{"id":5500,"date":"2018-10-16T15:45:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T15:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/?p=5500"},"modified":"2019-03-02T00:46:10","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T00:46:10","slug":"data-snapshot-the-worst-trait-in-a-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/data-snapshot-the-worst-trait-in-a-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Snapshot: The Worst Trait in a Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

An important factor 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

In honor of National Boss\u2019s Day on Oct. 16, Comparably<\/b><\/a> asked users to reveal which quality they find to be the worst in a boss. The data comes from more than 5,000 employees from small, midsize, and large public and private U.S. technology companies. Full methodology below.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Thirty-eight 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 (21%). The least popular responses were \u201cdisorganized\u201d (16%), \u201cknow-it-all\u201d (14%) and \u201cimpatient\u201d (11%).<\/p>\n

\"dd\"<\/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 (42% vs. 34%, respectively), the percentage of women who chose \u201coverly critical\u201d was also relatively high at 26%. 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

\"cd\"<\/p>\n

No difference by ethnicity<\/b><\/p>\n

When looking at the results by ethnicity, there were no significant differences \u2013 every group ranked \u201cmicromanager\u201d as the worst quality, and \u201cimpatient\u201d as the least offensive quality.<\/p>\n

\"aaa\"<\/p>\n

Gen Z is the only age group to rank \u2018overly critical\u2019 bosses as the worst kind<\/b><\/p>\n

When looking at the results by age, those 18 to 25 were the only group to choose \u201coverly critical\u201d (25% of the vote) over \u201cmicromanager\u201d (22%). They also ranked bosses who are disorganized as equally bad as those who are micromanagers, and said that having a \u201cknow-it-all boss\u201d was slightly less bad than having an impatient boss.<\/p>\n

Every other age group ranked \u201cmicromanager\u201d as the worst quality in a boss and \u201cimpatient\u201d as the least.<\/p>\n

\"zzz\"<\/p>\n

Entry-level employees are particularly against \u2018overly critical\u2019 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 an overly critical boss than any other. (Twenty-five percent of entry-level respondents chose \u201coverly critical\u201d).<\/p>\n

Workers in the 1 to 3 year experience level were slightly more likely to be frustrated with an impatient boss (14%) than with a know-it-all boss (12%).<\/p>\n

\"aaaa\"<\/p>\n

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

Twenty-eight percent of respondents who work in design at tech companies chose \u201cmicromanager\u201d while another 27% chose \u201coverly critical.\u201d This was the only job role where \u2018micromanager\u2019 wasn\u2019t decidedly the top response. Designers also ranked \u201cknow-it-all\u201d bosses as slightly less offensive than impatient bosses (12% vs. 14%).<\/p>\n

People in business development ranked \u201cdisorganized\u201d bosses the least offensive type of boss (13%).<\/p>\n

\"lalal\"<\/p>\n

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