The real world, sadly, is full of lousy bosses. Introduce the topic of bad bosses, and the floodgates open with stories from working professionals who seem very eager to share their experiences. While it's sometimes easy to chuckle about them, more often than not these situations are far from any laughing matter to the employees who endure lousy bosses and, by extension, lousy relationships with their maniacal managers.

The proliferation of boss-bashing suggests plenty of common behaviors of bad bosses: incompetence, bullying, unrealistic expectations, distrust, harassment and discrimination, providing inadequate compensation, privacy invasion and not respecting legal rights.

If employee turnover and absenteeism within the company are too high, and productivity and morale too low, the person in charge may be the one at fault. Too often, managers and supervisors attribute all their woes to their lackluster underlings or the mistreatment they receive from their own bosses. Many are unwilling or unable to even consider the possibility that they themselves might just be the problems that plague morale and performance.

On the other hand, bosses as a whole in the United States too often get a bad rap — one that they simply do not deserve.

A new global survey shows that employees in the U.S. have the most positive opinions and friendliest relationships with their managers, leading them to be the least likely to disobey their supervisors' direction compared with international workers.

U.S. employees are also most likely to perceive their managers as competent, talented and open to feedback, according to 5,500 workers surveyed in 10 countries by European management and HR consulting firm BPI, which owns a majority interest in Chicago-based SSP-BPI Group.

The international Employees Assess Their Manager survey, conducted in October 2007, sought insights about differences in workplaces and managerial styles by asking employees to rate their relationship with their supervisors.

The key findings, released last month, determined that, overall, about two-thirds of global employees generally had a good opinion of their managers.

Of all the U.S. employees surveyed, 86 percent reported a good opinion of their immediate supervisor as well as their company's other managers. When asked if their immediate supervisor was 1) competent, 2) friendly, 3) talented, 4) honest and 5) open to feedback, U.S. employees gave the highest ratings of any country (90 percent; 90 percent, tied with Switzerland; 87 percent; 87 percent; and 83 percent, respectively).

This demonstrates that professional skills and personal friendliness go hand-in-hand in U.S. manager-employee relationships.

In fact, 62 percent of U.S. employees described their relationship with their immediate supervisor as "friendly," while 33 percent described it as "purely professional." The United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland showed similar results.

In contrast, other European countries — most notably France — reported more distant relationships with their managers. France was found to be the country with the highest direct-report supervisor dissatisfaction and most "purely professional" relationships. Italy was reported to be closer to France with an even greater level of distrust.

"As U.S. companies are becoming more global, it's important for leaders to understand how employees around the world view their managers and what they expect from them," SSP-BPI Group CEO Juan Luis Goujon said in a statement. According to the survey, "the U.S. has a competitive advantage when it comes to employees feeling positive about their supervisors. This is particularly important because companies today require employees to be more engaged [...] to achieve business results."

While bad bosses often burden their employees with too much information — often implicit in micromanagement and unrealistic demands of projects or assignments — another factor of bad management is failing to provide sufficient information on which to act.

However, in the new survey's findings, U.S. employees were most positive overall about their immediate supervisor giving them the information and support they need to do their jobs. Specifically, they offered higher ratings than any other country when asked if their immediate supervisor informs them of company changes or strategies (81 percent), gives them honest feedback about their work (85 percent), helps them advance at work (76 percent) and supports them in asking for a salary increase (62 percent).

The positive U.S. manager-employee relationship may contribute to BPI's finding that only 32 percent of American employees said they either "regularly" or "from time to time" don't follow directions from their immediate supervisor. That is the lowest of all countries surveyed.

(Of course, this *relatively* small percentage could also mean that American workers are more willing than workers elsewhere in the world to obey their boss — no matter what — for fear of losing their job. Blindly following orders and engaging in illegal or unethical activities on the job can wreak havoc on your career and possibly hurt other people.)

U.S. employees prioritize their top expectations from supervisors as recognition (40 percent), better organization of the team's work (36 percent) and better support in difficult situations (36 percent). This aligns with the overall finding that most employees place the highest priority on being recognized by their managers.

"Most U.S. supervisors appear to be providing a good work environment and direction, but employees still want greater recognition and support," according to Goujon.

How do we match up our entitlement to our responsibilities? If things go wrong, it is not solely the boss' mistakes. Without doubt, there is plenty of lousy staff out there — who often have and maintain a false prejudice about the boss.

Resources

Employees Assess Their Manager
BPI/SSP-BPI Group, Feb. 25, 2008

Global Survey Shows U.S. Employees Give Highest Marks to Their Managers
BPI/SSP-BPI Group, Feb. 25, 2008

Don't Wear Blinders When Dealing with the Boss
by Eve Tahmincioglu
MSNBC, Feb. 25, 2008

The Office: The Bad and the Ugly
by Leigh Buchanan
Inc.com, January 2008