How to Take Advantage of a Bad Boss - Jocko Willink

"Make a game out of it" is basically code for, "Lie to their face for years." Some people are better than others at being deceptive like this and, unfortunately, the best liars make it to the top.

He's saying suck up to your boss, give them the credit, and hope to god you're the one lucky person who sucks up enough to get passed them. My recommendation is throw all of this advice in the trash, work enough to pay your bills, and find a hobby you love. Because there are only so many slots and the people who do the most sucking up usually end up keeling over from a heart attack in their 40s. It's not worth it.

What you are saying is, let your boss "coat tail" on your success a little.

Im like this at the moment- i am a hard worker and would constantly get in early and do more shifts, would volunteer for things etc... asking for opportunities to grow and how i could do better in my job etc to maybe step up my career in the future. however after doing this for the last 7 years working solidly (maybe making a few mistakes along the way lol ) it just all got thrown back in my face so now im over it and now just focusing on getting my job done and then going home lol 😅.

Its not worth my time or energy anymore to work more than my collegues just to have thrown back in my face and not to be appreciated .

Thanks

Jocko is sharing valuable info here. I've been in big manufacturing companies for over 20 years and relationships with the right people is critical. Networking is by far one of the best things you can do to grow your career. No matter what level you get to there will be a person above you that you are smarter than and you could do their job better. If that makes you bitter, you will be bitter forever

Good advice, be a good little dog, get your biscuits

Much better to be your own boss.

Work efficiently but, keep in mind, don't let a bad manager know just how competent you truly are.

This is USDA Prime A5 Wagyu advice. Jocko, if only I had heard and been able to do this over the years past, would've saved me a ton! That pride and ego, it'll get ya!

My last job I had to go all year stalked and harrassed with a lack of tools and materials because the way I think

All I hear is "It's okay for this person to be junk. Because of their position of power, and I'd better just suck it up or else". This is LITTERALLY the mindset of most of your government, that you all say is abborrent...yet..here is advice to do that very thing.

Im thinking im gonna go in my 1 of 2 scheduled days, and just throw away as much shit as possible, pizza dough mainly, cut open all the flour bags, pop all the chip bags, just enough to cost him about what I'm missing in income. and steal his detachable thermostat.

Having your relationship in check with Jesus will set up your relationship with human authority. Sometimes it means sacrificing career opportunities but when it comes to eternity you got The Victory at The End even if it leads you to be a total loser in the eyes of the world.

I try to do my absolute best to always stay professional though sometimes it is a struggle.

So this seal is basically teaching you how to be disloyal to yourself.
Bad managers are usually signs of bad company, which is a sign that you shouldn't want to be promoted above him on the first place

So basically, lie.

Ok what if they don't fucken pay u dude

Im mostly against his commentary, however i cant deny he shared some (*SOME*) wise words. And that about getting above your boss in the chain of command...thats not a given, it is not guaranteed, your boss/es can be easily playing with you, and labeled you with an expiration date from the start. You can be the embodiment of thunder & lightning, if your boss/es dont care, they just wont care and theres nothing u can do about it because its in their nature, if you ever climb the ladder its gonna be only to keep using you, the question is, are you getting anything worth your time out of it? if so, congratulations, if not, idk why are you doing this.

Theres people in this world who only take, take and take, and the more you give them the more theyre gonna take from you, you will never fulfill their demands, its better to learn to detect those people and design a strategy from that point on, rather than assuming youre playing poker with someone who thinks and feels like you. If youre someone who shares with others, an enabler, be careful because the same way you have to detect these greedy bastards, they are preying on people like you, the moment they realise what you are, theyre gonna bleed you dry, and once youre gone they wont even remember your face. If you have no choice i understand, but theres no excuse not to be ready when the time comes to take a chance on yourself, dont chain yourself to others' success, and if you do, you better be paid handsomely for it.

And remember, when you quit your job you're firing your boss, they will never understand it that way, but thats what it is, you as a free man/woman made a choice and said "F U" to your boss, remember that you can fire your boss any time you want, that is your freedom, make use of it whenever you want and can afford it. Life is too short, and we only live once. Dont be afraid, the more bosses you fire the easier it becomes.

P.S.: Yes, keep your ego in check, but dont completely ignore it either, it is your brain talking to you, but your emotions misread it and a lot of times you end up being a fool.

I’ve actually never heard worse advice on how to deal with someone who’s exploiting you 😂

Guy went and contradicted his own logic three times in the first two minutes and didn’t even realize it jesus

Never outshine the master 48 laws

I love it when management staying the f’king office and let’s me work. I wouldn’t give a damn if they never show up honestly

Just be fake with your boss lol

This is completely bullshit!!! Throttle back is basically dam if I do dam if I don't. And some people no matter how hard you try you can't build a relationship and in reality you shouldn't have to. I got hired to do the job not be your buddy!

