A Guide to Announcing Your Departure With Grace
So you got a job offer — congratulations! Starting a new job often brings with it the opportunity to expand your skillset, climb the ladder and often, earn more money. But before you get too carried away fantasizing about your new job, remember: you still have to part ways with your current employer. In this guide, we’ll share tactical advice on what you need to do to give your two weeks notice and leave your job on a high note.

Why Give Two Weeks Notice?
Some companies financially penalize employees who fail to give two weeks’ notice (or more — check your company handbook) before quitting, but more often, it’s simply common courtesy. Letting your employer know that you plan on leaving your job ahead of time allows them to initiate a formal offboarding process, create a transition plan and possibly begin searching for your replacement, all at a steady pace.

Without advanced notice, they have to scramble to do everything at once, which can be a major headache for everyone involved. If you put your employer in this position, the odds are good that you’ll burn some bridges, which can come back to haunt you if you ever need a referral or end up working with some of the same folks down the road.

Choose the Right Time
Giving two weeks notice can help make your departure more amicable, but it has to come at the right time. If you can, try and hold off on leaving your company until you’ve finished any big projects or assignments. Otherwise, you might inadvertently overburden your teammates and colleagues. If you play a particularly critical role in your company, you may even want to consider giving your employer more than two weeks’ notice.
If you’re truly in a toxic environment or otherwise urgently need to leave your job, though, there’s no shame in just focusing on what’s best for you.

Talk to Your Boss
You’ll probably need to tell your HR department eventually, but in most cases, your manager is the first person you should turn to when you announce your resignation. It might be intimidating, but when it comes to conversations of this sensitive nature, it’s best to chat face-to-face. However, it doesn’t need to be a negative or scary experience. Taking the following steps can help set you up for success:

• Tell them why you’re leaving. To avoid excess negativity, focus on what the new job offers (a chance to build a small team from the ground up, a location closer to your family, etc.) versus what your current one lacks.

• Share a transition plan. Show your boss you still respect them by coming up with a few ideas about how your responsibilities can be transferred over before you leave.
• Express gratitude. Even if your experience wasn’t quite what you hoped for, thank your boss for the time and care they put into managing and mentoring you.

Two Weeks Notice Resignation Letter Sample
Oftentimes, companies will need a written statement that you plan on quitting your job for legal or administrative purposes. If that’s the case — or if you just want to notify your employer that you plan on leaving in a more formal way — you should consider writing a resignation letter. Got writer’s block? Try using this template:

Dear [BOSS’ NAME] This letter serves as formal notice of my resignation from my position as [JOB TITLE], effective [DATE].
The past [NUMBER] years working at [COMPANY] have been some of the most rewarding experiences to date. I’d like to particularly thank you for your time, support and encouragement of my professional growth. It’s been a pleasure working on such a talented team, and to be able to have done so under your leadership.

I’m committed to making this transition period as smooth as possible. I’ll continue to work on my [SPECIFIC JOB RESPONSIBILITIES] until my resignation. Following my departure, [COLLEAGUE/REPLACEMENT] will be the new point of contact.

I look forward to staying in touch, and please feel free to add my personal email to your address book: [PERSONAL EMAIL]

Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME] [YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION]

Don’t just assume sending a letter is enough, though — different companies have different processes. Ask your manager and HR team what they need from you in order to formally acknowledge your departure.

Share the News With Colleagues & Clients
After you get the green light from your manager and HR team, you can start letting your teammates, coworkers and clients know of your upcoming exit. This can be done with varying levels of formality depending on how closely you work with one another, and how things are generally done at your office.

For example, some people set up dedicated meetings with their team to break the news in person. Alternatively, your boss may choose to send an email — or have you send an email — to let your team/department know you’ll be moving on. And at other, more casual workplaces, they may expect you to simply let people know on a one-off basis in casual conversations. If you’re unsure about which method of notifying your colleagues is best, talk to your manager.

