/p>\n

\"A\"<\/p>\n

To women, being overly critical is almost as bad as being a micromanager<\/b><\/p>\n

While male and female respondents both chose \u201cmicromanager\u201d as their top response (44% vs. 32%, respectively), the percentage of women who chose \u201coverly critical\u201d was also high at 28%. Men, on the other hand, ranked \u201coverly critical\u201d (17%) almost as equally as they ranked \u201cdisorganized\u201d (16%) and \u201cknow-it-all\u201d (15%).<\/p>\n

\"2\"<\/p>\n

Gen Z was the only age group to rank \u2018disorganized\u2019 as the top response<\/b><\/p>\n

When looking at the results by age, those 18 to 25 were the only group to choose \u201cdisorganized\u201d (26% of the vote) over \u201cmicromanager\u201d (22%).\u00a0 All age groups ranked \u201cimpatient\u201d as the bad trait that is least important to them.<\/p>\n

Ages 18 to 25<\/p>\n

\"3\"<\/p>\n

Entry-level employees are particularly sensitive to disorganized bosses<\/b><\/p>\n

Workers at every experience level chose \u201cmicromanager\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Entry-level<\/p>\n

\"cc\"<\/p>\n

Tech designers were split between \u2018micromanager\u2019 and \u2018overly critical\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>Thirty percent of respondents who work in design at a tech company chose \u201cmicromanager\u201d while another 30% chose \u201coverly critical.\u201d This was the only job role where \u2018micromanager\u2019 wasn\u2019t decidedly the top response.<\/p>\n

\"c\"<\/p>\n

Methodology<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n