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I love some aspects of my job (like working with the kids I tutor) and I am good at my job.  I have done a lot of tutoring in the past and I have always achieved good results.  However, I am almost at the point of quitting and looking for a new job, as a result of ever-more-annoying exchanges with my boss.  So, for those of you out there who manage employees please take a minute to read these 5 tips.  At a minimum, maybe they’ll allow you to avoid having your employees out there blogging about how much they dislike you

1. No one wants to continuously hear about how important/successful you are.  At my very 1st meeting with my boss person, he was name dropping like crazy (I worked for So-And-So-Minor-Local-Celebrity…) Almost every time I see him he manages to bring into the conversation the fact that he “runs a really successful company.”  He also tries to brag, in what I guess he thinks are subtle ways, about how much money he is making.  Now, it’s one thing to be proud of your company and to want to extrapolate on it’s virtues.  Its entirely another to cloak this pride in self-congratulatory diatribes on an almost constant basis
2. No one wants to be patronized to.  Yes, I know you are my boss.  I don’t need you to subtly remind me of this during almost every conversation.  I also don’t need to be talked to like I am 10 or have things explained to me multiple thousands of times.  I have an advanced degree and an IQ above 130.  I can understand basic concepts, I promise.  Also, please don’t ask me really really obvious rhetorical questions (example: “so you can either be positive or negative.  And we don’t want you to be negative. So, what do you think you should be?”)
3. If someone is doing their job, don’t micromanage.  I should not need to tell you every single detail of every single project I am doing.  Maybe check in at a few points along the way, or even at the end.  But, there should not be a constant stream of email exchanges demanding and critiquing every single baby step along the way.  This wastes time I could be using to actually do something productive.  It’s also annoying and suggests that I’m incapable, which goes back to point #2 of don’t patronize 
4. Unless you are Steve Jobs, do not act like you are the greatest person on Earth at doing the job we’re doing while everyone else is a mere mortal.  My boss acts like he is the only one capable of effectively teaching kids.  He acts like we all need to bow down and worship his abilities and mimic him exactly to be successful.  I know I have things to learn, and I know that he probably has knowledge I don’t.  But, the reality is I have been doing this a long time too and I know a thing or to as well.  I’m ready and willing to do things his way since its his company, and to learn from his example.  However, he should also be willing to recognize that I might have something to bring to the table to, and not just think he is the God of the universe.  
5. Do not have really really obvious and annoying double standards.  We had some staff meetings we had to get scheduled.  Our boss had employees move meetings with students around to be able to attend at certain times.  When asked, he would not make changes to the time to accommodate our needs to get other work done.  Yet, twice he has cancelled/moved these meetings (sometimes the day before or the day of!) EVEN AFTER we moved other stuff around to attend them!  Since he’s not a doctor doing sudden life-saving surgery, there is no excuse for this kind of double standard!