Your Bullying Boss IS an Idiot

[Toro]

Got a bullying boss? Take solace in new research showing that leaders who feel incompetent really do lash out at others to temper their own inferiority.

"Power holders feel they need to be superior and competent. When they don't feel they can show that legitimately, they'll show it by taking people down a notch or two," says Nathanael Fast, a social psychologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, who led a series of experiments to explore this effect. ...

Flattery seems to temper the aggressive urges of insecure leaders. When Fast and Chen coaxed the egos of these volunteers by praising their leadership skills, their aggressive tendencies all but disappeared. This is proof that leaders are aggressive because of a hurt ego, not simply a threat to their power, Fast says.

This might also explain why leaders of organisations both big and small surround themselves with yes-men and women, he says.

It's official: Your bullying boss really is an idiot - life - 15 October 2009 - New Scientist

 

[lawbuff]

I think it has very little to do with inferiority, it's all about POWER. Most of us in this country are employed at will, and the BOSS gives us crap because they know all we have to do is open our mouth, justified or not, and be fired so fast it will make our head spin.

Montana is the only state that has done away with this doctrine, BUT the employees are still subject to a probation period.

The Commissioners on Uniform state laws many years ago passed the Model employment termination act, outling when and why an employee can be fired, to date NO state has adopted it.

I did research on this many years ago for my own case.

Even if a person is terminated for a NON legal reason, the company won't admit it, and the burden of proof, if a suit is filed, if a cause of action is found, is still on the Palintiff/employee.

I have only seen 2 cases in my life where the employer admitted to why the person was fired, ONLY because they thought they had little or NO liability, but on appeal it backfired. In both cases appealed to the state's SC's, a Public Policy exception to all will was announced.

This is not one of the 2 I mention, but along the same legal lines. How would you like to be fired for defending yourself against a person with a shotgun in your face:


Feliciano v. 7-Eleven, No. 29564

 

[Care4all]

I've never had a boss that yelled and lost his temper....I witnessed another employee's boss lose it on him, once.

I guess I worked with mostly confident men, as bosses.

And I believe this is true, outside of one, all of the bosses I have had, have promoted me and encouraged me to go farther with my career....

The 'one' boss, that did not hire me for the position i interviewed for within the company, was FORCED to hire me, because I went over his head, to the president of the compaqny, and told the President that the vp hiring for the position was wrong, and that I could do the job with the experience I had and that I did not need more time in the trenches...and that I needed to be given the chance, that I would prove to him that the vp was wrong on his judgement that I was too young and inexperienced for the position... BASICALLY I BEGGED for the job with the President!

And the President called the vp and told him to hire me for the position...that if I failed, he would take the blame, and he told the vp that anyone that had the balls that I did to go to him for the position after already being told I was not ready for it, deserved the 'chance', at the position just for the fire inside of wanting it that strongly, alone.

I ended up working for that vp as my boss, for 10 years, the first 3 I cried every day when i left that office...he never yelled or screamed, but he had a way, to make me feel like I was never doing enough...which of course pushed me to work harder and harder and harder....

When this boss left the corporation after being with them 20 years to go and work on the whole sale side of the business...10 years my time of being there....he recommended to the President, that I take his position....so even though i thought i was a failure for the 10 years working for him, it turns out I really wasn't a failure and THIS was his way of making me stronger and better at my job.

 

[alan1]

At my last job,I worked for a VP for just over 5 years. Almost all the other managers thought he was a bully. They couldn't believe that I would stand up to him and argue with him.
He wasn't a bully, he just wanted managers that had the intelligence (and intestinal fortitude) to justify their positions and prove that what they wanted to do was going to benefit the company.

 

[Care4all]

At my last job,I worked for a VP for just over 5 years. Almost all the other managers thought he was a bully. They couldn't believe that I would stand up to him and argue with him.
He wasn't a bully, he just wanted managers that had the intelligence (and intestinal fortitude) to justify their positions and prove that what they wanted to do was going to benefit the company.

precisely how i saw it!

 

[Xenophon]

Maybe they are just losers.

 

[Mad Scientist]

It doesn't matter whether your Boss is an asshole or not. You have to get along with him, not the other way around. Dealing with these different personality types will just make you better at dealing with people later on down the road anyway.

I think his study will just make people believe they can talk shit to their Boss and get away with it.

 

[Xenophon]

Try that and see how it works for you.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Try that and see how it works for you.

Unlike some people,(I'm not accusing you) I have no problem dealing with cranky supervisors. It helps that I'm 6 foot, 210 but I'm not shy or mousey either. So most people don't try to fuck with me anyway.

Example: I recently had a job in the DC area that required 12 hour shifts monday through friday. Well, one friday my supervisor asks me if I could work a 12 hour shift on saturday to which I replied "Oh no way, I'm just whipped from this week alone".
He then said: "Well, what if I ordered you to work tomorrow?" To which I replied:
"If you ordered me? Well then I'd just tell ya' to go fuck yourself!"

We both laughed and he walked away.

Yeah, sometimes supervisors get angry and you have to deal with it sure. But why let anyone just walk all over you for no reason?