Regardless of what form your communication takes, there are a few best practices worth keeping in mind:

• Avoid badmouthing your current employer. Negativity is never a good look, so when explaining why you’re leaving, frame it in a positive way: “I found an opportunity I couldn’t pass up because of XYZ.”
• Share a transition plan, if applicable. For team members whom you work with closely, create and run through a transition document that delegates any unfinished tasks or projects of yours, and shares key information like important contacts.
• Reflect on the good times you’ve shared. This isn’t strictly necessary, but highlighting a few of your favorite moments from your tenure at your current company can be a nice way to show your colleagues that you’ve enjoyed working with them and are going to miss them.
• Invite them to stay in touch. Share your personal contact information and encourage them to reach out to you. You never know when the opportunity to work with one another again will come up!

Once you’ve let everyone know you’re leaving your job, you’ll still have more to do — exit interviews, rolling over your 401(k), etc. — but the good news is, the hard part is over. Once you’ve gotten over the hurdle of announcing your departure, you can breathe a little bit easier and start really looking forward to your new job.

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{Click here to read the original article on Glassdoor.}

Even in the best of times, it’s easy to feel disconnected from your manager, given how busy both your schedules are. Working remotely during COVID-19 can make you feel more out of touch with your manager. Although you’ve been able to keep in touch with your boss via Zoom calls and Slack chats, you still may feel less connected. If you’re wondering how to form a personal and deeper relationship with your boss who isn’t good at communicating, try our tips below.

Show appreciation.
Everyone loves to be appreciated, even a boss who may seem self-contained or distant. Try to understand how your manager might be struggling with working from home by thanking them for helping to make the transition easier for you and your team.

Update your boss consistently on your projects.
One of the most accessible and most useful ways to connect is to reach out and share an update on a project that is moving forward and your daily weekly workload. It’s your job as your manager’s direct report to make sure they’re aware of your professional progress and the projects that you’ve spearheaded. Show your manager that you can be proactive by reaching out first with an in-depth update on your workflow; they will be inspired by your commitment and will look forward to receiving your updates weekly. If you don’t have a 1:1 sync meeting on the calendar with your manager, now is the time to place reoccurring syncs on the calendar.

Provide some of your ideas to the table.
Reconnect with your supervisor by offering up an idea for a new project that will add to your organization. Regardless of your level at the company, you should seize the opportunity to bring forth ideas to enhance your role and value. Although your management and organization might be struggling with the challenges of the pandemic, you can keep the pulse on solutions within your control. Most managers will be pleased to see that you are solutions orientated and can provide out of the box thinking for future projects and initiatives.

Share your wins.
Lastly, another way to connect with your manager is to share some substantial wins in the workplace. Say you’ve been working remotely on a few client projects, and you’re feeling down because your boss hasn’t shown much interest in your efforts. Today you heard from a client who said, “We’re all in. Let’s proceed.” Your boss likely would love some good news if they have only been hearing about the need for cost control amid diminishing revenues and shifts in the organization.

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Feeling stuck?

We’ve all heard sad stories of people quitting jobs to get away from gruesome bosses, unreasonable work hours, or places with weird smells, but in truth, the reasons people quit are often less dramatic – and more positive – than those horror stories might lead us to believe. A recent LinkedIn survey of over 10,000 people around the world found the reasons people quit are pretty universal.

LinkedIn surveyed people around the world and found out that they quit jobs mostly because they didn’t have room to grow (45%). There wasn’t room for advancement if they stuck around, even if they were great at what they did.

In the modern lifecycle of the typical worker, that’s not hard to believe. Gone are the days when you were celebrated for spending 40 years with “the company” and were sent off with a gold watch and hearty pat on the back. In fact, a certain amount of job hopping can actually be beneficial to your career, boosting your pay and giving you broader horizons than if you’d stayed put.

Other Reasons People Quit

When you look around and can’t trust the captain of the ship, that’s a problem, right? The second most common reason people quit their job was poor leadership (41%). Just when you think people don’t notice the bosses quietly lurking on the edge of the masthead, something like this comes out to show you how important it is to have good people in charge. Besides, if the ship runs aground, you’ll be in trouble too. Better to have a good job at a rising star of a company than, yeah we’ll say it, a sinking ship.

The only satisfied drones are those in a beehive, not your cubicle row. Coming in about even at third and fourth in the recent survey, were quitters wanting better work culture and wanting more challenging work (36% for both). We respond better to jobs that are as agile as our brains. Repetition only leads to carpel tunnel, so why stay somewhere that’s going to lead to harm?

