← Personal Development
Adam Savage’s Tested
How to Work With a Bad Boss
⏱ 9 min video · 2 min read17 May 2026
TL;DR
Adam Savage answers a viewer question about working with controlling, ego-driven bosses, sharing practical tactics he used as a model maker and on film sets. The video also includes a side story about repairing Volkswagen Jetta windows and a plug for the Tested membership community.
Key points
1
Frame all your ideas as suggestions rather than directives to avoid triggering a controlling boss's ego
2
Deliberately leave a small, obvious flaw in your work so the boss can find it and feel useful, preventing bigger disruptive notes
3
Seed ideas so the boss believes they came up with them themselves, giving you room to steer outcomes
4
Sometimes you must let a bad idea play out fully before you can offer a solution — forcing the issue too early backfires
5
Adam was publicly screamed at on a Turner Classic Movies shoot for improving work without permission, illustrating that with certain bosses, any unsanctioned initiative is punished
Actionable insights
→
Always phrase your own ideas as tentative suggestions ('just a thought') to avoid triggering a control-oriented boss's defensive reaction
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Build in a minor, visible imperfection on deliverables so review sessions produce small, specific notes instead of sweeping gestural ones like 'can you make the whole thing scarier?'
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Incept ideas: plant the concept in conversation and let the boss 'discover' it themselves rather than presenting it as your own proposal
Notable quotes
“Sometimes you've got to watch a terrible idea play itself all the way out before you can provide a solution.”
“You give them something wrong. You would make a spaceship and you'd put a detail on it and you'd make it purple.”
“She came over and was like, 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DON'T TOUCH MY SET.' And she screamed at me in front of the whole crew.”
Worth watching?
⏭️
Worth watching the full video?
The core tactics are all captured here — skip the video unless you want to hear Adam tell the stories in his own voice, which is genuinely entertaining.
Saved you some time? The creator still deserves a like.
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