Bad Bosses More Likely To Get Promoted While Employees Squirm
Posted August 3, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s just what you always suspected and now a new study confirms it: the meaner your boss, the more likely he or she is to get ahead in the world. If you work for a jerk, you won’t get much comfort from research that shows mean masters tend to be the ones who get promoted even as they ironically deflate their own employees’ productivity.
An online study by Bond University in Australia shows two thirds of those responding said their unbearable bosses were either never disciplined for their brutal behaviour or actually rewarded for it. And according to researchers, that’s a red flag that many companies are ignoring at their peril. “The fact that 64.2 percent of the respondents indicated that either nothing at all or something positive happened to the bad leader is rather remarkable — remarkably disturbing,” authors Anthony Don Erickson, Ben Shaw and Zha Agabe conclude.
The compilers contend that tyrants in the office can leave workers suffering from a host of problems that affect their output, including nervousness, sleeplessness, depression and exhaustion. And they suggest it’s up to head honchos in the corporate world to wake up to the fact that while stern overseers may appear to get results, they can also wind up costing a company money in the long run. “As with any sort of cancer, the best alternative to prevention is early detection,” they warn.
So other than quitting, what can you do other if the person above you is bad for business? Here are some suggestions from the Canadian Centre For Occupational Health and Safety
-Talk to your boss if possible. This can be dicey, but telling him or her why you consider the behaviour a problem could go a long way toward alleviating it. Make sure you present the facts in a non-confrontational and positive way that’s aimed only at improving productivity in the workplace. Some experts suggest the majority of bad bosses simply don’t realize what they’re doing.
-Check out your company’s policies on human rights and harassment. All big firms have them and they’re usually posted somewhere. More and more businesses are starting to take these kinds of violations seriously.
-Retain emails or memos that back up your contentions.
-Keep a log of the dates and times you feel you’ve been unfairly treated, and note the names of anyone who saw it happen.
-Report the problem to your human resources department and ask them for advice on your next move.
-Don’t try to get even. It usually backfires and you could give your abusive boss a reason to fire you.
-Don’t ignore the problem if it goes on for too long. It won’t go away and may get worse.
-Look for employment elsewhere. It’s a drastic step but one you may need to consider if things get really bad.
Source: Canadian Centre For Occupational Health and Safety
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