12 thoughts on “A question for ya”

  1. I think the difference comes down to intent.

    You don’t simply punch someone in the face out of incompetence, poor planning, miscommunication, etc. I suspect most “bad” managers, are not “intentionally” bad, much like in government, there is a difference between poor planning/budgeting/management and out and out fraud.

  2. Interesting argument. Legally, if you harm someone through incompetence or bad planning, you can still face consequences.

    Let’s say you’re a horrible driver and you run over someone else. Even if you didn’t intend to, you can till be held responsible.

  3. You should come to Holland, punching someone in the face here does not send you to prison.

    Problem is proving causation. People’s lives can be ruined by any means, how do you prove that it was bad management? And also, how does one define bad management in such a way that it can be put into legal wording?

  4. hi Alexander
    I am with you, I am not so sure of the lack of intent I sometimes think the behaviour can feel planned and targeted often leaving the person involved limited options with their employment and long lengths of recovery to allow them to heal all the damage that has been done.
    It is very frustrating to feel that there is no consequence for a boss who continues to behave badly, how do they learn to manage and be different ?
    I have worked for good and bad bosses and the learning that I took away from the bad boses was not to ever treat my staff in that manner.

  5. I suppose, since indentured servitude isn’t the norm, that employees would leave at a higher rate if the manager is horrible. At some point turnover or rotten results should call attention to the problem.
    Meanwhile, why do employees accept to have their lives ruined? To quote Eleanor Roosevelt “Nobody can take advantage of you unless you let them.” I don’t mean to belittle employees with bad managers but rather to give them the courage to look for somewhere they will be more appreciated.

  6. Good point. You can emotionally abuse an employee, or even a spouse or child with no consequences. This can be difficult to deal with, especially in today’s job market, which makes it harder to just jump ship.

    When physical boundaries are crossed, it’s easy to see and identify, because there is a physical boundary. It’s harder to draw boundaries around emotional abuse. My guess, though is that there will be increased development of laws against emotional abuse, such as the girls charged when the victim they were bullying took her own life. The legal route, however is not the best of solutions. Ideally, we as a society will do a better job of making people accountable for how they may be treating others.

  7. You make a good point on emotional stand points. Everyone seems more concerned with physical lately than how emotions can really have such harmful damage on a person all through their life. What ever happened to going to school in Kindergarten and on your first day the teacher explained to you the Golden Rule? So many of us have forgotten about this growing up and now its and Eye for an Eye.

    True in certain cases it’s hard to turn the other cheek and walk away but I would say the biggest reason why there are no consequences is because the employees need the money. People have families to care for and bills to pay so it’s kind of a scenerio where you will tolerate the harrassment because it puts food on the table. Either that or wind up without a job for gosh knows how long. With so many people without jobs people go months or even a couple years without finding anything and even then will the job provide enough to eat? To stay in your house? We have to put up with it because if we don’t there will be someone else who will be sitting in our chair making out money while we have to start living paycheck to paycheck.

    At least this is my theory….

  8. I did chuckle, people as I’m assuming you mean in this thought should be held accountable for their actions and realistically I think that this should be stretched to managers and others that carry out similar activities that negatively effect people and cause damage. Do note that although I’m commenting with my company email address etc that I’m not actually speaking on behalf of them and that this is my opinion only and I can’t speak for them.

  9. Emotions are not the only thing at play, here. These people, who have years of experience and abilities and knowledge that come from that experience, have been pretty much told, by a newbie MBA, that they have not done their jobs correctly, or well. Trying to find a “happier” job in today’s climate would be foolhardy at best, especially when it should have been totally unnecessary. This person should not have been allowed to get this far. Having a Master’s degree in anything does not mean you know what you’re doing. I’ve seen them come and go. Fortunately, they weren’t hired to be in charge of anything but themselves and their own job, which some did not do well at all.

    It makes me wonder if “corporate” was sending these new managers to the different offices to get experience and learn from them to make them better managers, instead of remaking the office into something unrecognizable. Otherwise, considering all the time she spent in secret, communing with the head office, something else might have been going on.

    I’ve seen big organizations change an entire staff structure (regional on down) to force the older, experienced people out, the ones that know how to do their job. New hires – with NO experience in that particular field – would eventually replace them all. They, of course, could be molded and trained the way the new “corporate” wants things to be done, right or wrong. It’s not pretty, but it’s done all the time in the Federal gov’t, i.e, Census Bureau.

  10. I can understand some of the power over dynamic, having lived it for almost six years. In my case it was the HR Manager and I wasn’t the only one. I thought I was the only one left. She ruined the careers of at least two people that I know of and some openly left because of her harassment. She went on maternity leave recently and while she was gone people got to talking. That is how we found out that none of us were alone in the harassment. And harassment it was. She actually physically assaulted me at the water cooler one day, I went flying! The executives don’t “get in the weeds” with the women so they pretend that they are ignoring it while laughing. Since I work in old school man zone, they are the ones that make the decisions. If they choose to ignore it, it doesn’t exist.

  11. Because it comes down to responsibility. You should never allow a manager to wreck your career, life or health. Things like that don’t happen overnight and it is up to YOU to remove yourself from the situation.

    A punch in the face is quiet abrupt and can catch you off guard with no chance of defending yourself.

    But you can always take hold of your life and make the choice not to have your manager wreck your career, life or health. That is a choice YOU make.

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