The Anthropological Reason Why You Hate Your Boss
With a little help from sociology and all the rest.
“I hate my boss.”
If I had to guess at the most-said phrase at happy hours around the world — but especially in the United States — I’d auger these are the top three:
“Another one? Sure, why not?”
“I hate my boss.”
“Have you been to that new hipster cheese shop that’s also a distillery?”
I’m probably wrong on №3, but I’m not wrong on №1 and №2. I’ve been to maybe 19,000 happy hours in my life, and “I hate my boss” comes up a lot. This isn’t a surprising fact. The employee-manager relationship is somewhat doomed from the start in many cases, and it doesn’t help when stats like these exist:
68 percent of managers aren’t engaged in their employees’ career development
Only about 34 percent of managers can name more than one strength of their direct reports
82 percent of managers end up being the wrong hire
60 percent of managers say they “don’t have the time” to respect their employees
All these are problems. You can’t sugar-coat it. So if you’ve ever uttered “I hate my boss,” I’m with you. I myself have hated many a boss, and been blessed (#blessed) with a few good ones along the way too. Remember: management isn’t intuitive to most people.
But have you ever stopped and thought about why you say “I hate my boss?” Is it just because your boss is a total f’n wanker? No. It’s actually very rooted in anthropology and sociology and psychology and the like.
I hate my boss: Let’s establish Paul Graham’s reputation first
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to What Is Even Happening? to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.