I can’t tell you how many times TechRepublic members have told me some variation of “I quit my job because of a terrible boss.” Our members speak of bosses with absolutely no technical know-how trying to lead teams that have to make technology work for the company. Or technically astute bosses who have no discernible management skills. And there are those bosses who are just plain hard to deal with because of some personality disorder.

If you google “incompetent boss,” you’ll get a zillion pages of advice on how to deal with them. Most of the advice is admirable (e.g., non-confrontational confrontation, complaining further up the corporate ladder, etc.), but the advice always ends with, “If all else fails, find another job.” That’s because, even if you’re lucky enough to work for a company that will have an intervention on your behalf, there’s nothing you can do to change another person’s behavior. The only behavior you can change is your own.

Now, having said that, I’d like to see how many of you have left a job or changed positions because of a terrible boss. Take the poll below and maybe we can get an idea, in a totally unscientific manner, just how many bad bosses there are out there.

If you want to vent about the bad boss, or if you found a way to confront a bad boss and lived to tell about it, I’d love to hear about your experience in the discussion forum below.