Working for the Wrong Boss Some bosses do more than make work difficult. They make your role unclear, your confidence unstable, and your professional reputation harder to protect.
Working for the Wrong Boss is a practical, intelligent guide for professionals who feel trapped in confusing, inconsistent, or destabilising workplace dynamics. Whether you are dealing with unclear expectations, poor communication, shifting blame, quiet reputational risk, emotional volatility, or a leader who creates more chaos than clarity, this book offers a calm and strategic way forward.
Drawing on extensive experience across leadership, education, human resources, industrial relations, organisational strategy, and high-stakes workplace negotiation, Jacques Retief provides grounded guidance for staying steady, thinking clearly, and protecting your long-term career.
Inside, you will learn how to:
- recognise when a difficult boss has become a genuine professional risk
- stabilise yourself before reacting emotionally
- create a clear paper trail that protects your position
- communicate firmly and professionally without escalating conflict
- manage upwards without losing your boundaries
- protect your reputation, credibility, and professional identity
- respond to blame, misrepresentation, and shifting expectations
- stay calm in toxic environments without absorbing the chaos
- build strategic visibility so your work is understood and valued
- decide when to stay, adapt, escalate, or leave
This is not a book about revenge, office politics, or winning arguments.
It is a book about protecting your integrity, confidence, and future when the person above you is making work harder than it needs to be.
If you have ever found yourself overthinking emails, replaying conversations, second-guessing your instincts, or working harder just to feel safe, Working for the Wrong Boss will help you regain clarity, control, and professional steadiness.
A flagship guide in The Professional Self-Defence at Work series, this book offers practical frameworks, clear language, and real-world strategies you can use immediately, wherever you work.
How to Stay Professional, Protect Your Reputation, and Take Back Control in Difficult Work Environments
