Over the Christmas holidays, I ran across an article in the Winnipeg Free Press that claimed that 27% of employees said that their bosses made negative comments about them to other employees and other managers.
Now just picture this: lining up 100 bosses in a row, having 27 of them step forward and accusing them of talking about their employees to other employees behind their backs. How incredibly juvenile and malicious is this, really?
I couldn’t believe what I read. It was sourced from the College of Business at Florida Sate University who surveyed some 700 people in a variety of jobs. This was only one of their findings. But this is the one that surprised me the most. Bosses? Talking badly about employees to other employees? Jeez are we still in high school?
It’s time for these bosses to start growing up. What possible good can come from talking to employees about the performance of other employees? You can only hope, as a boss, that the person you’re telling doesn’t clue in that in five minutes you may be talking to someone else about him or her. Gossip is one of the most demoralizing factors in any office. And when that gossiper is in a supervisory position, the company is in big trouble.
Employee morale drops. Performance numbers fall. Attrition rises dramatically. Training budgets become stretched to the max from having to hire so many new people. The company will have a bad reputation with its employees. And once it becomes part of the corporate culture, good luck finding qualified people willing to work there.
If this gossiper sounds like your boss, risk the loss of your job by going over their heads and demanding a change. The boss that talks about their people to other employees needs to be fired today. If their immediate supervisors are reluctant to do something about it, they should be fired too.
And if you can’t find a way to make senior management do something about the problem, then plan your exit strategy and perhaps consider doing what they do: talk to others behind their backs – others like the media.
Nothing solves a problem quicker than the watchful eye of the general public and a subsequent drop in business. No business can afford to keep loose-lipped bosses in their ranks. Business, be prepared to take your lumps if you choose to keep these poor excuses for mentors on-board. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior from anyone in a supervisory capacity. Doing nothing condones the behavior and actually fosters more.
Make sure your supervisors are skilled in the art of tact, confidentiality and diplomacy. If you don’t, you’ll pay – one way or another.
2 comments:
It is funny that you address this because I too have experienced this same behaviour with my former mananger (unfortunately a woman, which lends to the stereo-typing). I called her on it and had documentation to proove my case. She was quite annoyed and later made life a living .... for me, until I took my complaint to the next level. It was later smoothed over in that she felt that you always hurt the ones you have known longest as they will likely be more tolerant. Very nice person, personally but unfit in a supervisory capacity.
Agree with you, right up until...
"And if you can’t find a way to make senior
management do something about the problem, then plan
your exit strategy and perhaps consider doing what
they do: talk to others behind their backs – others
like the media."
Planning the exit strategy and moving to a better place sounds healthy. But throwing yourself into potential negative light by trying to impact something behind you? Perhaps requesting an exit interview with senior management, then focusing positive energy on new challenges may be healthier!
A media crusade against poor playground behaviour sounds like sour grapes, and is perhaps not much better than your ex boss!
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