This is very bad advice for perfectionistic already very hard working nice people. I have seen it time and time again, really good people with great work ethic that never complain, always willing to help out get completely passed over for any kind of promotion. In my experience, the people that ask for a promotion, that complain, that can't handle being at the bottom of the food chain rise up and get what they want. Your company wants the worker bees to stay worker bees because that's what they are good at. If you want a promotion, you have to be social, know everyone and what they want and give it to them (play the game), but doing menial tasks is a surefire way of becoming obsolete. Now, if youre new to the workforce, its only fair you pay your dues like everyone else and do the menial tasks and not complain within reason (because otherwise you're pissing everyone off, not just your boss), but after 10, 15, 25 years...nope. That's just flat out being taken advantage of.

My current manager agrees with me but our department manager is rude and disrespectful and literally called my thoughts and concerns and complaints are “bullshit” and said that she “Doesn’t care” and she threatened to ruin my ability to succeed and progress within the company and she threatened to to fire me all because I wrote a note about another shift manager. Not only that, but I also gave the department manager receipts to back up my thoughts and opinions that I wrote about the shift manager. My department manager wrote me up for subordination and then my thoughts and opinions and concerns are bullshit and that’s a quote because she literally said bullshit right in front of me and continued by saying that she does not fucking care which is also a quote by the way, I’m not embellishing this I’m not exaggerating this. Not just that, but she threatened to ruin any promotion that I apply for or higher level position that I apply for and she said if it happens again, she’s done whatever the fuck that means sounds like she’s threatening to fire me again that’s a quote. Of course my first reaction was well applying for another job and I’m actively going to pursue it as hard as possible to make damn sure that I get the job because I don’t wanna work with my boss anymore. She’s a fucking psychopath. I thought we were supposed to have an open door policy where I’m allowed to express my concerns and thoughts and opinions when I have a grievance. I guess that’s not true anymore. Quote from my boss. She’s tired of dealing with this shit. Also, every time I try to explain my position she cut me off I would not let me speak, and she was taking everything in my note way out of context. I work night shift at a hotel and she’s trying to tell me that the people on swingshift deal with a lot more people than I do and she wouldn’t listen to me when I asked her. How many is that per person because I’m the only desk agent working on graveyard shift at night. That pissed her off even more also, she couldn’t answer that one. She kinda just skipped over it. She doesn’t understand the difference between the hotel is sold. The hotel is oversold when it comes to the relationship between swingshift and graveyard shift. See the differences swingshift to tell people were low on rooms, but will do our best to accommodate you and then they put them in a room at the hotel. By the time I get to work on my scheduled shift, we are pretty much out of room now I’m telling people we don’t have any rooms available. I’m sorry the hotels over sold and now I’m the fucking asshole who gave away someone’s room because why the fuck would I give away someone’s room when they have a fucking reservation and yes, that is a quote that people have actually said to me Multiple times I’ve gotten it 10 times in a row in the span of five minutes. She can’t grasp the concept that all I was saying was this is the main message that I wrote in my note to my boss all I want is for each employee on the shift before me to clean and restock their workstation. It’s written in my job description it’s written in every hotel agents job description to clean and stock your workstation before the end of your shift. It’s written in the shift manager job description not only that but the subtitle of the section is essential job duties. There’s another section for other tasks And it’s literally called other tasks but I printed it out and highlight it so that she can see that it literally says under essential job duties clean your workstation before the end of your shift. The reason I did this is because I’m tired of getting to work and being Told that whatever the previous shift does not clean and does not restock is my responsibility and I’m not saying that I’m not willing to do the job because I absolutely 100% am willing to do the job but my point is why I have to clean and restock 16 stations For essentially 11 other employees and why is my boss in my shift managers boss actively defending the actor, not clean your workstation before the end of your shift and then the fact that I have to do it for every fucking person every fucking night. I usually get to work about an hour or half an hour before swingshift leaves and I’m there restocking all the stations and the people on swingshift are just twiddling their thumbs doing nothing shuffling a deck of cards. I have to wait for them to leave only to find that they didn’t stock their own fucking station, and now I have to do it. I know there are places at the front desk where the hotel guests can reach over and just grab stuff that they want or need and I’m OK with restocking that area every day. But why am I being forced to restock over 1500 pounds of water bottles and other supplies and why is my boss actively defending it and actively saying it doesn’t matter if it’s in the job description because you have a separate checklist where it says it technically true but it’s still says it in the job description make sure you clean and restock your workstation Before the end of shift. my point is she’s trying to say the swingshift works harder than me and therefore that’s a good excuse for them not to do a fucking essential task listed in their job description yet it doesn’t matter when I’m busy with 150 people that still have to check in Which is a lot for one single person to do a total nine different agents throughout the day. I don’t mind restocking the area where hotel guest can just take stuff because if no one worked on those stations that are perfectly willing to take that responsibility and restock all of those supplies, but when we have 16 stations it’s very obvious that this is the side that employees normally work on and this is actually more missing supplies from more stations on this side than there were actually employees for that day before I got there it becomes annoying and it just adds extra work to me. It’s called communism, and the reason communism fails. Every single time is because a small amount of people do all the work, and yet the people that don’t do work, still benefit from it, the same exact amount as the people that do all the work and the people that do all the work realize, eventually the people that do all the work, get tired of others benefiting without putting in any effort, and those people that do all the work eventually quit and stop doing any work, and then society collapses. Yelling at me and my thoughts and concerns and my opinions are bullshit is extremely over the line and unacceptable especially from a boss when all I did was say, I had a situation with one of the other shift managers. Here are my thoughts and opinions and concerns and here are some written archived evidence to back up why I feel this way Archive evidence that was in fact, created by the company in the hotel that we work for actively support my thoughts and my opinions and my concerns. I got hired and I was told her open door policy and if I don’t feel like going to one Manager , I can go to another Manager and if I have a problem with one Manager , I’m allowed to go to the manager above them and tell them but apparently that’s bullshit to write a note with written proof of evidence to back up my thoughts and opinions and concerns in my note, and that’s apparently worth threatening my ability to ever get a higher level job at this company and just outright saying if I ever try this again she’s done. The boss is just done, this bitch literally tried to write me up for insubordinate because I wrote a note with my thoughts and concerns and the evidence to back up my thoughts and concerns