Coming in at fifth and sixth, the survey showed that 34 and 32% of quitters (respectively) wanted better pay and better recognition at work. It’s probably surprising that they came in so low on the scale when you hear tons of anecdotal evidence that a high-paying gig is the reason why most people leave a job. (Get a free PayScale salary report to see how much you should be getting paid at your current job.)

So next time you hear a story about someone quitting their job because they wanted to go join the circus, nod and smile at them, knowing that they likely just wanted a job that would encourage their trapeze lessons on Tuesday nights and give them something new to juggle at work.

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Under normal circumstances, giving two weeks notice is standard practice. However, I often hear from employees who are working under very difficult circumstances or just started a job and know it isn’t going to work out and aren’t sure what to do.

Should they stick it out for another couple of weeks or are there times when you can give less than two weeks notice or no notice at all?

In most cases, it is advisable, even in difficult employment situations, to give the mandatory two weeks notice (or more in some cases) which has been outlined in an employer’s policy guidelines.

You never know when a previous employer might be contacted by a prospective one, so it is wise to leave on the best possible terms. It can impact your future employment options if a prospective employer is told that you quit without notice.

Reasons Not to Give Two Weeks Notice

However, there may be some circumstances like the following where leaving sooner might be permissible:

• An employee has been physically abusive.
• A supervisor has sexually harassed you.
• The work environment is unsafe or it is unsafe to carry out your assigned responsibilities.
• Your mental health is being seriously endangered by job stress.
• You have not been paid the agreed upon wage or wages have been withheld for an unreasonable length of time.
• You have been asked to do something which is clearly unethical or illegal.
• Personal or family circumstances are such that you need to leave the job.
• A crisis has happened in your life, and there is no way you can continue on the job.

Before You Quit Your Job

In most cases, it will make sense to contact the Human Resources department or management officials not directly involved with your grievance to discuss your situation and explore possible remedies or accommodations prior to giving notice. In some cases it will also make sense to consult a counselor or therapist to help you cope with job stress.

Do keep in mind that the company can’t force you to stay. However, if you quit a job without good cause you may not be eligible for unemployment benefits. Here’s information on collecting unemployment benefits when you quit a job.

Reasons to Quit

If you’re ready to move on, and aren’t sure what reason to give. Here are 10 good reasons to quit your job.

How to Quit Your Job

Even if you’re not giving much, or any, advance notice, there are ways to resign gracefully. A conversation is always best, but if it’s not possible to discuss your resignation with your supervisor in person, you can use a phone call or email message to resign. Here’s how to quit your job with class including when to quit, what to say and how to resign via email or a phone call, if necessary.

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Manage Up

A bad boss is more than a problem to gripe about to friends and a bartender. He or she can hurt your career, either by failing to provide feedback and direction or by giving you negative performance reviews.

To be fair, most bad bosses aren’t actually terrible people — they’re good people in the wrong role. Usually this situation can be managed, manipulated, and massaged to your liking (or even your advantage).

Whether you’re dealing with a micromanager or a meanie, here’s how to manage up — and stay sane.

The Micromanager

The Situation: Your boss wants to read every email you send. No, she doesn’t want you to cc her — she wants to stand over your shoulder and dictate. She typed a schedule for washing coffee cups. She has strong ideas about the how toner should be replaced. She is driving you insane.

The Strategy: Out-micromanage her so you’re in control. Ask for time on her schedule, every day if needed. During this early-morning meeting, lay out every single thing you plan to do that day. Ask her how she wants it done. Ask her if and when she wants to see the final product. Ask her if you have the priority order right. Ask her what font to use. Ask her if you should check in again, just like this, after lunch. Write down everything she says, and do it.

In a nutshell, give her what she wants — and then a big, heaping spoonful more. There are a few possible outcomes (all of them improvements):

1. She loves it! Great. You’re still dealing with a micromanager, but now at least she’s happy.
2. You’ll out-micromanage her, and she’ll actually tell you to “use your judgment.” Success!
3. Maybe, slowly, over several weeks or months, she’ll actually grow to trust you. She’ll still be a micromanager to everyone — except you.

