Four Signs You Have a Bad Manager
3 mins reading time
Most of us have encountered a bad manager at some point. When people recall “the worst manager ever,” the descriptions are depressingly consistent: a bully, quick to blame, self-serving, manipulative, credit-grabbing, biased, indecisive, or utterly lacking in empathy. These are people who shut down debate, avoid accountability, and fail to connect on even the best of days.
Management is not about popularity, and difficult moments are part of the role. Yet poor managers make those moments worse by letting short-term thinking, fear, or ego drive their behaviour. Everyone makes mistakes, especially under pressure, but when the same patterns repeat, the damage is lasting. Here are four classic warning signs.
- Saying One Thing, Doing Another
Few things corrode trust more quickly than inconsistency. A manager who makes promises and fails to deliver. Even worse is someone who changes course without explanation. Doing so undermines their own credibility. Employees remember such betrayals and rarely forgive them.
Doing what you say you will do is the foundation of trust. Without trust, there is no genuine relationship, and without relationships, there is no effective leadership. Duplicity, once detected, leaves a stain that is hard to erase.
- Playing Favourites
Most managers have a “go-to” person. That is not inherently wrong if the favourite is a high performer who earns respect. But favouritism turns toxic when the chosen one is clearly incompetent, underdeveloped, or shielded from accountability.
When staff see someone “swinging the lead” without consequence, whispers ripple through the organisation, and morale drops. The blame lies not with the favourite but with the manager who confuses friendship with professional judgement. Effective managers reward competence, not loyalty.
- Control Freaks Who Cannot Delegate
An inability to delegate is one of the most common weaknesses in management. Good leaders build capable teams, then allow them space to deliver. Micromanagers, by contrast, smother initiative and create bottlenecks.
When managers constantly say they are “too busy,” it is usually a symptom of poor delegation rather than genuine workload. The most effective leaders know how to step back, resist meddling, and trust their teams.
- Leading with Fear
Fear is the hallmark of weak leadership. Fear of failure, of losing credibility, of criticism, of change. Bad managers let fear shape their decisions and interactions and often lack the self-awareness to recognise the effect. They dismiss feedback that conflicts with their self-image and cling to control.
The consequences are severe. Teams led by fear become defensive instead of curious. People focus on looking right rather than learning. They protect their self-esteem instead of taking risks or showing vulnerability. In such environments, innovation dies, trust erodes, and performance stagnates.
What to Do if You’re Stuck with a Bad Manager
If you recognise these behaviours in your own workplace, pause. Seek perspective from trusted colleagues, reflect on your own part in the relationship, and experiment with new ways of responding. Sometimes a shift in approach helps.
But if you have tried everything and nothing changes, be honest with yourself. Life is too short to spend working under poor leadership. Remember: the number one reason people leave jobs is not the work itself, but bad managers.