Over anxious boss = stressed out team

[Limelight]

This is a WWYD question really so tips and advice...

I've just started a new job as what is effectively No.2 in a small organisation (8 core office staff with an extended pool of freelance workers). I knew the organisation prior to my working there for various long winded reasons I won't bore you with, and so have reasonably strong relationships with everyone in the team, including my boss (who despite what I'm about to say is a very nice human being). The reality of working here is a different kettle of fish however.

My new boss is a massive ball of anxiety - everyday there is a crisis, except that 90% of the time it's only a crisis because he has an 11 out of 10 reaction to everything. And I can handle that except that the team is totally de-moralised. They clearly don't feel trusted (because they're not), they're being micro-managed, they're terrified of making mistakes, their confidence is pretty low, and they are making mistakes in part because everyone is firefighting all of the time and the whole environment is not conducive to effective working. It's really not sustainable and I'm amazed that no one has walked out frankly.

He clearly trusts me and feels that I am someone to complain to about how rubbish everyone is and unfair it is that he is the only one who cares. I keep pushing back and trying to get him to see the bigger picture - I told him today that everyone is very tired and demoralised and that we have to look to ourselves to understand and to the environment we're working in to see why that might be. But he does not see that at least part of the 'failure' he perceives in his staff is his responsibility.

So I suppose my WWYD is has anyone been in a similar situation? How do I manage him and them, and slowly try to change the culture of the org? At the moment I feel like I'm essentially managing us all out of an almost daily unnecessary crisis, but not actually managing to (a) get to grips with what is after all a new job, or (b) move the org forward in anyway. I've been there for five weeks and it's pretty exhausting!

Thanks for your help everyone!

Its tempting to get into solution mode, however when there's a personality involved, that trumps all, I'm afraid. If the person concerned is the figure head to whom everyone reports, then the toxic environment you describe won't go away unless he has a personality transplant or leaves the company, it will always cascade down from leadership.

Remember you aren't there (and presumably not on the pay-grade) to fix stuff your manager does that's outside your control/powers of authority.

Other than giving moral support to whoever needs it, and helping to give them perspective, your best chance of stability is to deliver in your role and lead by example. Don't get sucked into the noise and distraction, diffuliculr though that is. Longer term, consider whether you want to put up with that environment, that you can't fix.