Well i must admit that I had my fair share of bad bosses. What was my bad boss doing ? Well basically he lied, exaggerated, never gave me credit (or always thought of finding bad things in good outcomes) etc.
I was lucky that I was working in a matrix management system (in that, my day-to-day tasks were handled by this “bad boss”, but I also had a “good boss” that did not have a say in the overall situation – he handled mostly holidays etc).
Since some of you, reading this, are not lucky enough to have the good boss to help you out, here is what I have learned from this good boss (I will pass the b*llshit found on Google in that “you need to make sure he is bad…” – for me he was clearly a bad boss)
1. Always have a paper trail
This is basically always making sure that any conversation you have with a bad boss (that also lies) is to have everything on email! There are no ways of him to say “i did not say that”, “you did not understand what i was saying” etc.
After a meeting where you agreed on something or he has told you something, always send an email where you say “As we discussed, we agreed on the following: …“. Of course this situation will make him more cautious when he is telling you stuff, because he now knows you are “prepared” and it will appear on email.
2. Do an excellent job
Even if you know that he will try to find mistakes in what you did, his bosses (if you do a great job) will see what you do (or make them notice if they do not know) so that he cannot just throw lies around.