Workplace Bullying

teaspach

Hi,

I had the misfortune today to witness a particularly bad outburst by a manager in the company where I work. This guy is a piece of work. He is extremely aggressive and engages in regular witch hunts where he almost fanatically tries to ascertain 'who dropped the ball on this one'. He then threatens to fire them, verbally abuses them and engages in bullying behaviour. I have been in meetings with him before which consisted of him shouting at everybody at the top of his voice.

Nobody has ever taken him on because he is head of the section where we work. People are afraid of being fired, which he threatens people with on a regular basis. If someone told him to f*** off I think his entire bubble would be burst, and he would have no credibility whatsoever. He trades on fear, intimidation and harrassment. People work their asses of just so they never have to sit in his office and be shouted at. E-mails are routinely sent at 3am. People work around the clock. The whole company is a pressure cooker. Everyone is permanently terrified.

Today, he came over to my section and began asking in (a very agressive manner), about a particular issue. He was as close to shouting as you could be. Then he stormed off shouting, "YOU ARE ALL COMPLETELY USELESS, I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE LIKE - JESUS!!". The 'YOU', he refers to are some of the most capable people I have ever worked with. His comments are totally without merit. His ass is saved by them on a daily basis. The tension, when he is around, is unbearable, everyone is terrified as to what he's going to do next. It's difficult to describe unless you have been in the situation. It makes for a very uncomfortable working experience.

I know that this particular manager is under a lot of stress, but everyone in the company is under a lot of stress. It seems like he has been promoted to a level where he just can't cope with the pressure. However, venting your anxieties on the rest of the department is very unprofessional to say the least. I know people in HR, and I have spoken to the person who deals with HR issues. Their experience of the same manager is completely different, and supposedly butter wouldn't melt in his mouth when dealing with HR. HR are not in the same area as us, so they have no idea what's going on.

I am wondering what protections are there for employees who are victim to this kind of behaviour either through employee laws or from a HR perspective.

thanks.

Pure Sound

Well he can't just fire you without going through the correct procedures, if he did try and do it he could find himself in the labour relations court. Are ye unionised or is their staff that are willing to represent you as a collective group. Could you talk to his boss about it or possibly him as he might not even realise that he is acting so badly.

teaspach

Private sector - no union. His boss founded the company, and is no shrinking violet himself. I actually think he would probably endorse this "managerial style", if that's what you want to call it. No one else in the company carries on like that so it would take a profound lack of self awareness not to realise that he was being a total a**hole.

LegacyUser

i guess you are in a tough situation. The best way to handle it is to have a meeting with staff who are treated badly by this manager and have all /most submit a complaint to HR about his behaviour. If one or two did it, it might be dismissed as one of those things...but if the whole section did it then they would have to sit up and take notice.

my experience of managers like that is that they take out their stress on people where they know they will get away with it..but know when to keep their own mouths shut (ie your HR)


The only downside to a group complaint to HR is that should the manager be kept on, he could find other ways to make life hell for the team.