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Bad Boss, Bad Buddhist

Lately my boss has been difficult, unappreciative, aggressive, and demanding. He seems to vacillate between opposite extremes of overbearing confidence and a crippling fear of failure.

It can be very frustrating working for someone who seems to be Psyzophrenic, and while I try to remind myself that he is just seeking happiness like everyone else, this doesn’t always give me compassion for him.

He bounces back and forth between ideas and often has me complete entire projects before he changes his mind and decides not to do them, only to turn around months later and ask why we never implemented them. His indecision wouldn’t be so aggravating if he didn’t abuse the people around him as he went through his insane cycle.

As I write this I am reminded of the adage: ‘we need to have two things in life to be happy: a good bed, and a job that doesn’t make us crazy’, at least I have half of it covered.

It’s funny to me that after all this time meditating and practicing that I can still get caught up in someone else’s drama. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks reacting to my boss’s mood. Finally, I have come back to myself and let go of my ego enough to step back and realize that he is just venting his fear and probably needs my support now more than ever.

When my mind softened to this idea, it was a huge release to me and I began to look at things from his point of view. Without getting into his problems too much, he has lots to worry about right now especially given our grim economic outlook.

When is enough, enough?

As Buddhists we train our minds to have patience and compassion and I feel that often my mind stays in that space, occasionally however, I’m presented with a situation like this and I gotta say that I am spending an enormous amount of time on loving kindness mediation directed toward my boss.

I’m often curious about the boundary that Buddhists tread between kindness and compassion and enabling others bad behavior. I have never believed that it’s ok to allow someone to be abusive to the people around them, and yet the Buddhist side of me wants to find the compassion and empathy to forgive nearly anything.

So what do you do in these kinds of situations?

When I read Buddhist forums and blogs it seems that many of us attempt to avoid conflict and foster peace even when someone might need to be clubbed on the head.

For me the answer is to stand for what’s right for everyone involved in a situation, however uncomfortable that is for me, and have love and compassion as I beat my boss on the head(figuratively speaking- of course).

One Lump Or two?

Ambud

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