Posted on 03/21/2005 9:01:58 AM PST by .cnI redruM
Spend 40-plus hours a week with the same people and sooner or later you're bound to have some friction. But the term friction doesn't begin to cover what goes on in some workplaces.
It's a Jungle Out There According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than a million acts of workplace violence are reported each year. Most injuries sustained were from incidents involved punching, hitting, kicking and biting. A number of altercations involved superiors and subordinates.
A Maxim magazine survey found that 7 percent of its mostly male readers have had a physically violent encounter with their boss. Seventy-four percent complained that their boss treats them disrespectfully, and a little over half said their manager has publicly humiliated them. (One poor guy was demoted in front of his kids, who happened to be visiting the office that day!)
If you're suffering at work, you've got company. From the financial analyst who was coerced into buying Amway products from his supervisor's wife, to the senior vice president who ordered his marketing director to run a promotion, then made her a scapegoat when it back-fired, the abuses some bosses heap on their underlings can push their workers beyond the brink.
Desperate Measures for Desperate Times Put-upon employees have exacted revenge through the following ill-advised (yet apparently satisfying) means:
Had subscriptions to fetish magazines sent to the office in their bosses' name.
Stole the boss's clothes out of his locker while he was taking a shower at the corporate fitness center.
Got into the boss's e-mail, found a message she had written calling the president of the company a dork, and sent it to everyone in the office ... including the president.
A woman who was tired of her manager taking credit for her ideas (and aware he couldn't tell a good idea from a bad one) let her boss steal several great ideas, then slipped in five that were so bad the boss was demoted.
A vice president whose ego was far larger than his own stature was furious when he found out days later that staff members changed his office caller I.D. to appear as Lord Farquaad, the 4-foot-tall evil ruler from the movie "Shrek."
Then there were the direct reports who decided to give their cheapskate boss his comeuppance by mocking up a $500 gift certificate to an expensive restaurant and sending it with a letter saying he was the winner of a promotional event. He invited friends, ran up a $600 bill, and then was told the restaurant would not accept the fake certificate.
(We won't get into some of the other ways employees have gotten even, but let's just say, if you're a rotten manager, you might want to get your own coffee!)
The Right Way to Deal with Office Scoundrels Revenge fantasies can be therapeutic, but according to attorney and professional mediator Steven Menack, the best ways to handle a conflict with your boss are to:
Arrange a meeting with him or her where you discuss calmly, using neutral language, the behaviors that are troubling you, the effect the conflict is having on your work and a suggested resolution.
If that doesn't work, contact human resources to report the offending behavior, request a transfer to another area, or enlist the services of a human resource representative or corporate ombudsman to meet with the two of you to help resolve your differences.
Since taking these measures will likely force your hand, before doing either, prepare your résumé, network and have an action plan for your job search.
Of course the ultimate revenge is to rise above your boss. Three years after being let go for not having "enough presence," one account executive found herself in the same executive MBA program with the woman who had fired her. Not only had she gone on to a better job, but she got the satisfaction of watching the professor routinely chastise her former superior!
Thats effin' great! I know a former boss who could use something like that. He was the worst ever!
bump for later reading
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