Five Signs Your Boss Can't Be Trusted

Liz Ryan ,

When we are toddlers we learn that touching the stove top will burn your hand, and that the water that comes out of the faucet with an H on it will burn you, too. Once we get burned, we are more careful forever after!
The working world is no different. We learn to trust our instincts, but that learning can take time. Many of us have to get stabbed in the back a time or two before the lesson sinks in.
Ben learned a tough lesson at work this month. He had worked for his manager for one year without problems, and then their group got handed a huge project which the CEO was especially interested in. “You’re going to take on the project under my direction,” Ben’s boss told him. Ben was excited at first.
The project was a go-to-market plan for a new product Ben’s company was launching. Ben had never worked on a go-to-market plan before. He knew he would need some direction from his boss, but he didn’t get any.
Soon the boss’s definition of “You’ll work under my direction” became clear. Ben got no help on his project, no guidance and no support in doing his regular work. He tried to keep his boss informed about his activities, but his manager neither gave Ben any face-to-face time nor responded to Ben’s email messages.
Soon Ben was working until ten p.m. every night to get his work done. “My health was suffering,” he said.
After two weeks, Ben stopped his manager in the hallway and said “We have to talk — I’m moving fast on this project but I’m completely on my own.” His boss said “There’s going to be a meeting of the Directors next Thursday. You can present your work on the CEO’s project there, and I’ll give you my input along with the other Directors.”
Ben was horrified, but he prepared for the meeting as best he could. Thursday came. Ben’s boss sat on the far end of the table from Ben and let Ben present to the executives on his own.

Ben handled tough questions without stumbling, but toward the end of the meeting one of the Directors asked Ben “Who made the decisions on pricing, and who made the decision to sell this product directly to our customers rather than through our resellers?”

“Those were my decisions,”  lied Ben’s boss through his teeth, since he had never asked about or been told about either of the decisions Ben had felt forced to make in a vacuum.
Since the two decisions were well-received by the executive team, Ben’s boss took credit for them. “If the Directors had hated the direction I was going, he would have thrown me under the bus in one second,” Ben told us.
Ben launched his stealth job search the next day.
“I got lucky,” he said. “My boss didn’t have my back, but my plan was well-received. I can’t work for him anymore, though. I can’t work for someone I don’t trust.”
Here are five signs your manager is not someone you can rely on to have your back when the chips are down.

• You’ve seen your manager throw someone  under the bus before.
• You’ve heard your boss talk behind your co-worker’s back (causing you to wonder “Does s/he do the same thing when I’m not around, and stick a knife in my back?”).
• You’ve heard your boss talking about lying to his or her manager in order to cover up a mistake or keep his or her manager in the dark.
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• You’ve observed your boss telling people what they want to hear, whether it’s his or her real opinion or not.
• You have never seen your boss stand up for something or someone — only bow to authority and peer pressure.

You deserve a boss you can trust and one who trusts you back. You won’t grow your flame working under a snake. If your boss is untrustworthy, you can do the same thing Ben is doing now — you can start looking for a new job while you’re still working at the old one.
It takes a harsh experience or two to learn to listen to your gut-brain and put your confidence in the people who deserve it. Just like the hot stove that taught you a lesson when you were tiny, your skeevy boss is teaching you a powerful lesson now.
Years in the future, you’ll  thank him or  her for that. Right now, your assignment is to move up and away from your not-to-be-trusted manager and get back on your path!
Liz Ryan is the CEO and founder of Human Workplace. Follow her on Twitter and read the rest of her Forbes.com columns here.

Five Signs Your Boss Can't Be Trusted

Reviewed by Bizpodia