Abusive Supervisors

There have been several studies completed by researchers concerning the issue of supervisors who treat their employees abusively. For the sake of this article we will refer to these individuals as “bullying bosses”. A wide range of several forms of non-physical aggression, such as putting employees down in front of others, blaming them for things that are not their fault, accusing them of incompetence, ridiculing them, and not giving them credit for the work they have completed, are typical behaviors of bullying bosses.

Some of the negative effects created by these behaviors include job dissatisfaction, emotional exhaustion, and psychological distress. Being treated like this by a boss or manager has also been linked to counterproductive behaviors

They often are under a lot of pressure from their own supervisor, deal with a lot of stress which comes with their position, and often they may be dealing with frustrating co-workers their self, which affects their other business relationships. Because they are not able to take these frustrations out on someone over them, they look for someone weaker to catch the blunt of their anger. Often their attitudes and behaviors have nothing to do with the work atmosphere whatsoever. Sometimes the way they act is a direct reflection of their inability to properly handle emotions, and can often be associated with family abuse. Studies have also shown that some employees are more likely to be bullied than others. Working with negative or hostile employees has the ability to bring out the worse of any supervisor. If they appear to be vulnerable or week, employees with a low self-esteem are more likely to become a victim to a bullying boss. While bullying employees should never be tolerated or accepted, it is easy to see why some people are easier targets than

Because of their poor performance, these employees can be more difficult to handle and deal with, creating anger and frustration for the supervisor. This will often result in the employee becoming a victim of the bullying attitudes and behaviors of the boss. When taking this information into consideration, one would be led to believe that the star performers would be looked over when an employer felt it necessary to act out on these negative tendencies. In order to give these star workers every opportunity to excel at what they do, you might think that a supervisor would be more willing to keep their attitudes clear from these