Horrible bosses come in all shapes, sizes, colors and creeds, so to speak.
Unfortunately, I’ve had a few “monster managers” — as I call them — during my career. They can mean big trouble for companies while making an employee’s work life intolerable. Ditto that for groups of employees.
This is Part 3 of a multi-part series examining how monster managers can cause irrevocable damage to both employers and the workforce.
- Lost Productivity
- Legal Liability
- Bad PR & Crisis Comms
Monster managers not only poison the work environment but also cost companies untold millions of dollars in lost productivity.
These unsavory characters can make an employee’s work life miserable. The unenviable result is less employee engagement, lower job satisfaction, plummeting morale, and increased absenteeism — all of which hurt bottom-line productivity for any organization.
This post will examine two of the most typical types of monster managers I’ve noticed during my career: The Bullies and The Bigots.
Bullies and bigots are not mutually exclusive. Rather, some monster managers exhibit both toxic traits.
Monster Managers: Toxic Cultures and Tortured Workers (Part 1)
Who Are Monster Managers? And Why Should You Care?
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The Bullies
Bullying bosses abuse their management authority by abusing their employees. They isolate staff and then divide and conquer them individually.
These bullying managers target some innocent employees for management abuse, while selecting others for favoritism. The bullying tactics are always based on non-job-related factors that have nothing to do with merit, ability and performance.
Monster managers bully staff with an abundance of malice under the guise of micromanagement. They use multiple fear tactics including, but not limited to, the following seven sinful management practices:
- Intimidating employees with frequent loud verbal outbursts ridden with expletives and crude physical gestures.
- Humiliating victims by demeaning them during staff meetings or in the halls in front of co-workers.
- Clock-watching and obsessing over minor infractions in time and attendance rather than focusing on bottom-line results.
- Constantly looking over their targets’ shoulders, literally and figuratively, for the smallest mistake or excuse to castigate them.
- Disciplining staff unnecessarily based on irrational reasoning for minor mistakes — or lambasting employees for no legitimate reason at all.
- Playing “mind games” by consistently contacting workers after hours, on weekends, holidays, vacations, sick days, etc.
- Dumping asinine assignments and laborious administrative work on senior employees for frivolous reasons.
Such shoddy management maneuvers eviscerate any semblance of employee motivation, job satisfaction and company loyalty.
Monster managers make the workplace a dangerous place for their victims and co-workers, causing performance and productivity to plummet.
The reckless behavior of bullying bosses not only negatively affects individual employees, but often has a ripple effect which extends to the entire team.
Top 3 Reasons Why CEOs Should Fire Monster Managers ASAP! (Part 2)
Failure to remove bad apples includes lost productivity, legal liability and bad PR.
medium.com
The Bigots
Some monster managers thrive on harassment, discrimination and related unlawful conduct. This can occur in both a traditional brick-and-mortar office environment, in addition to a virtual environment via remote work.
Bigoted bosses harbor views that are racist, sexist and ageist. They may also target employees for discrimination based on gender identification, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability, and other factors.
The biased beliefs of monster managers manifest in how they treat other staff, either directly or indirectly, consciously or subconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally.
Monster managers might harass female or male employees, both verbally and physically, based on any number of unlawful factors. This may take place not only in person, but also through electronic communications like email, texts, direct messages, etc.
The key as to when such harassment becomes unlawful is whether the egregious conduct crosses the legal threshold to establish a hostile work environment — which often varies from case to case, based on the specific allegations and proof or lack thereof.
Bad bosses, for example, can create sexually hostile work environments and/or engage in quid pro quo harassment by demanding sexual favors in exchange for some work benefit, such as a pay raise or promotion.
- More on the different types of employment discrimination can be found here (hyperlink to the website of the U.S. EEOC).
Monster managers can prey upon young workers on their first jobs, often teens and 20-somethings. These young people might be unaware of their employment rights and more vulnerable to exploitation.
And, if all that weren’t bad enough, monster managers often resort to knee-jerk reactions via retaliation.
Speaking Out
Retaliation usually occurs when victims are brave enough to speak out against unlawful conduct and file complaints either within the company or through a state, local, or federal government agency.
Retaliation often means victims are subjected to a double dose of discrimination — first based on the monster manager’s initial conduct and, second, based on retaliating against the aggrieved employee for exercising their statutory right to speak out and/or file complaints.
Moreover, employers should be mindful that federal courts have ruled the business entity CAN be held liable for retaliation even if an employee’s initial complaint is found to be meritless.
Monster managers tend to favor, mentor, and promote selected staff for frivolous and superficial reasons — such as they look and act like they do or have similar backgrounds.
Even in a diverse workplace, some bigoted bosses might use racial, ethnic, and sexist slurs to harass employees behind closed doors or degrade them to co-workers behind their backs.
Employees who are subjected to discrimination often dread going to work and are prevented by the monster managers from doing their best work.
The Takeaway
All of the aforementioned unprofessional, unlawful or unethical conduct by monster managers is obviously detrimental to a positive and productive work environment.
A healthy workplace is one in which all employees can reach their full potential by harnessing their unique talents and abilities.
Remember that the unlawful conduct of monster managers, if left unchecked, can spread like wildfire and debilitate an entire office or division. That’s also why targeted workers need to be brave, stay strong, speak out and demand their administrative and legal rights.
The only thing monster managers truly deserve is to be kicked to the curbside of the work site. And this only happens when they are confronted privately or publicly.
There needs to be more “whistle blowing” by employees and less cowering to management abuse and unlawful conduct — which has no place in the workplace.
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AUTHOR’S NOTE: Please stay tuned for Part 4 of this series, coming soon, which will focus more on how monster managers ruin the work culture. Also, in case you missed it, you can also catch up here or above with Part 2 and Part 1 of this series.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I’m a former strategic communications executive and national/global spokesman for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Prior to that, I worked in the White House, Congress, and the news media. You can learn more about me here.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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