How To Stand Up to Your Terrible Manager—Without Getting Fired

How To! with Mike Pesca

Peach Fish Projects

Education, How To

4.3 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Shirley loves her job as a product manager for a startup, but she can't stand her manager. He's inefficient, old-fashioned, and entirely unsupportive of her work. "Just so you know, you don't deserve this," he told Shirley when she recently got promoted. Is there anything Shirley can do to make her work situation better? On this episode of How To, we bring on Patty McCord, former chief talent officer for Netflix and author of Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, to give Shirley some tips. Shirley ought to approach the situation the same way she would any product she works on: "Be the person that is the problem fixer, not the problem finder," says Patty. Complaining or staging a coup will go nowhere, but approaching your manager with tangible solutions for improving your relationship could make a difference.

If you liked this episode, check out: "How To Get That Promotion You Deserve."

Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, I'm Susie Weiss, and I've noticed there's just simply not enough podcasts in the world. So I'm launching my own. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Second Thought is a weekly show about pop culture. The stuff everyone's been binging, arguing about, obsessing over. Here's the thing about heated rivalry. I mean, even the most devoted swifties, I think we can agree, not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. Talk about genius.
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0:25.0	April 17th with a first guest you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30.5	When I worked with Reed Hastings at Netflix, I remember saying, Tim, you know, I need to have a
0:36.6	conversation with you right now and I need you to be my need to have a conversation with you right now,
0:38.2	and I need you to be my boss.
0:40.1	You're not paying attention right now.
0:41.8	So when you have a minute to actually talk to me about what's going on with me, let me know.
0:48.2	And I remember him changing his body language and looking me in the eye and go, okay, I'm here.
0:54.8	Welcome to how to. I'm science writer David Epstein.
0:59.1	Difficult managers are the worst. That's why you should all become freelance science
1:03.1	writers. You're your own manager. No, but really. We've gotten a lot of emails from people
1:08.3	struggling to navigate workplace drama. And her listener this week, she's at her wits end when it comes to her new boss.
1:15.1	Hi, I'm Shirley, and I work at a pretty progressive software company.
1:20.6	Shirley's a product manager at a Silicon Valley startup.
1:23.3	She was pretty nervous to talk with us at all,
1:25.3	and so we changed her name and details about her company because she was concerned that her colleagues might hear this.
1:30.2	I really love my job. I love the company that I work for. However, the relationship with my
1:37.7	manager is a little bit strained, and so we're not on the same page.
1:44.8	Shirley joined the startup in its very early days, and she loves the culture, the unlimited
1:49.4	vacation days, the focus on just getting stuff done rather than traditional metrics,
	...

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