How should you deal with a bad boss? Here’s some EXCELLENT research-based advice from Stanford Professor Bob Sutton (51 mins into the video).
On a related note, a journalist once asked me during an interview why employees put up with bad bosses.
Without thinking about it I blurted out “Stockholm syndrome.”
I only later realized I may have been right.
Stockholm Syndrome may be taking it a bit far – but perhaps cognitive dissonance theory points in the same direction: If people have spent significant resources on something, it better be worth while less it says something very negative about their own ability to make good decisions.
Rationalizing – the mental process of fitting things together to “write a story that makes sense” – can either make your boss look better or you look dumber for not getting the h… out of there. And we don’t like feeling stupid.