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Stanley Bing

How to deal with your crazy boss

Fortune's Stanley Bing shares his take on the five types of crazy bosses, and some strategies for dealing with one, from "Crazy Bosses" (Harper Collins).

The disaster hunter
Establish an escape route.
Rationale: In these late days, you'll want to be quite clear with your pals and potential new bosses about your desire to survive. At this point, his loser status will be common knowledge, and it should be possible for you to approach friendly senior types with offerings of admiration and fealty. The guys above are probably as fed up with your boss as you are. This campaign should begin, if possible, a year before the disaster hunter reaches the critical phase. You can see it coming. So can your boss's boss. Start by making small talk. The men's room is a good venue for this. After that, make sure to disingenuously ask his advice on business matters when you can. Run ideas, memos and interesting news stories by him on occasion. Get comfortable with the guy. Hey - I don't have to tell you how to make friends with people, do I?

Effectiveness: Chewy but tasty.


Tell us about your crazy boss
Is your boss heading for a self-made disaster? Scared of his own shadow? Just plain weird? Share your insane workplace story.
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.