The Inept Boss

The Situation: Your boss has no idea what your job is, or how to be a manager. So when he jumps in and tells you you’re doing everything wrong … well, no, you aren’t. He’s alienating staff and customers. He can’t use bcc. He can’t lead a meeting. He says things like “Let’s email it on the Twitter.” He’s embarrassing.

The Strategy: First, become the one person who makes your boss feel like a good boss. He would like that, wouldn’t he? He completely ignores a looming deadline. You say: “I like how you let the team handle that. It’s great to work someplace where we can take responsibility.”

Next: Step into the void and lead. Use every vacant stare and stupid remark as a lever for your inner opportunist. Not just grunt work and cleaning up mistakes: Get your name on projects. Volunteer to facilitate meetings. Relentlessly position yourself where people two levels up will see you calmly moving the department forward. All the while, be kind to your incompetent boss, and graciously give him credit for things everyone knows he didn’t do. While you’re at it, dress a little nicer than him.

Finally, your boss can’t be terrible at everything — after all, he did get hired, right? Maybe his one talent is interviewing or schmoozing. Whatever it is, it’s so vast that it outweighs his total incompetence. Humble yourself and learn from the master. You might want that skill in the future.

The Disconnected Boss

The Situation: Your boss has no idea what any of her direct reports do for a living. You ask her a specific question about what you should be working on, and she replies with vague platitudes or off-the-wall suggestions. Does she even know what the company does? It’s not clear.

The Strategy: Give her a face-saving way to catch up. Just as some CEOs “walk the floor” throughout the company’s factories and offices, ask your boss when would be a good time for a demo of the product you’re working on, a tour through the graphic design department, or a chat with a group of customers.

Try to get to know her. If she’s a hermit who’s decided to retreat into her office and ignore the day-to-day, connect on an intellectual level. Isn’t it interesting that you read management journals in your spare time? You found this great article you thought she would like! Or maybe she really didn’t want this job — she applied elsewhere in the company, and was instead assigned to your “pointless” department. Find out what she does thinks is important, and emphasize that.

If she continues to hole up in her office, you need to manage your own situation. Write a plan for yourself: Here are your priorities for the quarter, here are your deadlines, here are the stakeholders, and here are the goals. Get her to sign it. If she moves on to a job she’s actually interested in, your new boss will see written evidence that someone knows what they’re doing.

The Unrealistic Boss

The Situation: The CEO has a brilliant new idea, and your boss told her that your team can implement it — by next week. You’ll do all your other projects as well, of course. Just “fit it in,” maybe take lunch at your desk, and it’ll be fiiiine.

The Strategy: Don’t let an unrealistic boss put the burden of the impossible on you. Use numbers, calendars, and lists to force realistic decisions and prioritization — without having to complain about your workload.

Try something like, “I love your optimism!” And then pull out a calendar. For example, print a weekly calendar with enough room to write out a task for every hour. Then ask your boss to help you schedule the right tasks for the actual hours that exist in the day.

A related technique: When your boss throws a huge project in your lap with a deadline of yesterday, schedule time with him to map out all the steps. Make a GANTT chart. Or a really detailed list. Make it clear that what your boss thinks is one item is really 25. Ask questions like, “How can we pare these down to meet the deadline?”

Get mathy. Calculate actual labor hours. “Our team of six has 240 labor hours per week. About 90 of those are devoted to routine tasks. Do you want to stop any of those? No? Okay, of the 350 hours left, we have Vivien and Latrice dedicated entirely to the LogicBoard account, so that leaves us with…”

The Mean Boss

The Situation: Remember the last time you made a mistake at work? Yes, everyone does — because your horrible boss told the whole office about it, loudly. You’re getting ulcers and losing your hair from the stress. And you certainly aren’t getting a raise. You’re basically starring in Mean Girls for grown-ups.

The Strategy: Address it head-on. Don’t passively try to ingratiate yourself with weak compliments and mousy compliance. Definitely don’t bake some stupid cookies.

