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How To Handle a Bad Boss Remotely

While keeping your career and well-being intact

Max Klein
6 min readFeb 2, 2021
Credit: Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

“Don’t push send…don’t push send” I kept telling myself after I wrote an email that my anger wanted me to send but my instinct for self-preservation didn’t.

Like Abraham Lincoln’s “hot letters” it was better to write it down to get it off my chest then shove it in an 1800's desk drawer or the ‘deleted items’ folder never to be seen again.

Bad bosses are bad bosses whether they’re in the next cubicle or 100 miles away. 3 out of 4 employees say their boss is the worst part of their job. This doesn’t change when you go from brick-and-mortar to remote work.

I’ve been in various leadership positions for 25 years and have seen effective ways people have dealt with bad bosses that have kept both their career and well-being intact.

Here they are.

#1. Talk to Them First

The lost art of the one-on-one or heart-to-heart talk must be practiced first.

Tons of people, including bosses, simply aren’t acutely emotionally intelligent. Some people won’t notice that your upset even if tears are gushing down your face let alone be able to read your troubled mind over Zoom.

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Max Klein
Max Klein

Written by Max Klein

I write about the beauty of life

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