10 Signs Your Boss Is Belittling You

Did you ever encounter sudden unexpected behavior from your boss that left you wondering if your boss is belittling you?

The working relationship with your boss is quite complex due to the involvement of power dynamics. They have authority over you which can be abused if not kept in check, and thus creates tension.

That’s why you would’ve seen many people complaining about their superiors, claiming to face unfair treatment from their boss.

This negativity can manifest itself in several ways, but in this article, we’ll cover the signs that strongly hint at the fact that your boss is belittling you.

So without wasting any time, let’s get started.

What is Belittling Behavior?

Belittling behavior is anything that is aimed to make someone feel inferior, unimportant, insignificant, or whatever you may like to call it. It can be observed in different areas of life, including professional life where employees face harsh times from their superiors.

If exposed for a long time, it can take a toll on your mental health and self-esteem and have an overall adverse effect on you. Identifying belittling behavior is very important as you first need to know what it looks like in the first place to take any measure against it.

Recognizing The Belittling Behavior in The Workplace

Recognizing the belittling behavior in the workplace is of utmost importance to address it timely and deal with it.

While it can be exercised by anyone in the workplace like your colleagues, it is difficult to deal with in the case of your boss as he has got leverage.

This belittling behavior is usually exerted in covert ways or indirectly, leaving you confused about whether it was really a smack at you or you are thinking too much.

In this case, knowing the belittling signs helps you identify them timely without being double-minded about it, and that’s what this article is all about.

Signs Your Boss is Belittling You

The belittling behavior can manifest itself in several ways but here we are listing major signs your boss is belittling you.

1. Your Boss Micro-Manages You

Micromanagement in the workplace means continuously pinning employees on what they are doing and how they are doing it and constantly dictating to them.

It is one of the main reasons for toxicity in the workplace.

Micromanagement signals you don’t find the person capable enough of doing the work on his own. If you are facing micromanagement from your boss, it’s a major sign your boss is belittling you.

Let’s say your boss assigns you a particular task. If he aims to undermine you, he will constantly check on you in quick succession on how are you doing.

He will bombard you with questions about why you selected this and that or why are you doing your thing this way.

But his tone won’t be of someone curious. His tone will rather be a bit aggressive as if he is trying to catch you somewhere to have something against you.

2. Your Boss Criticizes You in Front of Everyone

Criticism in life is natural and sometimes productive for us as it helps us to evaluate ourselves. But that’s constructive criticism we are talking about. However, people use criticism to unjustly lash at others to satisfy their ego.

It could be the case with your boss. If he holds a grudge against you and wants to belittle you, there is no better chance for him than to criticize you in public usually in an exaggerated manner.

For example, if your boss assigns you a task and you make some mistake. Now he has the option to talk about it in private and let you know about your mistake so you can work on it.

But since your boss wants to belittle you, he will make sure to have everyone around you and then call you out for it in a lashing manner.

3. Your Boss Makes Sarcastic Remarks

A sarcastic remark means something is said but is meant to be the opposite as a mockery or an insult. Sarcasm can be used to hurt others in the form of passive aggression.

If your boss passes a sarcastic remark in response to something you did, it could have two meanings. One is that your boss is trying to be friendly and joking with you or he is trying to mock you and passing sarcastic remarks as an insult.

However, you will have to observe the context to know the true meaning. Let’s say your boss is reviewing some work that you carried out and he makes a sarcastic comment.

If he has contempt or a smirk on his face while he does it, it is a strong indicator he made that remark to demoralize you and make you doubt yourself.

However, when your boss belittles you like this, you will get a feel for it since it will be quite distinctive from routine jokes.

4. Your Boss Doesn’t Appreciate Your Contribution

People come across things that they like and the ones that they don’t. This makes criticizing and appreciating integral parts of the sphere of life.

It is natural for employers to criticize the wrongdoings and appreciate the good efforts of their team.

But if the matter becomes one-sided, such that your boss criticizes you openly when you do something wrong but doesn’t appreciate you where it’s due, then it’s a red flag.

Such type of behavior is a strong sign that your boss wants to belittle you and even holds a grudge against you.

Since he is giving no acknowledgment where it’s due, he doesn’t want to make you feel good about yourself.

Such toxic behavior potentially hints towards the fact that your boss is getting insecure about himself because of your performance.

Your good efforts are making him inferior to you and he sees undermining as an easy way to ward off his frustration.

5. Your Boss Restricts Your Access to Higher Management

If you find your boss restricting your access to higher management, it is a red sign. Either he wants the information to flow through him or wants to demoralize you subtly. Let’s understand the reason behind it first.

When someone belonging to a certain group interacts with someone, he is low-key representing the group. And as your boss is cutting your access to the higher management, it could mean he doesn’t want you to represent him due to some reason.

Whatever the case, he is trying to impose on you that you aren’t good enough or simply doesn’t trust your capability to be a good representative. It’s an indirect and passive-aggressive way of belittling someone.

6. Your Boss is Turning Down Your Ideas

When we turn down someone’s idea, there could be only two broad reasons.

Either we didn’t like the idea naturally, which signals some incapability on the part of the presenter. Or we turn down quite a good idea just to make the presenter look small.

If you find your boss turning down your ideas consistently, especially without any explanation, or telling you what aspect of your idea has a problem, then you have a situation.

It could be simply your boss’ way to belittle you and make you look small.

7. Your Boss Undermines Your Work

You gave 110% to meet the project deliverables and put in hard work just to receive unnecessary criticism or even insults.

While it’s natural for some people to be overly critical without the intent of belittlement that’s usually their baseline behavior and they deal with everyone the same way.

However, if that’s not the case with your boss and it’s only you who’s being treated like it then it should raise your eyebrows.