Woman up and ask, “I realize that I’m getting a bad reaction from you to my ideas in the weekly meeting. I could use some information about the direction you want to take the project in so I can make sure my contributions are on point.”

Make it partly about you (“I’m getting a lot of negative feedback from you lately”) but don’t be a total pushover. Especially if you’ve been a total pushover the whole time already. It obviously doesn’t work, and your passivity may actually be repelling your boss even more.

Some bosses want to work with peers, equals, people they respect, people who can take the heat. It may actually be the case that your attempts to make it better by bowing down have actually been making it worse. That being said, if your manager is taking hazing cues from locker rooms or frat houses, take it to HR.

The Buddy Boss

The Situation: Oh no, your boss is too nice! The bartender isn’t going to buy you a round for that sob story. But there are downsides. Your coworkers start rolling in late and blowing through deadlines, and you don’t get the feedback you need. It could cost you a raise if you spend all year being praised only to find out at your performance review that he’s not all that impressed with your work. He’s just, you know, nice.

The Strategy: Schedule regular check-ins. Try to set the tone. Don’t get sidetracked with friendly chitchat — say explicitly, “I need some feedback from you to make sure I’m on track to meet our projections.” Get those expectations in writing. Thank your boss for being so collegial, but say you want the tough feedback, too.

You can also tactfully point out ways in which the boss’s niceness is actually not that nice. For instance: One slacker on the team is goofing off and turning in shoddy work that others have to fix. When the boss is “nice” to that slacker, it perpetuates the problem and damages morale. Your boss might be motivated to crack down if it’s framed as being “nice” to everyone else.

Oh, and if your boss sends a super-friendly Facebook request, pretend you didn’t see it and check your privacy settings immediately. Then send a cheerful LinkedIn request with a note like, “Happy to connect! I spend most of my time on LinkedIn these days. Here’s an article I thought you’d enjoy.” Redirect, redirect, redirect.

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If your boss is unapproachable or a micromanager, don’t just accept it. Try these tips for a better supervisor-employee relationship.

Management Issues

We wish we could mandate that all bosses go to boss school. Or that the ones who did get management training absorbed everything they were taught.

Fact is, there are a lot of bad bosses running amok out there, and most don’t even know that they’re the bane of your existence.

But the good news is—if you’re stuck under the thumb of a less-than-stellar superior—there are strategies for managing her particular strain of craziness.

For expert advice, we spoke to Nicole Williams, LinkedIn’s connection director and author of “Girl on Top: Your Guide to Turning Dating Rules into Career Success,” and Leigh Steere, cofounder of Managing People Better, LLC, a research endeavor that studies differences in management styles.

Here are nine signs your superior may not be, well, superior—and what do about it.

1. She’s Insulting

Feedback is a necessary food group in the office place. A good boss will explain why you didn’t meet expectations, as well as the changes she’d like to see next time. But then there’s the other breed: The manager who puts down your work… without supplying constructive criticism. Or worse. We’ve all been subjected to “yellers” in our time.

How to manage her: If she’s not forthcoming about why she’s not happy with you, you can take steps to prevent being berated. When you get an assignment, ask: “So what I’m hearing you want me to do is…?” and be sure you’re clear on the instructions before you start. If she still lights into you and you don’t know what you did to deserve it, take a deep breath and ask. You might want to wait until her tirade is over and her mood improves, but a well-timed, “I’d like to understand where I fell short, so it doesn’t happen again. Can you explain what you’d like me to do differently next time?” can work wonders.

2. She Fails to Make You Feel Appreciated

Behind most good bosses is a good support team. Good superiors recognize that they’d be beyond stuck if their underlings abandoned them. Bad ones have a bad habit of starving their subordinates of praise.

How to manage her: It’s never fun to fish for compliments, but asking for feedback is a necessary evil in this case. Try: “I’d really like to help make your job easier. Can you tell me how I’m doing that well — and how I could do it better?” And, never underestimate the power of complimenting her. We’re not saying like will always beget like, but propping her up may help her feel more confident — probably a key reason she’s not comfortable praising you in the first place.

3. She Takes Credit for Other People’s Accomplishments

Sadly, petty thieves do rise through the ranks. A good boss knows her success dovetails with making employees feel appreciated. A bad boss fails to give you recognition for what you’ve accomplished — or worse, claims your accomplishments as her own.

