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Kerry
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What about in school? We have instructors bullying students in our nursing program.
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lowbass
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I had the worst boss in Texas. She "discontinued" my position, though I understand full well she fired me when she learned I was planning a move to Illinois in 3 months time. The very next day there was a new girl working my very same job under a 'new' title. But I could have cared less. I still send that boss an x-mas card each year to let her know how great everything has turned out up here (never mind the fact she's Jewish). I just don't want her to forget me - and therefore what she DID to me, or others like me for that matter because I was certainly not a lone victim of her psychotic abuses.
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Pooky
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You have got to be kidding. What's next, legislation and damage awards to punish "bullies" who "humiliate" their employees?
Her "workplace-training coach?" How inane.
This represents more evidence that the U.S. is turning into a nation of entitled, dysfunctional idiots.
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Pooky
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lowbass wrote: I had the worst boss in Texas. She "discontinued" my position, though I understand full well she fired me when she learned I was planning a move to Illinois in 3 months time. The very next day there was a new girl working my very same job under a 'new' title. But I could have cared less. I still send that boss an x-mas card each year to let her know how great everything has turned out up here (never mind the fact she's Jewish). I just don't want her to forget me - and therefore what she DID to me, or others like me for that matter because I was certainly not a lone victim of her psychotic abuses. Hey Lowbass: In America, we use to call it, look for another job. By the way, when you reference what you're old boss "did" to you, your simply referring to what you did to yourself by choosing to work for her on a daily basis. In a free society, good bosses who motivate their employees and grown their business succeed. Those who don't fail. But they get to choose their own methods as long as they don't violate the law.
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AI Tyler
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What do you do when your boss is the office bully? He curses at us (we work in a open office environment). More importanly, he is passive agressive. He makes comments that are demoralizing constantly. He sits there and sighs if we are not making our sales quotas. In this economy that seems remisss. I work as hard as I can, but have been reduced to tears and anxiety attacks weekly.
The only reason that I work there is because I have health benefits. I want to tell him to F-off but I cannot. I would like to give him constructive feedback, but I don't want to be fired.
This is a very important issue. It cannot be ignored. AI Tyler
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Cass
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Too bad workplace bullying wasn't more of an issue 10 years ago. I had a couple of male bosses who were simply arrogant misogynists, but then I had a series of female bosses who were psychotic. I was an associate director of research at a Chicago ad agency, and my boss took every chance she could to humiliate and belittle me in meetings with other staff, and worse, with clients. This was after she told me in the initial job interview that she tried to support women she supervised because she knew how hard it was for women to succeed in business. She told me in the interview that as long as I did my job, I'd have some latitude in my work hours.
After three months of working 100 hour weeks, my dog died of cancer. We'd hoped to save him through surgery, so the day before, I left work an hour early. The day of the surgery I called in sick. He died on the operating table. The next day I went to work. My boss called me into her office and screamed at me for an hour about how I'd left work early two days before, and how I'd misused a sick day (I never took a sick day before). She carried on about how I was paid to work 9-5 (that would have been a treat if I'd been able to!), and that she expected me to be in the office til 5. Finally, she told me she was sorry my dog died.
I went to human resources and I quit with two weeks' notice. For my remaining two weeks, I showed up promptly at 9 and left promptly at 5. The sad part of all of this was that a year later, this woman was fired, too late for me, of course.
This is one reason I can't vote for a woman like Hillary Clinton as president. She's shown she would be a bully as a boss, she mismanages her staff, and she would be blaming her incompetence on everyone around her. She thinks nothing of humiliating others in public.
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lowbass
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Pooky wrote: <quoted text>
Hey Lowbass: In America, we use to call it, look for another job. By the way, when you reference what you're old boss "did" to you, your simply referring to what you did to yourself by choosing to work for her on a daily basis. In a free society, good bosses who motivate their employees and grown their business succeed. Those who don't fail. But they get to choose their own methods as long as they don't violate the law. You're not wrong at all! That's what I did (found a new job)- but I couldn't just quit my job before starting a new one which didn't begin until 3 months later. I had every intention of finishing out my 'sentence' there before moving on, but this horrid person nixed that plan and really hung me out to dry - and I know for fact it was on purpose. But that work place has had a revolving door of employees, and I myself was only there 6 months. What should have been a great opportunity was ruined by the way this boss works - and from the sounds of it, this is sadly not a unique problem. Thankfully, I can say I found a great job here in Illinois!
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Irish Mickey
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AI Tyler wrote: What do you do when your boss is the office bully? He curses at us (we work in a open office environment). More importanly, he is passive agressive. He makes comments that are demoralizing constantly. He sits there and sighs if we are not making our sales quotas. In this economy that seems remisss. I work as hard as I can, but have been reduced to tears and anxiety attacks weekly.
The only reason that I work there is because I have health benefits. I want to tell him to F-off but I cannot. I would like to give him constructive feedback, but I don't want to be fired.
