4 Types of Insecure Leaders Pushing Their Employees Out of Workplace

Tensions with superiors are the most common and serious cause of stress at work. A self-confident leader will never put a spoke in the wheels of their employees. They will encourage their subordinates and create a healthy atmosphere in the team. But not everyone is so lucky with their boss.

Often, careerists make their way to the highest positions without knowing how to competently manage people yet see a potential competitor in everyone. What to do if you’ve got a boss like this? How to recognize the signs your boss wants you gone and learn how to deal with such a situation? First of all, it is important to understand the psychological type of your leader.

How to understand your leader’s type

Understanding doesn’t mean you justify your boss’s behavior or try to look for logic in their actions or feel sympathy for them. By knowing what type of personality the boss belongs to, it is easier to find a way out of this situation.

Unsure of themselves and their professional abilities

Such bosses are afraid of enterprising employees. Those who generate fresh actionable ideas and offer non-standard solutions are a threat to such a leader. If you notice that the boss rejects all your innovations and tries to keep you from participating in high-profile projects, then they might be afraid that you can take their position.

Usually, such bosses try to fire an objectionable employee. If it doesn’t work out, then assign such employees tedious tasks so that there is no time left to generate new ideas.

Dictators and tyrants

It is very difficult to confront such leaders. Their main task is to control every process, step, and minute of the subordinate’s working time. If you notice that the boss has tightened the screws even more than before, starts asking your colleagues about how much time you spend outside the office when you go out for lunch, and scrutinizes you over petty things, then they are making plans to replace you with a more accommodating subordinate.

If the boss suddenly began to check you out a few minutes after the start of the working day or a minute before its end or called the internal phone several times a day, this should alert you.

Narcissists

Narcissist bosses will not tolerate anything addressed to them unless it’s praise. If you begin to notice that the boss attributes all your ideas to themselves and blames you for their failures, this is a sure-fire sign your boss belongs to this type. A narcissist will not tolerate a person who does not sing praises to them and has a different opinion. Such people rarely do something on the sly.

Insincere leaders

A very dangerous type of leader, because to recognize the signs that they want to fire you is almost impossible.

On the surface, such people appear good-hearted and have a positive attitude toward their subordinates. They may even give praise, but the exact opposite happens under the surface. 

Among employees, such a boss may express dissatisfaction with your work and scold you for the smallest mistakes. Finding out what such a boss is up to is easy if they are your real friends among colleagues. If the boss suddenly becomes excessively supportive of you, and you learn from employees that they are dissatisfied with you, you need to be careful. Perhaps, according to the plan of the boss, your dismissal is not far off.

Depending on which of the listed types your boss belongs to, you need to build a strategy for fighting for your position in the workplace, if this is something you want to do. However, you need to be aware that certain types of leaders are very hard to change, and fighting against them can lead to emotional and professional burnout.