"Difficult Boss"

[Thetallestsunflower]

Hi There;
I have been in my part time job working in a college library for about 6 months and am finding my boss increasingly difficult to work with.
He is extremely negative and a poor comminicator. He continuously points out small mistakes (e.g missing a piece of litter on the floor or being a minute late at my desk) and feels the constant need to give 'helpful hints' about things like student interaction (for example he thinks it is a great idea to hang over students who are working on an assignment and point out that they have several red underlinings and need to check their spellings). He will often do these things in front of other staff and students. Also if I were to be dealing with a student's technical issue he will come over and start interfering making me feel incompetant
He is like this with everyone not just me but I find it a difficult situation to work in as I am the type of person who will get anxious if I feel my every move is being watched and judged which in turn probably makes me make mistakes. I like to feel when I am doing a job that I am trusted to do it well.
I don't feel that is is bullying or harassment just merely annoying and makes me feel uncomfortable.
Every month he has one to one meetings with each person on the team-where he basically points out all the mistakes you are doing with very little praise. It is suposed to be an opportunity for us to say if we have any issues.
I feel I would like to say something but know I need to approach it diplomatically.
Any tips?

Is there someone on the team you are closer to that you can safely chat to about how to deal with your boss? If he is like this with everyone, then they would also have been on the receiving end and might have coping strategies.

I'd do a bit of research before raising anything to your boss in the one-to-one meeting. Some people can dish it out but cannot take it - best not to get your boss' hackles up if it is futile.

OK, so it sounds like your boss is really struggling with his job, and this is cascading down the team. He's struggling to manage people, and he isn't able to support students effectively. He probably hasn't been given proper guidance about what his role is - he knows he has to have student interaction, but isn't really sure what positive student interaction is.

If you were in my HE institution, I know that there are specific training courses he should have gone on - I don't know that this is the case everywhere, though, and particularly not in FE.

I have to admit that occasionally I enjoy myself with ultra negative people by agreeing with everything they say, and then suggesting that it's even worse than they've previously described it. I can have a lot of fun like this.

However, I think it would be more mature and effective to tell your boss what you find helpful, e.g. 'X, I find it helpful if you tell me what you feel has gone well this month, so that I can make sure that I continue to do it. Can you tell me what went well?' Or 'So, you're saying that you think it's important that we support the students with their essay writing skills, and you'd like me to spend more time doing that.' And then sit there and write it down. And then next month, open up your notes and say to him 'last month we said we'd work on X, Y and Z, and so I have done A, B and C. What do you think went well about it?'