If you’re being singled out and constantly called out for your work, especially without any valid explanation then that’s a good sign your boss is belittling you.

8. Your Boss is Assigning You Tasks Clearly Outside Your Expertise

This one is subtle so you got to pay attention. Being assigned tasks that are difficult hints towards the fact that your boss trusts you in the team and finds you worthy of it.

But if your boss wants to belittle you, he can do the same act in a slightly different manner.

He will assign you a task clearly outside your expertise and will be sure himself you won’t be able to do it.

One more giveaway is when you approach him to get any instructions on it, he’ll dismiss you excusing things like you got to do it yourself, and then pass mocking remarks during gatherings when everyone is around like a meeting.

Actually, he was never assigning you the task to test your limits but instead wanted to make sure you failed to deliver the task.

He will then get a chance to throw dirt at you.

9. Your Boss Doesn’t Address Your Concerns

It is more common than you think. We all have concerns from time to time in the workplace related to anything.

Let’s say you have some concerns and go to your boss to get it resolved.

Your boss simply hushes you or tells you he’ll see and does nothing. What does it mean? Either it could mean he’s really busy or is simply enjoying seeing you getting in trouble.

Not hearing your concerns potentially indicates your needs are not being valued. It may signal a lack of respect to undermine your position.

You should not be paranoid about it however but if it happens consistently, especially without any explanation then it’s a good indicator your boss enjoys belittling you.

10. Your Boss is Assigning You Irrelevant Tasks

Irrelevant tasks mean tasks not related to the main streamline of your field.

However, there are times in the workplace when all of us have to do some side tasks or tasks not very aligned with our mainstream.

But if you notice that it’s only you who’s being assigned such irrelevant tasks while your teammates’ assignments are very much aligned with their objectives, then chances are you have a belittling boss who wants to portray you are not capable enough of carrying out main tasks.

What to Do When Your Boss Belittles You

If you feel your boss is belittling you and want to know how you can deal with it smartly and turn the situation in your favor, then check the following brief points.

You will also benefit from our extensive guide on impressing a hard boss. Be sure to check it out.

1. Stay Calm & Keep Your Composure

Next time your boss belittles you, the best thing you can do is to keep your composure. Staying calm can help you collect your thoughts and think strategically.

It is very natural to feel frustrated and then have emotional outbursts but it will only make the situation difficult for you because it is not going to affect your boss in any way.

Your best bet is to keep your cool and come up with a clever strategy to not only disarm your boss’ toxic behavior but also turn the situation around.

2. Study Your Boss’ Weakness Then Capitalize on it

Everyone has got a weakness and your boss is no different. Try to observe him in his daily activities. People may appear confident apparently but have underlying insecurities.

Chances are your boss is insecure about his position and is belittling you to soothe his ego. If he is keen on making you small, it signals that he is doing so as a defense mechanism to inflate his self-image.

What you can do is find his weakness and then offer him help for it. If he has a big presentation coming and he is insecure about it, tell him how about if I help you. He will gladly accept.

What you can do from here is to prove your worth and he will think twice before demoralizing you again in the future as he will be counting you as his asset.

3. Ask For Instructions Even if You Know it

The problem is that you do some tasks and then your boss finds something to criticize and belittles you in front of everyone. Right?

Before starting any task, ask for instructions from your boss even if you know it.

Keep getting your work reviewed by your boss at regular intervals. Tell him you are doing it since you want to benefit from his vast experience.

It will kill 2 birds with one stone. It will soothe the ego of your insecure boss and make him feel good about himself since you are seeking his guidance.

Secondly, he won’t be able to criticize you on your work as he had been the one instructing you all along and nobody will deem his own instructions a failure.

If he resists instructing you, telling you to do it on your own, tell him you will benefit greatly from his experience and advice.

Make it like he’s doing you a favor. The chances of him saying no will be drastically reduced since people want to fundamentally believe they are moral and good.

FAQ

Final Thoughts

When your boss belittles you, the feeling can be difficult to deal with. However, the above brief instructions can help you, no matter how tough your situation might be.

If you want a dedicated article focused on strategies to deal with your difficult boss then let us know in the comments below.

We will write one which will teach you how to maneuver the situation to your advantage.

Conclusion

This brings us to the end of the article. You now know major signs your boss could be belittling you. Let’s have a quick recap of this article.

Firstly, we started with what qualifies as belittling behavior and the importance of recognizing it in the workplace.

Then we listed 10 different signs your boss is belittling you. Let’s have a glance over them.

1. Your boss is undermining you by being a micro-manager. It’s his way of showing that he doesn’t trust the work that you are doing.
2. Your boss is criticizing you in front of others to make you look incompetent and incapable.
3. He makes sarcastic comments about you or your work to instill doubts in you and break your confidence.
4. He is not acknowledging the effort you are putting into work.
5. He is restricting your access to higher management, decreasing your workplace visibility, and sabotaging your chances of future success.
6. He is turning down your good ideas consistently, especially without giving any reasonable explanation.
7. He undermines your work to make you feel incapable and even instills doubts in you. There is a strong chance of this if he doesn’t provide you with any reasonable explanation about being critical of your work.
8. He is assigning you tasks clearly outside your expertise to make you feel as if you are any lesser than others, harm your self-image, and put doubts in you.
9. Your boss does not address your concerns and sort of singles you out among the others.
10. He assigns you irrelevant tasks showcasing that you are not capable of handling the real work.

Then we lightly touched on how one can fix the problem if his boss is trying to belittle him.

That sums up this article. If you have any queries, feedback, or suggestions regarding the content, feel free to approach us.

Have you ever faced any belittling behavior in the workplace? Let us know in the comments below.