This aged like sour milk

I understand this advice but after 40 years? An all u see is no advance? Because the people atop don’t want to lose their gravy by losing a cash cow ? That’s what I’ve seen . Anytime I’ve tried to move up off the floor I hear politics . They don’t wanta hire noone or train someone to do the technical job I’ve done all these years . As a result u end up with people they hire in management always trying to degrade u on ur job , an they try an tell u an everyone how easy this is to degrade u, only they don’t have the skills to physically show it or back up their claims . An then facts get swept under the rug an ignore time starts . Ggaeessshh

Yes. It makes you two-faced. You cant build a good relationship with someone who insults you on a daily basis.

don't be a bitch call them out let them do what they want when they know your don't give a fuck if they fire you they lose the control aspect the power aspect and their ego isn't satisfied anymore and they it's checkmate because you're the fucking honey badger

throug

Just resign don’t damage your own self esteem . This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about .

Omg Jocko you just changed my attitude at work right this second! I was bent out of shape and in my feels about my supervisor for this exact reason. Now I can laugh it off and just out work his BS. Thanks!

This is gold

maybe this shit works in the US but here in the netherlands you will turned even more into a slave and they get a pay raise.

LOVE IT

Dont encourage Tyranny …bad advice! ..but at the same time its a great survival method

I can follow the dress code . My boss doesn't . I'm sure if I wore blue jeans instead of black slacks. I be sent home. Hypocrisy!

This is bad advice… Ppl will be threatened by stature, color, intelligence etc…. It is their insecurities that fuel those experiences…. I refuse to not be the best version of myself because the coworker or boss is lacking…

Really needed this pep talk today! Cant leave the job yet, and I dont want to drag down moral of my crew just because my boss is rude to me.

This does not work with a toxic boss 🤦🏼‍♀️

So, brown nose the person who got to where they were due to the Peter Principle. Got it. I’d rather start my own company or find a more competent boss in that case.

This is BS. Since when did jobs become mind games and not about the work anymore? If I do this for 5/7/10 years and it doesn't happen, its MY fault? Fuck Mind games. This is below what I'd expect from Jocko. Even He's gone soft or he truly is a meathead.

Can we get a refresh on this

I will kiss no ass to get my way... You either want my hard work or fuck it I'll go away.

What a load of shit. I don't suck dick. I do my job. No more, no less.

I think this advice applies mainly towards men not women. As a woman, I have always had to work 10 times harder than my surrounding male counterparts and have to take up for slack for all those who lack work ethic.

The worst is a GM that is as stupid as a stick and he fakes his way through every day while he try’s to say smart things trying to connect with the employees. A GM that learns his new job off the backs of those who have been running the show for years. Bad GM’s think they’re gonna save the company as if no one every walked in those shoes before them. They also wanna show the company they can save money by cutting positions or reducing job titles bringing in cheaper labor or making almost every employee a manager to bypass overtime. Ill stop here👍🏻

This is sick advice, imo. Its like selling your soul. You would be living a lie to play these kind of games. If you dont have your integrity, you have nothing.