Your workplace should be an avenue for growth. However, it could be an unhealthy environment if you have colleagues who are not supportive, especially your manager. For instance, if your boss is threatened by you, it is possible that they can make the office an uncomfortable place to work in.
If you want to confirm that your manager thinks of you as a competitor, check out the following signs:
No Appreciation
1. Does Not Acknowledge Your Efforts
No matter how excellent your contributions to the company are, you never hear your supervisor appreciates your efforts, especially in front of the big bosses. For that person, it is always “Good job, team!” Even if they know you have played a major part in the project, that is never acknowledged.
2. Never Compliments You
Your boss never gives you compliments. You can hear them praising your colleagues, but they do not have good words for you. Even in private conversations, they never give you positive comments.
3. False Gratitude
Whenever your manager needs to thank you for formality, they do not sound sincere at all. Plus, the acknowledgment is short, focusing more on the team’s success in general. They avoid highlighting your contributions.
4. Always Dismisses Your Ideas
Another sign that your boss is threatened by you is how they reject all your suggestions. Even if your colleagues who hear them are convinced that your ideas are brilliant, they never pass your supervisor’s standards.
5. Does Not Sound Genuine When Praise is Needed
You rarely receive compliments from your manager, and it is only when the upper bosses and the public expect them to. Like in no. 3, their praises could be more convincing. You can tell there is no warmth in their voice, and they are not proud of you at all.
6. Takes Credit for Your Contributions
You can also tell you are a threat to your boss if they steal the credit meant for you. Instead of acknowledging your contributions, they focus on how their managerial skill helped them bring success to the project.
Cold Interaction
7. Always Talks with You in a Monotonous Tone
On a personal level, you can observe that your manager is cold. Even during conversations, they always use that monotonous and authoritative voice on you. However, you know they are capable of talking casually to your colleagues. They laugh with them and try to be sympathetic to those who are not okay.
8. Never Invites You to Hangouts Outside Work
Does your boss invite your colleagues to group dates, but you are never included? If this is the case, it is clear that they do not like having you around. This could also be their way of isolating you. They want all your colleagues to be on their side.
9. Ignores You Unless Senior Authorities are Around
Most of the time, this manager ignores you, even when crossing paths in the hallway. They do not seem to see you, even avoiding eye contact by looking in another direction or checking the phone. However, whenever there are big bosses around, this person is unusually friendly and courteous to you.
10. Smirks Instead of Smiles
Whenever you attempt to smile at this person, they either pretend not to see it or respond with a smirk. Of course, anyone can tell the difference between the two. So, if you are sure that your supervisor cannot fake a smile towards you, it is obvious that they consider you a threat.
11. Never Initiates Greetings
While it is customary for lower-level employees to greet their seniors and employers, some bosses are humble enough to greet their subordinates first. If your manager can do this to your colleagues but never to you, the insecurity on their part is obvious.
Hindrance
12. Restricts Your Access to the Higher Management
Another hint that your boss is threatened by you is how they prevent you from interacting with the higher authorities in the company. They never send you as a delegate or representative during meetings or other important activities. And whenever you try to communicate with them, since your supervisor does not seem to listen to your concerns, you get heavily reprimanded for bypassing authorities.
13. Opposes Your Promotion
Have you applied for promotion several times but none of those were considered? It is possible that your manager is preventing it. Being your supervisor, they can help you achieve that through their recommendation. If you are an excellent employee and you deserve that promotion, the management has no reason to keep you at a low level. So, if until now you do not get that favor, maybe someone is sabotaging your chance of promotion.
14. Never Supports Your Projects
If your boss considers you a threat to their position, they will do everything to keep you under them. One way to do this is by withholding support for your projects. For instance, they give you limited time and budget, so it will end up mediocre or unsuccessful.
15. Assigns You Irrelevant Tasks
Knowing you are brilliantly competitive, your insecure boss will designate you to unimportant tasks or projects. Most of the time, they assign you to background work, such as food and venue preparation or sending invitations to participants for company events. This way, you will have no opportunity to impress the higher authorities.
16. Makes Sure You Do Not Stand Out
In connection to no. 15, your manager exerts much effort on keeping you out of the limelight. If before you were heavily applauded for your eloquence in presenting business reports or hosting events, now you are not given front exposures anymore. And lately, you are no longer chosen as a team leader for any project
17. Gives You Impossible Deadlines
Wanting your failure, your boss has been giving you projects with deadlines that are almost impossible to beat. They probably hope you will quit from too much pressure or you will get fired for mediocre to disastrous outputs.
18. Hides Information from You
Does it seem like your manager is hiding important memos from you recently? For instance, a new dress code has been implemented, and they inform everyone but you about it. When confronted by the management for not conforming to the new rule, you are surprised that the news has not reached you. However, your boss reasons out that they have spread the memorandum to the team, and it is your responsibility to be updated.
19. Criticizes You In Front of Others
If you are always shamed in front of your colleagues, you can say your boss is threatened by you. Unless it is their nature to criticize everyone openly, everyone can tell that the manager has something against you.
20. Always Finds Faults in Your Performance
Another sign that your manager is not happy having you on the team is their obsession with finding your flaws. Instead of focusing on the good points of your outputs or performance, they are busy looking for mistakes.
21. Blames You for Failures
And when the team fails, you are the first person to be blamed by your boss. They always find a way to connect the failure to your role. Even your teammates can sense this unusual favoritism.
Hitting Below the Belt
23. Belittles Your Educational Background
Some concerned colleagues have probably told you that they heard the supervisor undermining your educational attainment. They are not impressed by your grades, awards, or recognitions way back in your students’ days.
24. Downplays Your Achievements
At the same time, they belittle all your accomplishments. For this boss, those were all ordinary and easy to achieve, so they were not impressive.
25. Mocks Your Fashion Style
How low can an insecure supervisor or leader go? This one is an example of it. If this manager ridicules even your physical appearance, they are indeed threatened by you. A professional leader will never go this far.
Decide for Your Future
If you have confirmed that your boss is threatened by you, there are two options available. One, you can stay and work harder to survive all their schemes to ruin you. Two, you can quit and look for a greener pasture. Hopefully, you choose the one which can give you more opportunities to grow and have a meaningful career.
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