Dealing with Horrible Bosses

The recently released comedy film, Horrible Bosses, proposes an extreme solution for dealing with  a boss who bullies you, makes sexual advances or is just incompetent.  The three friends coping with these horrible bosses are unable to quit their jobs so theyplot to kill them.  Inevitably their plans go wrong but, being a movie, it all truns out well in the end.

If you are having problems with your manager at work, you’re not alone.  In a survey by MIND earlier in the year,  respondents identified work as their highest source of stress and 48% were scared to take time off sick.  20% believed that if they mentioned their stress levels to their boss they would be first in line for redundancy. So what can you do? 

If you are being bullied, you should check your company’y policies on bullying in the workplace.  Is there a Trade Union or Staff Association that you can consult?  Is there a welfare officer that you can talk to in confidence.  If you are strating to get symptoms of stress (eg palpitations, higher blood pressure, poor sleep, loss of appetite etc) you may need to talk to your doctor or another health professional.

There are a couple of simple NLP techniques that you could try to reduce the impact of the experience.  If, when you think about your boss, you see an image of him/her that is big and close to you, try making that image smaller, turn it black and white and push the image as far away from you as possible so that it becomes less and less important.  To completely get rid of the feeling, you can add a red nose, Mickey Mouse ears and a spinning bow the to the image 

For some people, when they think about their boss, they hear their voice loud and close to them making derogatory remarks.  If you experience that, move that voice further away by reaching out your arm and putting the voice at the tip of your thumb.  For extra effect change the sound of the voice to Mickey Mouse - it will definitely feel less serious!