This is a very important issue. It cannot be ignored. AI Tyler This is the exact attitude that is killing our economy. So your boss gets mad when you dont meet quotas? Whats the problem? I can not believe what babies this society is turning into......if you dont like your job go find another one. Bottom line people like you will complain about anything. I work in a full office of people like you that cry if someone asks them to do some work. Basically you could make a million a year and work 2 days a week and still complain. Work sucks just deal with it. Everyone looks for a quick solution and think everything is supposed to a dream job and everyone thinks they should be making more. Just cause you have a degree doesnt mean that you are smart. Its just a piece of paper that says you did what you were told and followed orders for 4 years +. Think for yourself..
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olucy
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People don't CHOOSE to work for a bully on a daily basis. And looking for another job isn't as "easy" as it sounds. Besides, if a person would otherwise like their job if it weren't for their bully boss (or bully colleague) and they're good at it, why should THEY be the ones to have to leave?
I think stricter guidelines are a good idea. Sexual harrassment still isn't eliminated, but progress has been made. I don't see why the same can't be done here.
Oh, BTW, I appreciate the effort to relate this article to pop culture, but a photo of Jim from The Office? Really? Does the person who chose that even watch TV? He's a practical joker, but not a bully. That's a dumb photo.
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Des Plaines Resident
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How is Jim from the office a bully?
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David
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Uh, classifying Jim from The Office as a bully? I don't think so. Dwight, Angela or even Michael, maybe.
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Pooky
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Cass wrote: Too bad workplace bullying wasn't more of an issue 10 years ago. I had a couple of male bosses who were simply arrogant misogynists, but then I had a series of female bosses who were psychotic. I was an associate director of research at a Chicago ad agency, and my boss took every chance she could to humiliate and belittle me in meetings with other staff, and worse, with clients. This was after she told me in the initial job interview that she tried to support women she supervised because she knew how hard it was for women to succeed in business. She told me in the interview that as long as I did my job, I'd have some latitude in my work hours.
After three months of working 100 hour weeks, my dog died of cancer. We'd hoped to save him through surgery, so the day before, I left work an hour early. The day of the surgery I called in sick. He died on the operating table. The next day I went to work. My boss called me into her office and screamed at me for an hour about how I'd left work early two days before, and how I'd misused a sick day (I never took a sick day before). She carried on about how I was paid to work 9-5 (that would have been a treat if I'd been able to!), and that she expected me to be in the office til 5. Finally, she told me she was sorry my dog died.
I went to human resources and I quit with two weeks' notice. For my remaining two weeks, I showed up promptly at 9 and left promptly at 5. The sad part of all of this was that a year later, this woman was fired, too late for me, of course.
This is one reason I can't vote for a woman like Hillary Clinton as president. She's shown she would be a bully as a boss, she mismanages her staff, and she would be blaming her incompetence on everyone around her. She thinks nothing of humiliating others in public. First, when you describe all of your bosses are "pychos" and "arrogant misogynists," I cannot help but wonder what your role was in this. Did you have a role, or are all of the people that have been elevated to being your superiors in the workplace somehow seriously flawed or mentally ill? Posts like this illustrate the nightmare that employers and public companies will experience if it is indeed true that the "States are taking action." as the tile of this article implies. Is this truly an issue that we want the "States," i.e.: the State to exercise control over? In a capitalistic democracy, one has the right to work or not work wherever one wants. There's more than enough laws on the books governing fair treatment of employees. When we reach the point where hurt feelings in the workplace are an actionable cause, a real nightmare begins.
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carrie
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I have worked for several male and female bosses and I have found that the female boss can be loaded for bear when it comes to work. When I was the only female in a taxi company, I was treated all wrong in the beginning, but when I didn't break or back down and pretty much threw it back at them, they started to respect me. When working for women, there was no recourse for this. I prefer men bosses because they usually don't have to prove themselves with their superiors, but females seem to have a harder time with authority management because their higher ups are usually male and they feel that they have to prove themselves everyday at other people's expense. I am a female and this is what I have experienced.
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Sean
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Pooky wrote: You have got to be kidding. What's next, legislation and damage awards to punish "bullies" who "humiliate" their employees?
Her "workplace-training coach?" How inane.
This represents more evidence that the U.S. is turning into a nation of entitled, dysfunctional idiots. This is ignorance at its best. I work with a lady who is a complete control freak/micromanager. She's passive aggressive. She criticizes the way I talk to people on the phone. She criticizes the way I write the number of packages on a box. That's a control freak/micromanager. Get another job? Are you kidding? 42,000 jobs were cut from the workforce in the month of February. This lady bullies one of our owners. She's constantly degrading our customers. Get a clue, Pooky. People like this do exist. I want to inflict bodily harm on my co-worker but she's not worth me getting in trouble and ruining my life.
