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Information technology, like all industries isn’t immune to poor management techniques.  All IT recruiters and IT consultants have had direct or indirect experience with terrible IT managers at IT jobs.  Below are the some of the most common mistakes that technical recruiters and IT contractors have to deal with—and how to deal with them.

1. Speaking negatively: Managers who speak negatively about people who are currently on their staff, people who have quit or been fired, or the company itself, are certainly hurting their team’s morale.  Feeling like your manager has no hope for your department’s success, or the success of you and all your teammates, quickly kills your own motivation.  While you can’t change their outlook, you can do your best not to share in it or to be influenced by it.  Try to respond in a neutral way to any negative talk like this and quickly change the subject.  Avoid repeating it and avoid thinking about it.
2. Doing their staff’s work for them: Sometimes managers will want to save time and complete a task that their staff either can’t do correctly or at all.  This is a serious mistake.  It doesn’t give the staff the chance to learn how to do the task and ensures the same exact scenario, except probably with increased frustration, in the future.  If your manager is doing something for you, do your best to stop them and ask for feedback on how you can do it yourself.  Take the opportunity to learn whatever the task is and take notes so you can do it in the future.
3. Letting staff break the little rules: It may simply feel like too much energy for a manager to have to exert to make sure all rules are followed.  But here’s the problem:  Breaking the little rules, especially when it comes to coding, programming, and other IT tasks, can lead to bigger issues down the line.  While you can’t control what your manager does and doesn’t enforce, you can hold rigorous standards for yourself and encourage them (gently!) in your teammates.  Everyone will thank you later down the line.