|||
In Daniel Pink’s slightly flimsy book When: the Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, there’s a section called When to Quit a Job: A Guide.
Point 3 — Does your boss allow you to do your best work? — goes as follows:
In his excellent book Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best . . . and Learn from the Worst, Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Robert Sutton explains the qualities that make someone worth working for. If your boss has your back, takes responsibility instead of blaming others, encourages your efforts but also gets out of your way, and displays a sense of humor rather than a raging temper, you’re probably in a good place. If your boss is the opposite, watch out—and maybe get out.
I like the way that Sutton is avoiding the ‘weeds’ of the politics of a place. Rather, he’s considering quite basic things that I suspect apply regardless of the kind of work one does.
By the way, there is no way in hell my boss is reading this blog post but if she were I would let her know that she does all of these things very well indeed. I’m probably in a good place.