By Suzanne Driscoll

How did this happen? You had a great interview with your future boss. Everything clicked: same values, same interests, same working style. Not that you were in a position to be picky anyway, with the job market the way it is.
By the second week, you realize you made a BIG mistake. There's either too much work or not enough. Nothing you do is right, no matter how hard you try. Your boss never has time to talk with you, or he is yelling and screaming and breathing over your shoulder.

Different personalities need to be handled in different ways. Strategies need to be developed so you are managing your manager, not the other way around. Easier said than done, you say? Read on.

Here is my personal hall of fame for the all-time worst managers, as well as some practical tips on how to keep them in line. You might recognize a few from your own workplace.

The Overloader: I knew the secretary of a workaholic who wanted her at his beck and call long after 5:00 every day. She finally had to make up a story about a serious commitment at 5:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays for which she had to leave on time. It drove him wild trying to guess what it was, but it did the trick.

A less devious way to deal with such a boss would be to suggest that your workload be shared by lower-level people in the organization who "need development." Or perhaps the company could bring in a college student willing to work for free to get internship experience to put on his resume.

You, of course, would supervise these people to demonstrate your excellent management skills.

The Underloader: Close cousin of the No Show. Have you ever been told in an interview how busy an office is, only to find after you arrive that you sit there day after day with nothing to do? Meanwhile, the boss is running around and completely ignoring you, or, she is never there. It's hard to sit and pretend to look busy for eight hours, even after sending email greetings to every person you have ever met.
Your strategy here is to let your feet do the walking. Make appointments with colleagues for quick, information-gathering sessions. Ask them what they always wanted to accomplish but never had the time to do. Offer to help. Next, find out with which groups in the company your department works with. Make appointments with them, too. By casting your net beyond your boss, some projects will surface that you can volunteer to tackle. This way you can keep busy at the office - and look like a hero if you can manage to pull them off.

The Name Caller/Yeller-Screamer: It's more than a little disheartening to have two Master's degrees and years of experience, while being forced to endure being called the worst employee or the stupidest person ever, all because you didn't do something to the liking of your supervisor.

Your first tactic in this situation is to stand up while your manager is sitting. Say your back is killing you. It's much harder to be yelled at when someone when has to look up at you. And if you talk in a very quiet voice, it might help calm her down.

Here, your best defense is an offense. Think of something to critique, in a constructive way, about how things are done in the department. Suggest better methods that would improve everyone's ability to do their job. This is a great way to deflect attention from your alleged screw-up.

The Nitpicker: Very few people mind rewriting something once or twice, but after 5 or 6 times it gets a little old. For this situation, specialists advise inserting words and sentences that obviously don't belong in a document. This gives the boss an opportunity to use the red pen while keeping your original document intact.

A walk around the building in between rewrites is also helpful. And for victims of nitpickers for whom every "t" must be crossed and every "i" dotted, attention to detail isn't such a bad thing to learn.

The Timekeeper: I once worked for a man who partied into the wee hours just about every night. Somehow, he always got to work on time in the morning. His idea of management was to walk around and make sure everyone else was there. It didn't really matter what you did the rest of the day except, of course, leave early or take a long lunch.

The obvious strategy here is to get to work on time or have a really great excuse when you can't. (A sick child is usually not a good one if your manager doesn't have kids.) Save the long lunches for when he is absent or in an all-day meeting. Run your errands when you have to be out of the building anyway to meet with clients or vendors. The good news is there is probably no need to get to work early or stay late, as no one will be there to notice.

A final word of advice for any kind of hellish work environment: get support from your peers. Chances are if you are being pummeled and picked on, they are too.

In one particularly bad situation, our group formed a boss-bashing club. We would meet for lunch or after work in the darkest corner of a bar in a Chinese restaurant. There was no chance anyone else from the office would ever go there. We'd share horror stories about the boss, compare strategies, and just laugh. We continued to meet (and bash) long after we left the company.

Finding a good mentor can also be invaluable. Choose someone who has been around for a while and is well thought of in the company. A mentor can give you advice on how to handle a political situation and how to control your boss.

And if the job is really bad, the kind that makes you crazy or threatens to wreck your home life, run, don't walk to the nearest exit. Get out of your cubicle and meet as many other people in the company as possible. That way you can get the skinny on other job openings and possibly arrange for an internal transfer. At least you'll know what to avoid in your next interview.