Reading is home to some bad bosses

WE ALL know someone who is impacted by a bad boss. And according to a new survey that is not a surprise, as Reading is home to some of the worst in the country.

From micromanagers to bullies, creeps and clock watchers who demand a little bit of overtime without the extra pay, there are many examples of poor management.

More than two-thirds of people know a boss who broke regulations in the workplace, and three in five workers feel that if they raised an issue, it would not be addressed.

And one in five workers see their boss as a friend – meaning four in five have different views of their workplace leader.

The worst bosses set unrealistic expectations, treated staff members inconsistently and differently, were poor communicators, and failed to offer support when needed. They also failed to listen to feedback.

TikTokker Sara (@newforestsara) is an HR and operations manager with more than 20 years of management experience in different industries and has 80,000 TikTok followers.

She said: “These results don’t surprise me at all. Bosses set the culture of a business based on their actions and attitude. Your company might have the most wholesome values or mission statement, but if the boss is a tyrant, that’s what others will reflect and act on.

“The largest issue is around lack of trust with managers. This is caused by a number of things; the most common is not setting clear expectations and standards from day one or changing the targets without warning.”

And the research, conducted by BestNewBingoSites, also looked at the best and worst places to work in the country.

Edinburgh, Northampton and Manchester came out tops for bosses, while Walsall, Southampton and Brighton were the three worst places.

Reading came 10th in the worst bosses list, behind Nottingham and Wolverhampton.

Sara said: “There’s a saying people quit because of bad bosses and that’s absolutely true, but it’s also a case of death by a thousand cuts. It’s actually quite rare for a person to quit over one thing, even if it’s a big incident.

“Looking for a new job is very time-consuming and stressful, a worker who is 100% satisfied at work won’t waste their time.”

BestNewBingoSites has produced a job interview red flag bingo card to help you try to head off bad bosses at the first step: the interview stage.

The bingo card can be found here: https:// www.bestnewbingosites.co.uk/bingo-cards/jobinterview-red-flags/