medicineman
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In case you missed my description of middle managers as being assholes here's more:
Big Bad Boss Tales
Overbearing Management Styles Are All the Rage. Did We Say Rage?
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 29, 2005; Page F01
The boss got the job done. There was no question about that. But while getting it done, he allegedly threw a tape dispenser at a contractor who complained about a lack of funds. He is said to have made nasty remarks about her weight and sexual orientation. He is accused of trying to fire people who disagreed with him. A high-up official recently called this boss a "serial abuser" of low-level employees and a "quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy."
As many know, the boss being so described is John R. Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control, President Bush's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations. Tales of his management style came out of Senate testimony during recent confirmation hearings. Bolton, if one is to believe the testimony, some of which has been denied by his colleagues, is the ultimate Bully Boss.
But he is certainly not the only one.
So, what is a bully boss? He or she is someone who threatens, intimidates and makes workers feel they have no power. This behavior can manifest itself in many ways -- some of them entertaining, but only long after the fact and mostly for the kind of rubberneckers drawn to highway accidents.
Of course, that's from the viewpoint of underlings. Bosses, like other people, have personality conflicts, and sometimes may find their dislike for an ineffectual or lazy employee hard to hide. Bosses who have to give out bad news -- bad evaluations, downsizing, firing -- may also find themselves painted as bullies by those on the receiving end.
The bully boss phenomenon has come under the spotlight in the past couple of years as executives have faced juries in the backwash of corporate scandals. Many of the big bosses who have been on trial have had to sit in the courtroom as former employees give testimony illustrating the seamy side of power. For if power corrupts, the bullying behavior it often triggers does not engender endless loyalty. And once the cards start going the other way, employees formerly cowed by the company's leaders can finally speak up.
The recently enacted scenes haven't been pretty.
Most prominently, perhaps, TV and print personality Martha Stewart was imprisoned for lying to federal investigators about a personal sale of shares in a biotechnology company. She was brought down, in part, by a Merrill Lynch broker's assistant who earned $45,000 a year. He testified against her and had e-mailed friends after run-ins with the housekeeping goddess. After one encounter, the assistant wrote to a friend that "I have never, ever been treated more rudely by a stranger on the telephone. She actually hung up on me!" He also noted that Stewart had referred to "people like that idiot" who answered the phones -- the assistant's job -- as the reason Merrill Lynch "is laying off ten thousand employees."
Former HealthSouth chief financial officer Weston Smith took the stand in March and said fired chief executive Richard M. Scrushy -- accused of massive fraud -- pushed him into signing false financial statements. "His analogy was that we all rode in together in this pickup truck and we were all going to ride out on it," Smith said while testifying under a plea deal. He went on to portray a culture of intimidation at HealthSouth, and said Scrushy would "humiliate" underlings who challenged him.
"He was referred to as the king. He made every decision," Smith said in testimony.
Scrushy did not take the stand in the trial, for which deliberations will continue this week, although a former HealthSouth executive, Daryl Brown, painted a slightly different portrait of his ex-boss, telling the court of Scrushy's church work.
To many people, the word "boss" brings to mind other four-letter words. It was the boss's fault Dad came home late. Mom's boss won't give her the day off. Mr. Dithers always refuses to give Dagwood a raise, always blows his top and constantly fires (then rehires) him. Donald Trump is now famous for his grim "You're fired!" on his television show, "The Apprentice."
In real life, recent corporate scandals have exposed the behavior of executives who ruled with an iron fist. Where were Bernard J. Ebbers's loyal minions when he was on trial? Many current and former MCI employees were glued to their televisions, rooting for him to be locked away. Once Ebbers was on the stand to testify in his own defense, he blamed underlings for the company's multibillion-dollar fraud, saying he had no clue what was happening.
"It's kind of funny when these people get on the stand, they don't have many people come and speak up for them," said Aubrey Daniels, founder of a management company that works with corporations such as DaimlerChrysler and Blue Cross Blue Shield to "rid them of management by fear."
"If they were really good bosses," there would be "an uprising that would say, 'Wait a minute, this guy would never do that,' " Daniels said.
The woods are full of bully bosses, of course, but a few have contributed to everyone's store of what amounts to corporate porn, titillating to readers and laced liberally with schadenfreude, that delicious sense of pleasure in someone else's bad fortune.
