9 Signs Your Boss Thinks You're An Idiot

If you notice three or more of the following, it is time for you to start looking for a new place of employment. If you regularly experience all nine, like me, then I would skip any spontaneous meetings called by Human Resources.

1). He compares you to Jim Halpert from The Office. A brief description of Jim: "A seven-year veteran of Dunder Mifflin, Jim insists the job is just an extended stop on his career path and once stated that if it were his career, he would throw himself in front of a train."

2). He enters your cube without knocking and simply stands behind you for several seconds with a perverse look on his face, swaying back and forth like a giddy school girl at a Justin Timberlake concert. He breaks the silence by asking, "Whatcha doing?," hoping beyond all hope that it's something not work related.

3). He tells you that you look bored in meetings, and that he knows you care, however you don't show it, and he's just telling you this because he wants other people to know how much you care. Sadly, for the record, you don't care.

4). He'll grow frustrated speaking with you and change the topic of the conversation from the project at hand to sports, leaning back into his chair and letting out a sigh, while asking your opinion of the playoffs, or Super Bowl predictions for 2011.

5). He uses you in analogies to describe tasks that are impossible. For example, with a deadline he believes cannot be met, he'll say something along the lines of, "That would be like asking Bradley to write a Supreme Court brief." After a moment of awkward silence, he'll feel bad, and come clean that he probably couldn't write a Supreme Court brief either.

6). He'll blatantly spy on you and then pretend to have randomly discovered the information in the course of his day. So he might say, "I was just talking with Mr. Smith about an unrelated matter, and you're name came up, and Mr. Smith told me that you need to be more of a presence in the room when you lead meetings." Translation: "I had specifically instructed Mr. Smith to watch every second of your performance before reporting back to me with a detailed e-mail, in which he noted that your meeting lacked the spirit crushing formality and anal reminders that are hallmarks of the legal profession."

7). He tells stories where the "whole team" was working really hard, but stops to point out that you were not present. He then goes on a tangent to describe what you were doing instead of work, ie attending a hockey game, going out to dinner with family, sitting in a room alone while having sexual thoughts about the corporate logo.

8). He vaguely mentions a promotion during a random office conversation, and never re-visits the topic again. When you try to bring up the subject months later, he makes blanket pronouncements about how cost concerns are putting a freeze on advancement for current employees. Two weeks later your co-worker, who has been wtih the company half the time you have, is promoted.

9). He tells you that he foresees you someday in a position with the government, basically saying you are lazy, wasteful, and lacking the intellectual capacity to hold down a private sector job where one can be let go for such shortcomings.

Feel free to add your own signs.

[The Office] [Dunder Mifflin] [Jim Halpert]