14 DAY TRIAL // That's for sure. One in four employees detests his/her superiors. How can we bear this situation every day?
In many offices, the creativity and good mood appear just around the coffee maker, when the chorus starts to rant and rave against the boss: this is the group therapy. The so efficient German workers waste four hours weekly in criticizing the superiors. If a chief rules out employees for arbitrary reasons, the workers remain at least with the right to protest.
The mobbing (work harassment) have already reached courts and stress is increasingly regarded as a professional disease. Stress affects 28 % of the European working force, 41 million persons. Mobbing is experienced by 15 % of the salaried. The collateral damages induced by problematic superiors are: long absences of the employees, early retirements, worming mentality and so on. This is translated in losses of billions of dollars yearly.
On the other hand, most superiors are by no means better than their subalterns. Many do not know how to react when they face unruly employees. Should they inform those in the upper hierarchy? This could be seen as a lack of authority. Should they unburden themselves with the inferiors? The godfathers are not well received.
Bosses possess heavy artillery (dismissal, no renewal of the contract, transfer) and the employees use sabotage and gabfests: faxes that do not want to arrive, computers that fail, diseases of difficult diagnostic... This struggle produces victims on both bands. Obviously, the weak one loses, and that's usually the employee.
In a Spanish case, one female employee was wetting herself any time her boss was shouting at her. This is the "burn-out" syndrome, very common, when the victim feels physically and emotionally exhausted. To alleviate his/her situation, the victim will isolate himself/herself, developing a cold attitude towards the others.
In Germany, 30 % of the executives were found to experience neurosis, with the anthem "the human being is bad by nature". When the unbalanced ones take a job that requires great responsibility, the gains of the company decrease on average by 6 %. In healthy companies, the new products start to bring profit in 37 months; in those led by psychopaths, profit comes 58 months later.
Now there are managerial forming personnel in order to exploit most effectively the "human capital" by punishing where it hurts most, without triggering their hate. At the same time, many books come with self-defense for warred office workers.
Once the type of boss is determined, the danger can be avoided. It's easy to identify the great abuser that climbed to the top employing elbowing. Also that one which has "crowned" himself as the eternal boss. His/her slogan is: idiots like to surround themselves by those who are even more idiot.
These types trigger just one salvation: dismissal. They "finish" either the employees or the company. But the manuals also point that managers could be educated by employees up to a certain point. How? They bear fear: fear of losing their job, of committing errors, that their prestige could fall suddenly, losing their authority, ... In an office, there are many types of endangered species. The "capo di tutti capi" exists just in the mafia. Let's see some species:
TALIBAN: He/she is paranoid, narcissist, and vengeful. Just a good word towards one of his/her enemies will put you on his/her black list. You have to stay away from him/her. If not, you are prone to depression, back pains...
"His tactic was to have always a scape goat, the weakest, which in his eyes never did something good. We, the other, were his accomplices. We made the colleague's life miserable till he could not stand more and left. Than the boss chose another victim and the cycle started again".
THE KING OF THE MAMBO: Handsome, clever. There's no party without him. And no business dinner to last less than 6 p.m. He/she is a charming charlatan. He glows by ... mediocrity. There's no danger with him, except when he is a sexual harasser. He/she allows the employee quite enough freedom; in the morning he/she is the last to arrive and in the evening the first to leave.
"My sub-director is the typical funny. But none dares to tell him "what a good joke ..." When he returns tanned from a journey you feel like you would tell him: the manager is looking for you. Have you seen him? He's so busy firing those that did not preserve the bills".
HYPERACTIVE: He's work addicted. His desk is a battlefield, his secretary takes tranquilizing drugs. He's running from meeting to meeting. He does not listen. He establishes too many objectives.
You have to be constant with him and impress him. Interest yourself in his cardiovascular health and ask him/her: "Have you heard about X. Heart attack with just 40 years old ..." Ask him/her about his/her sons' marks. He/she won't know and he/she will feel guilty.
"My boss is that kind that looks over you and correct you when you're typing at the computer. What can be more cripply? When she does it, I get up and go to the toilet or to drink a coffee. When I turn back, she's sending mails, without even seeing me".
SATRAP: He/she believes to be very philosophical because he/she is very attentive to human miseries. He/she is so sensitive that he/she does not even try to give instructions. You'll miss him/her when he/she is gone.
"He turned mad when somebody exaggerated with the diets or asked an unjustified loss. He never reproached. But if you discussed with him, he would remember you even after months. He had an implicit pact: Don't stress me and I won't stress you".
DISTRASTFUL: Always on defense. If something goes wrong, he will send a scapegoat to his superiors. He's never guilty. He will never be the best, but he won't fail entirely. He cannot delegate, he's a control maniac. He must be faced with the rumor of an alliance hatched by the employees. He's coward and will prefer to change behavior, rather than face a rebellion outbreak.
"If he's happy with my work, he's very quite. But he transmits insecurity with this behavior. He's friendly just when his seat is menaced".
THE UPSTART: This is the most common species. He/she speaks in cryptic and low voice. He/she never shows off his/her emotions but he/she praises the proper companies. His/her weak point is that he/she wants to be nice with everybody. Face him/her. You don't have to compete with him/her, but make him/her understand he/she will have troubles if he/she invades your territory.
USELESS. Very abundant, due to a known managerial practice: each employee will ascend into a work in which he/she reveals to be incompetent. In this case, the company gets gangrened. It's better to ask for the settlement.
"He was a child with a vast experience in companies "dotcom", in other words, three months. He stood out in firing. He finishes executed in less than a year. But this after having made a bloodbath amongst the personnel older than 45".
BIGWIG: He/she does not like intrigues. He has natural authority, with just a glance he/she installs the order. When they get angry, they punish just the guilty ones. You have to act with precaution, but without fear. He/she knows to distinguish and accepts suggestions.
"He can be the most charismatic executive of Coca-Cola, but he is most remembered for having ordered the flavor change. Nobody dared to contradict him when he planned the idea. The 800 phone lines of the company collapsed with the protest calls till the previous formula was restored".