Big Bad Boss Tales
Overbearing Management Styles Are All the Rage. Did We Say Rage?
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 29, 2005; Page F01
The boss got the job done. There was no question about that. But while getting it done, he allegedly threw a tape dispenser at a contractor who complained about a lack of funds. He is said to have made nasty remarks about her weight and sexual orientation. He is accused of trying to fire people who disagreed with him. A high-up official recently called this boss a "serial abuser" of low-level employees and a "quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy."
As many know, the boss being so described is John R. Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control, President Bush's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations. Tales of his management style came out of Senate testimony during recent confirmation hearings. Bolton, if one is to believe the testimony, some of which has been denied by his colleagues, is the ultimate Bully Boss.
But he is certainly not the only one.
So, what is a bully boss? He or she is someone who threatens, intimidates and makes workers feel they have no power. This behavior can manifest itself in many ways -- some of them entertaining, but only long after the fact and mostly for the kind of rubberneckers drawn to highway accidents.
Of course, that's from the viewpoint of underlings. Bosses, like other people, have personality conflicts, and sometimes may find their dislike for an ineffectual or lazy employee hard to hide. Bosses who have to give out bad news -- bad evaluations, downsizing, firing -- may also find themselves painted as bullies by those on the receiving end.
The bully boss phenomenon has come under the spotlight in the past couple of years as executives have faced juries in the backwash of corporate scandals. Many of the big bosses who have been on trial have had to sit in the courtroom as former employees give testimony illustrating the seamy side of power. For if power corrupts, the bullying behavior it often triggers does not engender endless loyalty. And once the cards start going the other way, employees formerly cowed by the company's leaders can finally speak up.
The recently enacted scenes haven't been pretty.
Most prominently, perhaps, TV and print personality Martha Stewart was imprisoned for lying to federal investigators about a personal sale of shares in a biotechnology company. She was brought down, in part, by a Merrill Lynch broker's assistant who earned $45,000 a year. He testified against her and had e-mailed friends after run-ins with the housekeeping goddess. After one encounter, the assistant wrote to a friend that "I have never, ever been treated more rudely by a stranger on the telephone. She actually hung up on me!" He also noted that Stewart had referred to "people like that idiot" who answered the phones -- the assistant's job -- as the reason Merrill Lynch "is laying off ten thousand employees."
Former HealthSouth chief financial officer Weston Smith took the stand in March and said fired chief executive Richard M. Scrushy -- accused of massive fraud -- pushed him into signing false financial statements. "His analogy was that we all rode in together in this pickup truck and we were all going to ride out on it," Smith said while testifying under a plea deal. He went on to portray a culture of intimidation at HealthSouth, and said Scrushy would "humiliate" underlings who challenged him.
"He was referred to as the king. He made every decision," Smith said in testimony.
Scrushy did not take the stand in the trial, for which deliberations will continue this week, although a former HealthSouth executive, Daryl Brown, painted a slightly different portrait of his ex-boss, telling the court of Scrushy's church work.
To many people, the word "boss" brings to mind other four-letter words. It was the boss's fault Dad came home late. Mom's boss won't give her the day off. Mr. Dithers always refuses to give Dagwood a raise, always blows his top and constantly fires (then rehires) him. Donald Trump is now famous for his grim "You're fired!" on his television show, "The Apprentice."
In real life, recent corporate scandals have exposed the behavior of executives who ruled with an iron fist. Where were Bernard J. Ebbers's loyal minions when he was on trial? Many current and former MCI employees were glued to their televisions, rooting for him to be locked away. Once Ebbers was on the stand to testify in his own defense, he blamed underlings for the company's multibillion-dollar fraud, saying he had no clue what was happening.
"It's kind of funny when these people get on the stand, they don't have many people come and speak up for them," said Aubrey Daniels, founder of a management company that works with corporations such as DaimlerChrysler and Blue Cross Blue Shield to "rid them of management by fear."
"If they were really good bosses," there would be "an uprising that would say, 'Wait a minute, this guy would never do that,' " Daniels said.
The woods are full of bully bosses, of course, but a few have contributed to everyone's store of what amounts to corporate porn, titillating to readers and laced liberally with schadenfreude, that delicious sense of pleasure in someone else's bad fortune.
