Heads Butting

Sometimes bosses' infighting doesn't have much of an impact on the staff. But it can make workers feel as if they should help. Scott Eblin used to give his boss "a safe place to vent." There were multiple occasions when, as an executive, his supervisor had issues with a higher-up. "Coach them a little: 'What's going on, what are you frustrated about, what could you do differently?' " suggested Eblin, a Herndon-based executive coach and author of "The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success." "But it can end up having a direct impact if you get sucked into it. Keep the perspective that this isn't your fight."

That's sometimes impossible, according to Laura, an administrative assistant at a technology company in Herndon who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used because she is still employed at the company of boss fights.

Her direct boss never really got along with the national vice president. Her boss would casually throw in comments about how the vice president didn't understand what was going on in the local office. The vice president threw the same comments around about her boss when he wasn't nearby.

She tried her best to stay out of it, but she also began to question whom she should be loyal to. She worked closely with her boss and respected him. And meanwhile, with the vice president working in a different office, "sometimes it was hard to agree with him," she said. "It absolutely impacted my morale."

Her boss left several months ago, which sent her morale to the floor -- particularly when the vice president started saying, "We'll be better off."

"For me, it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth," she said. "I respected my boss and learned a lot from him. This is my first job out of college. So though I'm lacking in experience of dealing with situations like this, it just didn't feel right."

On a good note, she was just offered a new job that she is excited about. Now let's hope the vice president doesn't tell everyone they are better off without her.

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