How to manage her: This is a sticky issue. Confronting her petty theft directly likely won’t get you the results you want. If you think she’d be receptive, you could try framing the conversation in a non-accusatory way: “I’m really aiming to get promoted this year, so I would love if you could help me make others aware of my accomplishments—like that account I just landed.” Also, be sure to put your feats in writing. If there’s a way to claim credit for a work coup you orchestrated, let the rest of the team know before she has a chance to steal your thunder.

4. She’s Disorganized

It’s a catch-22 for employees who have to nag managers about overdue projects: They don’t want to point out a superior’s oversight, but they also don’t want to get blamed if anything falls through the cracks. A good manager is one who is organized enough to help you prioritize your tasks. A bad one, of course, is the type who asks you if you could please print that email for her… for the third time.

How to manage her: Part of the trick is figuring out what makes her tick. Is she an email person — or is her inbox a bottomless abyss? Would she respond better to repeated Post-Its? While it might be difficult to psychoanalyze your boss, success in the workplace often depends on it. Also, don’t underestimate all the demands on her time. One way to make sure your needs are met is to request a weekly one-on-one meeting, when you can rattle off the items on your punch list, get answers — and look proactive.

5. She Makes Everything a Fire Drill

A good boss helps tamp down drama, not create it. And the effect of a manager who loves assigning stuff due “yesterday” is a staff that can no longer tell what’s truly urgent — and will act as such.

How to manage her: If you can get one step ahead of her tizzies, you’ll go far. That means understanding her triggers. Maybe she always freaks at the end of the month when earnings are posted, or before a weekly meeting with her demanding manager. Ask her to help you rank the priorities of what she needs from you each week … and get it in email. Then you’ll at least have an explanation of why you did what you did the next time she flies into a four-alarm tantrum.

6. She’s a Micromanager

A good manager helps you build your skills by challenging you to do more than you thought you could. But not everyone is cut from that cloth: If you can’t send a single email without her proofreading it, you may be under the thumb of an insecure superior, or a control freak.

How to manage her: While you might be tempted to shut down out of sheer frustration, the key here is to communicate more than you think you need to until you earn her trust. For some reason, much like a wild animal, she’s feeling skittish. So, for the time being, don’t make any surprise moves, and tell her exactly what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Share updates. Give progress reports. And, make her feel like a trusted advisor by asking for her input and advice. Then, eventually, you can say: “I hope I’ve proven to you that I’m capable of handling this. I’d love to take on more responsibility. Is there anything else you need to see from me for that to happen?

7. She’s Unapproachable

The most effective workplaces thrive on openness, but that doesn’t mean some managers don’t choose tyranny instead. The problem is, when communication shuts down, more problems are likely to arise—and underlings will be scared to ask for help in solving them.

How to manage her: This is a tough one, because unless you’ve done something to deserve her derision, the problem may be hers and hers alone. But you shouldn’t have to deal with a boss who is mean, distant or even abusive. Try to understand where the behavior is coming from, and always be polite, clear, honest and direct with her. If the situation doesn’t improve, this might be a case in which you consult another manager, or HR, on how best to proceed.

8. She’s Too Polite

On the other end of the spectrum, it’s also possible for a boss to be too nice. The problem with that is that your bonus and review depend on what she thinks, so any superior who holds back her true thoughts isn’t doing you any favors.

How to manage her: With a boss like this, you may have to actually beg for bad feedback. If she’s always saying you do a great job, tell her that you think you would do even better if she could pinpoint a few areas where you could improve. Explain that you love having her as a manager, but you also want your career to advance, and she could help you by showing you the areas in which you can grow.

9. She Plays Favorites

In a perfect world, all managers would love all of their direct reports equally. Sadly, it’s human nature to click with some people more than others, and it can become a problem when a superior favors one employee with more responsibility (or raises) based on preference, not performance.

