Don't Take ItWednesday, October 19, 2005I hear story after story of an abusive work environment. Specifically, the abuse is coming from a manager. This looks many different ways. The abuse can be very subtle or it can be strong enough to file a formal complaint with HR. The more obvious abusive situation is when the manager reprimands an employee in front of other co-workers. Correction must always take place in an office; never on stage for all to witness. If your boss ever makes a fool out of you or belittles you in front of a group of co-workers DO NOT accept that as typical behavior from management. Don't take it. Confront your boss appropriately and if it does not stop, start going up the chain. The less obvious and more insidious situation is when the manager makes small derogatory comments from time to time that you may not even notice. We all tune out so much of what we hear because we suffer from information overload. You need to listen to how your boss talks to you. Listen to the tone, the words, his/her demeanor, facial expressions. You may find that your boss is slightly condescending, or pushy, etc. Over time, this will wear you down and affect your performance and attitude. Don't let it get to that point. If you have a story to share, I would love to read it. Have a great Wednesday. posted at 10/19/2005 10:21:00 AM |
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Copyright © 2006 Beat Your Own Drum
5 Comments:
I had a situation like that once. We were pretty backed up with parts that needed to be tested and our boss thought that our time would be better spent sweeping the floor. I pointed out that we had someone in the building who was hired to do just that. All the guy did all day was bale cardboard and run a sweeper/scrubber. After a couple minutes of back and forth (Me: Why don't we get John to sweep the floor? We're really backed up right now. Him: I don't want to depend on him for that. Me: But it's his job.), he finally screamed, "STOP ARGUING WITH ME!" This was in front of another coworker. I hadn't considered what I was doing as arguing, just suggesting an alternative solution and I never once raised my voice. I have yet to receive an apology for it, either.
What if you're married to a boss?
;)
And if you are a boss who gets bullied by your staff and your boss backs them up? Are you mad?
Ananke,
And you probably never will. :(
Jillian,
I love you.
Sparkling,
I would fire my boss. :) Actually, I would tell him that if he was going to undercut my authority to go look for another pawn. Usually though if you are bullied by your staff, you have some problems to deal with of your own. That does not give license for your boss to be inappropriate. Good one, sparkling.
Eric Boehme
Wow! Story of my life right there. Well, I had a boss who was/is also the owner of the company. He was abusive AND harrassing. It was so bad that one day he started yelling at me in a staff meeting (he was bipolar) about something I had no part of. It was so bad I started crying in front of everyone which was really humiliating. Needless to say, I told him that was unacceptable and found another job; however, I put up with this behavior for a year before ending my employment with him. And you are so right about it affecting your performance and attitude because towards the end I didn't care about a thing. I could barely bring myself into work in the morning.
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