Great Job, Sh!t Boss · A Playbook for Thriving When Your Manager Sucks

A question

When did you start
dreading Mondays?

The truth

You didn't change.
Your boss happened.

Sound familiar?

Your ideas show up in someone else's presentation.
Your review reads like a description of a different person.
You've started to wonder if it's you.

15 years inside public sector organizations

I've been
in every room
this describes.

The playbook

Seven boss archetypes. Real documentation strategies.
Scripts for the conversations nobody prepares you for.
And the honest truth about what HR can — and can't — do for you.

The verdict

You are not
the problem.

Great Job, Sh!t Boss

The workplace survival guide
for the excellent employee
with the wrong boss.

By Candice Maldonado · Coming Soon

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New Book — Coming Soon

GREAT JOB,
SH!T
BOSS

A Playbook for Thriving When Your Manager Sucks

By Candice Maldonado

You are excellent at your job. Your boss is the problem.

This is the no-BS guide that fifteen years inside public sector organizations made possible — written for every talented person who has ever shrunk under a bad manager and wondered why nobody handed them a roadmap.

Get notified at launch + early access bonuses

No spam. Just the launch date and one good email about it.

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Great Job, Sh!t Boss — physical book stack

The Book

Real. Physical.
In your hands.

Great Job, Sh!t Boss is a practical, no-fluff playbook written for every talented person who has ever had the wrong manager and needed a real strategy — not a pep talk.

Available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook. Written from fifteen years on the inside of public sector organizations — the places where bad management hides best behind bureaucracy and process.

Get notified the moment it's available and be first in line for early access bonuses.

Paperback Hardcover eBook Coming Soon

Recognition

You're not imagining it.

If any of these land, this book was written for you.

You've started second-guessing yourself

After enough meetings where your boss contradicts what you clearly remember, you begin to wonder if you're the unreliable one. You are not.

Your boss disappears when you need them most

Decisions stall. Approvals sit in limbo. You end up making calls above your pay grade because the alternative is nothing moves forward.

Your ideas keep showing up under someone else's name

You were in that meeting. You said that thing. The slide somehow doesn't have your name on it anymore — and everyone just moves on.

You used to love this work

Between the constant check-ins, the moving goalposts, and the Sunday dread, you stopped caring. That's not you — that's the environment.

Your performance review felt like fiction

The version of you in that document is unrecognizable. And now you're quietly wondering if any of it might actually be true. It isn't.

Someone less qualified keeps getting the opportunities

You've watched it happen more than once. You know it isn't merit. You just haven't had a strategy — until now.

Know What You're Dealing With

Seven bad boss archetypes.
All survivable.

Named, researched, and field-tested across fifteen years in the public sector. Find yours — then find the chapter that handles it.

The Micromanager

Control & Approval

Nothing moves without sign-off. Your judgment is never trusted. Every small decision becomes a performance of deference.

The Ghost

Absent Leadership

Unreachable when it matters. Suddenly present for the credit. The team runs itself — until something goes wrong.

The Exploder

Volatile & Unpredictable

Moods set the tone for the whole floor. Everyone walks on eggshells. The good ones quietly start job-hunting.

The Gaslighter

Reality Distortion

Makes you question your memory, your competence, and your grip on what actually happened in that room.

The Credit Thief

Visibility & Ownership

Your wins. Their highlight reel. The pattern is so consistent you've started keeping receipts — which is exactly right.

The Favorite Player

Favoritism & Access

One person gets everything — the projects, the praise, the promotions. Everyone sees it. Nobody says it out loud.

The Bureaucrat

Policy Over People

Hides behind process to avoid decisions. Every initiative meets a policy wall. Change is the enemy of their comfort.

What's Inside

The playbook nobody
handed you.

Until now.

Name exactly what you're dealing with

Seven archetypes with the research and real-world patterns behind each one — and precisely what to do about it.

Protect yourself before you need to

The documentation system, the internal network, and the strategic visibility that keeps you grounded no matter what your boss does next.

Scripts for the conversations nobody prepares you for

What to actually say when your boss takes credit. When you need to manage up without getting fired doing it. When enough is enough.

The honest truth about HR — and when to use it

When HR can genuinely help you, when it structurally cannot, and exactly how to navigate it strategically — from someone who has been on the employee side of that table.

When to stay — and how to leave clean

A clear, honest framework for making the decision — and how to exit in a way that protects your reputation and sets up what comes next.

Grounded in fifteen years of watching it play out

Not theory. Every chapter built on organizational psychology, leadership research, and real workplaces — education, housing, executive offices, and beyond.

"Stop waiting to be chosen. Document everything. Build visibility. Know your worth — and make sure the right people know it too."

About the Author

Candice Maldonado

Public Sector Insider · Speaker · People Advocate

Candice is the person who tells you what everyone else is thinking but nobody will say out loud. She has spent fifteen years inside public sector organizations — across public education, affordable housing, and executive offices — watching every flavor of workplace dysfunction this book describes play out in real time.

She has sat in the rooms where these decisions get made. She has seen brilliant, committed people get ground down by bad managers inside systems that are built — sometimes intentionally — to protect the wrong people. Great Job, Sh!t Boss is her answer to all of it.

She is a wife, a mother, and a public speaker who has stood in front of rooms full of people who needed to hear exactly what this book says. She believes the most powerful thing a workplace can have is an employee who knows their own value — and won't let a bad boss convince them otherwise.

15 Years Public Sector Education & Housing Executive Offices Equity & DEI Leader Public Speaker Pacific Northwest

Speaking

Bring this conversation
to your audience.

Candice speaks to the experiences that people have every day at work but rarely talk about out loud — toxic leadership, workplace dysfunction, and how to protect yourself and still thrive.

Her talks draw from fifteen years inside public institutions: real rooms, real decisions, real consequences. No fluff, no performance. Just honest, practical, and often long-overdue conversations.

You Are Not the Problem

Recognizing bad leadership, reclaiming your confidence, and building a strategy that doesn't rely on your boss getting better.

The Survival Playbook: Navigating Toxic Workplaces

Practical tools for documentation, visibility, and resilience — for individuals and the teams who support them.

What Nobody Tells You About HR

A candid, employee-focused look at how HR actually works, when to use it, and how to advocate for yourself effectively.

Leadership That Doesn't Cost You Your People

For managers and leaders ready to honestly examine what good leadership requires — and what it costs when it's absent.

Book Candice to Speak

Available for conferences, staff development days, leadership summits, government agencies, nonprofits, and community organizations. Virtual and in-person.

Keynote Workshop Panel Staff Dev Day Virtual In-Person

Inquire About Booking

Know someone who
needs to read this?

Send them an anonymous copy — no explanation needed. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do for a colleague is hand them a roadmap and let them figure out the rest.

I thought of you when I read this. No agenda. No awkward conversation. Just — this book exists, and you deserve to have it.

— Someone who's been watching you crush it

Send an Anonymous Copy Coming Soon Notify me when it's available

GREAT JOB,SH!TBOSS

Real. Physical.In your hands.