How to manage her: No, it’s not fair, but this is one time when it might be best to ignore the problem. And that’s because complaining will be unlikely to change your superior’s mind. Resist the temptation to whine to co-workers, gossip about your boss’s office pet or keep an endless tally of what she got that you didn’t. Instead, keep a close eye on your own progress. Schedule time with your boss to map out your career goals, figure out what behavior she admires in that other person (if it’s job-related), and be sure to exceed your goals. In the end, that’s your best shot at coming out ahead.

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I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but chances are, you’ll probably have a bad boss at some point in your career. And, while it’s easy to simply chalk the experience up to a rite of passage and move on, there are actually some pretty valuable lessons you can learn from a lousy manager.

After more than 14 years on the job, I’ve had my fair share of lackluster leaders. But, with a little creative interpretation of the situation, I’ve managed to glean a few lessons from those terrible bosses. Read on for a few easy ways to get some good out of a bad manager.

Lesson #1: Don’t Take Things Personally

This is probably one of the most important lessons of the workplace in general, but I didn’t really get it until I had to deal with a terrible boss. I was working on a small team, and my boss was rarely in the office. That meant that whenever he did show up, he had a few weeks’ worth of griping to pile on as soon as he walked through the door. And, since he rarely had a clue of what was going on in the office, the only thing he could really pick apart was us.

At first, I took every criticism to heart. Naturally, I wanted to impress my boss, so I really took every comment personally. Fortunately, after my boss was reaming me out for making a mistake I didn’t actually make, I realized that the title of manager did not equal infallibility. And, more importantly, that whatever he was saying had more to do with his performance than mine.

From that point on, I always reminded myself that any sort of criticism in the office — from a boss or anyone else — should never be taken personally, if I could help it. Sure, sometimes criticism can be constructive—but other times it can be pretty destructive. And if you can learn to look at things objectively, rather than personally, it’s a lot easier to keep your emotions in tact—and hopefully, learn from the experience.

Lesson #2: It’s OK to Question Authority

This probably sounds more like a bumper sticker you’d see in a college town, but it’s also an important lesson I’ve learned from crappy bosses.

For example, a while back I had a manager who really had no business managing anyone. She was in over her head and lacked the requisite experience to manage a team. But, she was our manager, and I initially trusted she must have some idea what she was doing.

Then, one day, we had a meeting with a client I worked with, and she gave him completely wrong information. I assumed she must’ve known something I didn’t, and let it go. Unfortunately, I was wrong, and I spent the next several weeks trying to unwind the tangle she’d put me in.

I realized then that, just because someone is in a position of authority, doesn’t mean he or she knows everything. From that point forward, I stopped assuming the title “manager” was equivalent to “all knowing.” Whenever I thought my boss might benefit from my knowledge or expertise, I didn’t hesitate to offer up my thoughts on how we could approach a situation differently. After all, just because you’re a few rungs below your boss on the corporate ladder, that doesn’t mean you don’t have valuable insight to contribute.

Lesson #3: Ask For What You Want

I learned this one on my first job out of college. I had a boss who was notoriously absent and rumored to not actually know the names of everyone who worked for him (all 12 of us). Since this was my first job out of college, I obviously had a lot to learn, and had assumed that along with knowing everything—because he’s the boss, right?—my boss also knew what I wanted and needed in my career.

Review time rolled around, and I excited awaited his feedback—and crossed my fingers for a promotion. Unfortunately, while the feedback was stellar, the promotion was not part of the discussion. After our meeting, I headed back to my desk, feeling pretty upset. A few weeks later, I had the opportunity to chat with my boss at an after work function (read: I’d had a few beers of courage first) and I mustered up the courage to tell him I was hoping for a promotion. He was shocked, and immediately asked me, “Well, why didn’t you say something?”

While it would be nice if all our bosses naturally recognized our talents and rewarded us accordingly, sometimes bosses—especially the crappy ones—need it spelled out for them. If you think you’re doing a bang-up job and deserve a raise, a promotion, or any sort of recognition, you need to be prepared to ask for it. Know your worth, be ready to make sure your boss knows it, too—and you’ll find your career a lot more fulfilling.

Bad bosses are everywhere, unfortunately. But, if you can see your terrible boss from a different perspective, you might just learn something valuable from him or her. Keep these three lessons in mind when coping with a crappy boss, and you’re guaranteed to make some good out of the situation.

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