Bad, bad boss!

It’s off putting! In the past 4 weeks, I had 3 of my lovely ex-colleagues (I’ve known them from different companies over the years who are now my friends) coming to me for advice or just a listening ear as they had not been treated right; clear communication was not given, policies, processes and procedures in their organisation were not adhered to … by their own managers! To be a little more specific, these are their cases:

  1. At a not-for-profit organisation: Being bullied by a team member and was placed on extended probation by her immediate manager for not working well with the team – even though she had taken the additional workload of another team member who had been sick for a few weeks and she had avoided further conflict with the bully. In addition, the direct feedback from other colleagues, peers and CEO had been very positive.
  2. At a well-known MNC: Given no prior feedback by immediate supervisor that she is underperforming until she found that out at her performance appraisal. Her immediate supervisor had based his evaluation on just one stakeholder at a project even though my friend had received “met” and “exceeded expectations” from clients and stakeholders on this and her other projects
  3. At a local SME: Despite requesting for it numerous times, he was not given any employment contract since he started work 8 months ago. He travelled interstate weekly at ridiculous early morning flight hours and returning on the same day late flight (these flights are cheaper and arranged by the company) for about 2-3 months and was even diagnosed with RSI for the long hours he worked. Only to be made redundant a week after the announcement of the project he was working on was to be placed on hold.

How could managers get away with these? Why do HR (if there is one in the first place) allow such behaviours in any organisation? Sure, my friends could walk away, be assertive and say ‘no’ but they are all hardworking, educated professionals and were looking at the bigger picture. For instance,

  • Case 1: she believed in the purpose and values of the not-for-profit organisation and had been trying to be a good team player despite the bully. Hence, the extended probation was a distress to her.
  • Case 2: She enjoys her work and had been in the organisation for about 7 years and is already in a Senior Manager position. She understands she needs to play tough at a “boys club”. She was just shocked that senior staff like this director still has no idea how performance management process should proceed.
  • Case 3: He understands that the SME has limited resources and was willing to “sacrifice” for the sake of the company and to meet customers expectations. He is disgusted at the way he was treated.

It may be all work to these managers and not personal but there is always a professional and humane way to treat people! I doubt it had occurred to these managers the extended effects of their behaviour. The impact on the current employees – if they had witnessed that their managers treating one employee this way, won’t they feel that it could also happen to them? There will be extra workload on the existing team members. Morale, motivation and productivity levels will be reduced, staff turnover and recruitment costs may increase, customer service levels and bottom line will be impacted and what about the effects of negative word of mouth?

Surely it cannot be true that nice guys finish last?

Article also found in: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140629075538-5398941-bad-bad-boss?trk=mp-reader-card

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