Any advice on dealing with someone who just can't be genuine? On a personal level I quite like my boss, and actually feel a little sorry for her, but she puts on such a persona and manner with people that it rubs everyone up the wrong way and means I hear a lot of complaints about her.
As well as the way she presents herself at work, she also writes a blog and is very active on social media (however this is done anonymously). The image she portays is not her, at all. But the thing is, if she was just herself I think so many more people would like her and work better with her. Instead she just comes across as ridiculous.
Examples:
Describes herself on her blog as a 'glamourous 30something professional, travelling to faraway places, indulging in fine dining, following the latest fashion, adding glamour to the boardroom, a social butterfly in a glamourous county'. Refers to her 'perfect hour glass figure', how she misses shopping in New York, her wardrobe inspirations are 'Manhattan Chic' and Sex and the City. All kinds of stuff. Says she gives 'insightful, inspirational' posts to glamourous people. She carries this persona over into the workplace as well. I think she really believes it.
She is actually 42, rather overweight, has been to the US twice - once with her parents a few years ago and once with her aunt and uncle earlier this year - taken very few holidays and they are always with family, goes on days out to look around country houses and tea shops with her parents or her younger cousin, lived at home until she was in her 30s and now lives down the street from her parents and her brother and sister in law with whom she spends most of her time.
She's actually led quite a sheltered life and never moved out of the town she grew up in. She has no real opinions of her own, only what others say. She slavishly follows fashions and saves for all the designer brands and looks down on those who don't have them. When one of the more senior staff got a company ipad that immediately became her new goal. She had to have one too and when she finally got it she waved it around at every oportunity that it was embarassing. She judges people purely on appearance. She has no insight into her own abilities and thinks she's 'fabulous' at everything when she really isn't. She is the worst social climnber I've ever met and actually told me I should be 'targeting my key relationships in the company' and 'not having lunch with people on a lower level or who can't be of any use to my career'.
I don't think there is anything wrong at all in the actuality of her life. I just don't get why she feels the need to pretend so much. She has this air of being so much better than everyone else and can be patronising and forceful to people but says 'it's just me being a career woman, some people can't take it from a glamourous woman'!! If she were amazing at her job then it would be one thing, but she makes a lot of mistakes and some bad decisions, however she can never admit to them and it affects other people.
I know she's never going to change but the whole situation just winds me up. How can I ignore it, or learn to just deal with it?
