Associations Now this month has a little piece up front about the “bad boss” (although they announce that next month they will do one on “evil employee”). It’s drawn from Buckingham and Coffman’s First Break All the Rules book. This is my favorite quote:

But if your relationship with your boss is fractured, then no amount of in-chair massaging or company-sponsored dog walking will persuade you to stay and perform. It is better to work for a great manager in an old-fashioned company than for a terrible manager in a company offering an enlightened, employee-focused culture.

Interestingly, in most organizations if you said your relationship with your boss was strained, you’d be advised to stop taking things so personally and get back to work. If you don’t invest time in relationships at work, you will lose people, who are extremely expensive to replace.