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Sean
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Irish Mickey wrote: <quoted text>
This is the exact attitude that is killing our economy. So your boss gets mad when you dont meet quotas? Whats the problem? I can not believe what babies this society is turning into......if you dont like your job go find another one. Bottom line people like you will complain about anything. I work in a full office of people like you that cry if someone asks them to do some work. Basically you could make a million a year and work 2 days a week and still complain. Work sucks just deal with it. Everyone looks for a quick solution and think everything is supposed to a dream job and everyone thinks they should be making more. Just cause you have a degree doesnt mean that you are smart. Its just a piece of paper that says you did what you were told and followed orders for 4 years +. Think for yourself.. We all are not gonna like our jobs but, that has nothing to do with co-workers who make the job worse with their behavior that is completely unacceptable. From one mick to another: You're a moron.
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Susan
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Pooky, you sound like you could be an office bully.
Jobs are often very hard to come by. It is often more work to look for jobs than actually having one, and I work a good 60 hours per week. I have worked in a cellblock environment and in good office environments.
We all need to learn to deal with office crap, but we should all make an attempt to solve the problems. If more work environments were progressive and if workers spent more time trying to fix problems than denying they exist, then that would help bring the jobs into a more positive setting. Another epidemic. It is harder not to do your job than to do it, yet most people try to alleviate responsibility and give it to someone else...big problem.
Bullying is very common. Learn to play the game and defend yourself. Stay on top of it and take responsibility. Leave if it is going south. Be unemployed with self-respect.
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Louise Davis
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Anyone who thinks it's possible to just "move on" when they're subjected to daily mental torture in their workplace, must be responsible only for themselves. I work in a small town and have two young children to raise - I have to have health benefits and a job with a decent salary, and the number of jobs in this town that provide that are few and far between. My boss knows this and is a sicko who enjoys lording over his employees and demeaning them for no reason. Some people can handle authority and for some it overwhelms them with grandiose ideas.
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Pooky
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Sean wrote: <quoted text> This is ignorance at its best. I work with a lady who is a complete control freak/micromanager. She's passive aggressive. She criticizes the way I talk to people on the phone. She criticizes the way I write the number of packages on a box. That's a control freak/micromanager. Get another job? Are you kidding? 42,000 jobs were cut from the workforce in the month of February. This lady bullies one of our owners. She's constantly degrading our customers. Get a clue, Pooky. People like this do exist. I want to inflict bodily harm on my co-worker but she's not worth me getting in trouble and ruining my life. Starting your comment by suggesting that I'm ignorant speaks volume. At the end of the day, Sean, "I work with..." in America means that you have exercised your right to choose to work in a given job. If you read my previous post, I never implied that "bullies" in the work place don't exist. That's not the issue. I'm simply opposed to involving the State in an issue that's as ambiguous as "bullying" in the workplace. If you were given the option, Sean, you'd probably be first to line up to file a complaint against your supervisor with the Ill. Department of Control Freak/Micromanagement Abuse, right? That is what you're suggesting as the solution to the raw deal you get on the job everyday, right?
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still suffering
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Like others have mentioned it isn't easy working for a bully. Quitting isn't always something you can do fast enough. It can take time to find a new job. If your bully boss is trying to push you out they are destroying your reputation every day you stay on the job.
The article mentions health and stress. I've been there. Suffered for many months after with major digestion problems that I didn't have till my last 3 weeks on the job.
A lawsuit won't help the situation. There will always be bad bosses. If you decide to sue you will be putting yourself through this stress again. Also, even if you win your will be labeled a trouble maker for future employers if the info ever gets out and it does.
What has to change is the organization. Organizations need to stop assuming the boss is always right and value employees more.
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Pooky
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Susan wrote: Pooky, you sound like you could be an office bully.
Jobs are often very hard to come by. It is often more work to look for jobs than actually having one, and I work a good 60 hours per week. I have worked in a cellblock environment and in good office environments.
We all need to learn to deal with office crap, but we should all make an attempt to solve the problems. If more work environments were progressive and if workers spent more time trying to fix problems than denying they exist, then that would help bring the jobs into a more positive setting. Another epidemic. It is harder not to do your job than to do it, yet most people try to alleviate responsibility and give it to someone else...big problem.
Bullying is very common. Learn to play the game and defend yourself. Stay on top of it and take responsibility. Leave if it is going south. Be unemployed with self-respect. No Susan, I'm not an office bully--far from it. Throughout my years as a co-worker and later as a business owner, I've been respectful and considerate of people's feelings in the workplace--probably to a fault. Through the years, I also had supervisors and bosses that were abusive. But life's a drag at work sometimes. That's because of human nature and its hardly a new "issue" that the Trib has uncovered. I also complained along the way about my bosses--as most workers do on a frequent basis. But I toughed it out, saved my money and started my own business. That's how its done here in a free country. You take a job and you either flourish and profit in it, or you make another choice. At some point in the process, you may discover that you want to do it yourself and start your own business. If you don't, you'll spend the rest of your life working for other people--many of whom you think are bullying or mismanaging you. If you're being threatened or physically assaulted on the job, call 911. That's simply how it works here.
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