Approved Index asked over 1,300 employees questions about their managers in a recent survey.

The results showed that 42% have gone so far as to quit their jobs because of their boss.

A spokeswoman for Approved Index said, “These results are concerning. With the developments in technology, it has become difficult for employees to disconnect from work when they leave the office. The relationship between bosses and their employees is an interesting concept and it’s really important to have a good working environment.”

In terms of individual industries, recruitment bosses were unveiled as the worst, with all respondents saying they left their position in a company because of their manager. Other poor employer-employee relationships emerged in travel and tourism (77%), marketing and PR (63%), and accounting (61%).

The ten industries with the worst bosses, according to the percentages of respondents saying they quit, rather than work with their manager

1. Recruitment: 100%

2. Travel and tourism: 77%

3. Marketing and PR: 63%

4. Accounting: 61%

5. Events: 56%

6. Entertainment: 55%

7. Fashion: 54%

8. Agriculture and food: 53%

9. Architecture: 50%

10. Security: 50%

On the positive side, 93% of people working in HR ranked their bosses as trustworthy.

The ten industries with the best bosses, according to the research respondents

1. Research: 20%

2. Engineering: 30%

3. Graphic arts and design: 31%

4. Automotive: 33%

5. Medical and healthcare: 33%

6. Manufacturing: 34%

7. Non-profit and volunteering: 34%

8. Retail: 35%

9. Insurance: 35%

10: Education: 35%

HR obviously plays a key role in creating and coordinating learning and development programmes for their organisation. These can be costly, but a good start is to initiate a company-wide programme instilling the company values into its managers, with the support of the corporate communication and executive teams. Most values support the basic people management principles of respect, collaboration, empowerment and diversity in some form or another.

A healthy relationship with your superior is more valuable than a pay rise…

74% of those people asked said that getting along with their boss helped boost their motivation and a third said a good relationship with their boss was even more important than job satisfaction.

Hlupic explains,

An appraisal system that underpins these traits can help focus managers on learning and living these values, while 360 degree feedback from bosses, peers and subordinates would support this… HR can also play its part in advising their Executive on the business benefits of good people management, and the return on investment of any development programme that underpins this.