How to Know if the Hiring Manager Is a Jerk
Having a great boss can create an environment in which people don’t only grow in their roles but expand. Having a bad boss can ruin everything and make you dread going to work. Bad bosses cause stress, anxiety, uncertainty, and the Sunday blues. Low engagement is a problem across virtually every organization, primarily due to bad management. The financial costs are astounding—it’s estimated that bad managers cost US businesses more than $960B per year. Bad managers run the gamut from those who don’t delegate work to those who are outright toxic human beings; bad managers exist in 100% of companies. You would think that with significant money on the line, companies, on the whole, would do a better job of rooting out the bad seeds. But they don’t, and you can only change what you control, which means that you need to be alert for signs that a potential manager will be “bad.”
As I said, bad management can be a failure to delegate work, which means that the boss becomes wholly responsible for everything and is overworked. It can be someone who is simply unpleasant to be around, with whom people do not enjoy working. Or it could be a full-on toxic, abusive manager who undermines employees, steals credit, and is the de facto workplace bully. We know why most organizations have bad managers. It is because of the common practice of promoting top contributors to supervisory roles, regardless of whether they have the competencies to perform that role. This is a poor practice, but it shows no sign of going away soon.
During an interview, some things to pay attention to include body language, eye contact or lack thereof, tone of voice, and general demeanor. Three of these can be challenging to assess if you’re meeting someone over videoconference, but you can probably get a sense. Good managers have good people skills. That means being welcoming, friendly, and generally interested in what a candidate says. If you’ve ever been in an interview where the hiring manager spends the whole time talking without coming up for air, that’s a red flag. Good managers are good communicators. People who drone on and on about themselves and their problems are not. Good managers focus both on delivering results and on developing people.
It’s good to ask questions about management style and philosophy, although you may not get an honest answer. Ask to speak with other direct reports and ask them for their perspective. Often what is unsaid is more powerful than what is said. Leverage LinkedIn to your advantage. See if you know anyone who might know the hiring manager, and reach out for a reference check. You can also search for a company’s previous employees and filter by role. The company will do a reference check on you; you should absolutely do one on your prospective manager. I have clients who have done this to find former direct reports of a hiring manager.
Bad line managers are the result of poor executive leadership. Leadership starts at the top, and they are ultimately responsible for enabling bad managers. Be sure to vet the hiring manager's style as much as you can before taking a new role. Once you’re in, it can be difficult to get out. Companies that don’t step up their game allow these bad managers to linger while creating a brand where new talent does not want to join their ranks.