NYT: Fear in the Workplace: The Bullying Boss

[DeepModem Mom]

Fear in the Workplace: The Bullying Boss
By BENEDICT CAREY

Published: June 22, 2004


Every working adult has known one - a boss who loves making subordinates squirm, whose moods radiate through the office, sending workers scurrying for cover, whose very voice causes stomach muscles to clench and pulses to quicken.

It is not long before dissatisfaction spreads, rivalries simmer, sycophants flourish. Normally self-confident professionals can dissolve into quivering bundles of neuroses....

***

Researchers have long been interested in the bullies of the playground, exploring what drives them and what effects they have on their victims. Only recently have investigators turned their attention to the bullies of the workplace.

Around the country, psychologists who study the dynamics of groups and organizations are discovering why cruel bosses thrive, how employees end up covering for managers they despise and under what conditions workers are most likely to confront and expose a bullying boss.

Next week, researchers and policy makers from many nations will convene in Bergen, Norway, to discuss the issue....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/22/health/psychology/22bull.html

[2Design]

1. Bush's style is bully

[DavidFL]

2. Ugh...I used to work for 2 bosses like this at the same time...

One male and one female. The male one wasn't particularly good at what he did and sometimes was none too bright; he couldn't never figure out how to use the company's e-mail program. Anyway, when he wasn't screaming at people or cutting them down like they were incompetent, he would flirt with the secretaries who were half his age, even though he was married, mind you, and it was his independently wealthy wife who provided him with the money to start the business and care for his children. The female one could nitpick like nobody's business and would be extremely catty with male and female subordinates. And yes, they both were Republicans.

I have found from my own experience that many of the claims made in this article are true. However, it didn't mention that workplaces with bosses like this will tend to have higher attrition rates than average, which can affect customer relations because customers wonder what the hell is going on when they have one person handling their account, that they may have developed a rapport with, and the next week, they're starting all over again with a totally new and different person.

I think the article highlights the need, though, for stronger unions, employee protections and collective bargaining in the workplace as well as the problems with being an "at will" employee, or being in a "right to work" state, because employees pretty much have to put up with jackasses like this if they want to remain employed.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Thanks for connecting this issue to Democratic party principles...

such as "stronger unions, employee protections and collective bargaining" -- and for pointing out that employees with a degree of satisfaction are a plus for the businesses who employ them.

[area51]

7. "right to work" state = "right to fire"

DavidFL said:

"I think the article highlights the need, though, for stronger unions, employee protections and collective bargaining in the workplace as well as the problems with being an 'at will' employee, or being in a 'right to work' state, because employees pretty much have to put up with jackasses like this if they want to remain employed."

Great point. The so-called "right to work" states should really be called "right to fire" states. Also, due to the awful G.W. Hoover economy, I've heard there's a lot more abuse of workers by bosses, & people basically have to put up with it in order to survive until the economy improves.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. This article is right on the mark. My ex-boss hit me and I quit.

Usually all I had to put up with was his screaming and sarcasm. Actually he and his partner both did, but this guy went over the line when he reached over and whacked me on the arm. You don't wait for a second time to see if someone's sincere . . .

I've never regretted my decision to leave.

BTW, I qualified for unemployment benefits b/c I was forced out of my position by the boss. (Of course, he denied it when unemployment investigated my claim, but they believed me.)

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Whoa! Did you consider charging him w/ "assault and battery"?

[no_hypocrisy]

6. You betcha. But I couldn't for practical reasons: he was the

ex-prosecutor in the borough where I worked. I knew I would never get a fair hearing. I even found the appropriate statute: assault & battery coupled with third-degree disorderly persons offense.

I'm still shaken from the incident. Sexual harassment is one thing. Being screamed at and suddenly whacked is something altogether different.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. What a workplace horror story!

[JM]

8. I worked for the coporate form of Satan

This place was unreal. They are a leading Fortune 500 company in their industry. I lasted 9 months. Friends said they were amazed I lasted that long.

When I was there, their HR department had a 40% turnover rate (combined dismissals and voluntary departures), and included the voluntary departure of their VP of HR for US operations. Their sales force had a turnover rate of 33%. I have no idea how this company stayed in business.

The CFO, also know as the Chief Asshole, would scream at and berate people. He demanded a project to see if there was a correlation between sales and turnover. Fucking DUH!

I had to do the project, and it resulted in a spreadsheet that was something like 164 columns by 64000 rows. They wanted it this way! So I stayed late the day before Thanksgiving because the boss (not the CFO) demanded he have it that night. Nevermind he was already on vacation. I sent him 55 MB of spreadsheet, zipped, to his email box...Dipshit.

When I announced I was leaving, the dipshit needed to sign off on a project. Despite my emails for three weeks, he waited until 1/2 hour before I was to leave to show up. The VP of HR even told me to blow him off and go enjoy my freedom from this company! When I started packing, he got all shitty that he needed more information and I had to stay. I calmly looked at my watch, told him I no longer worked for him, and walked out.

JM

[Nlighten1]

10. I have a boss like this now.

Crazy, crazy lady.

[Triana]

11. Had one at IBM

...jackass duJour - arrogant, stupid, bully. He couldn't STAND anyone who knew more about ANYTHING than he did (which was most people, since he was such a dumb redneck). And he *especially* had problems with women in IT....IBM protected and revered him, even though he went through employees like most people go through socks, IBM management seemed to adore him.


On Edit:

Another thing I'd like to mention: you should have *seen* the political propoganda IBM sent out to its employees via their employee 'newsletters' and flyers telling them how to vote, and which issues (and which sides of issues) to support (those in IBM's favour, of course, even though many screwed the employees themselves).

It was UNfrigginbelievable...

[iconoclastic cat]

12. Did everyone notice how many education-related horror stories are

mentioned?

People like this are everywhere in the school system. Absolutely everywhere. Every school that I have visited has a strange phenomenon occuring each year: there are no math teachers, but there's always a long list of people who volunteer to "do detention."

I know them well, the bastards.

[Stuckinthebush]

13. Education has a fascinating management structure

Technically, all of the people in the education profession are educators. These are people who went into the field because they deeply cared about children and ensuring that children are well educated.

The management or administration individuals sometimes are developed up through the ranks and sometimes are brought in directly from Ed. Admin graduate programs. Either way, these are also people that have a lot invested in the education of children.

Something interesting happens once an educator becomes an administrator. Many do not know how to manage effectively, and are inadequate at it from the beginning. Instead of recognizing this problem or even acknowledging it, the new administrator becomes more belligerent to cover his/her lack of management knowledge. Then, the inevitable us vs. them struggle begins. It is quite a shame. Of course, this doesn't happen with all educators turned administrators - there are many very good educational administrators out there. But when it does happen, the children suffer.

There is also an interesting male/female difference in secondary ed between administrators and teachers. The administrators seem to be mostly male and the teachers mostly females. There is a strange reverence that is displayed by the teachers to the male administrators. Almost a father/child role in some cases. The administrators become Mr. and Mrs. or Dr. so-and-so, and lose their closeness to the teachers. All in all, it is an interesting thing to watch.

[TolstoyAndy]

14. An ex-friend of mine in special ed

views his job as essentially a prison guard. Behave and prosper; misbehave, and I'll sit on you till you can behave. (This is good training for the job world, of course.)

He enjoys restraints and confrontations, and his whole worldview is that of a reward-punishment system.

"Iraq didn't take the reward, behaved badly, now we have to punish them." As an ex-friend, he regularly writes to accuse me of terrorism.

(I may be getting of-topic, since the story is about bosses.)

Luckily, my wife is a teacher, so I know most educators are good people.