# How to Deal with a Passive-Aggressive Boss

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/crucial-skills-management-accountability-7795858/how-to-deal-with-a-passive-aggressive-boss
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/crucial-skills-management-accountability-7795858/how-to-deal-with-a-passive-aggressive-boss.md
Podcast: [Crucial Skills | Management & Accountability](https://stenobird.com/podcast/crucial-skills-management-accountability-7795858)
Published: 2026-07-07T10:00:04+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/how-to-deal-with-a-passive-aggressive-boss--72847007
Audio file: https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72847007/06222026_v1_cl_07_07_26.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/crucial-skills-management-accountability-7795858/episodes/how-to-deal-with-a-passive-aggressive-boss
Duration seconds: 500

## Resource

When a manager communicates vaguely and then gets upset when their expectations aren’t met, the workplace can quickly become a source of frustration. Crucial Conversations co-author Emily Gregory responds to a letter from a team dealing with exactly this problem. This situation has left the employees feeling criticized, confused, and stuck. Emily unpacks why situations like this feel so demoralizing and what is actually driving the frustration beneath the surface. Rather than validating the impulse to write off a difficult manager, Emily offers a new perspective: get curious before drawing conclusions. She walks through how villainizing someone makes productive conversation nearly impossible, and she provides an approach for naming the gap without assigning blame. Chapters [Start] The Employee Letter: Emily introduces a letter from a frustrated team of employees dealing with a passive-aggressive boss. 01:22 Validating the Frustration: Learn how to accept your own feelings while addressing the gap between expectations and reality between a boss and an employee. 02:53 Moving Forward with Conversation: Some steps you can take to make your way toward having a conversation with your boss. 04:35 Getting to the Root of the Problem: Some tips for addressing unclear expectations in a conversation to get to the real problem beneath the behavior. 05:39 Closing the Gap: A recap of how to approach this kind of conversation, as well as some advice on how to close the expectation gap. Links and Resources Crucial Learning Clarifying Expectations with a Passive-Aggressive Boss - Crucial Learning Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue - Crucial Learning Course Learn more about Emily Gregory here. The Crucial Skills Podc…

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