Horrible bosses! 80 per cent of us have cried af ter criticism at work
YES men do cry, and they do it quite a lot in front of their bosses, a new survey shows.
The study by Peninsula Ireland shows that almost 80 per cent of workers have been reduced to tears by horrible bosses, which i ncludes a l arge chunk of so-called ‘hard’ men.
Alan Price, Managing Director of Peninsula Ireland, said: ‘Work should not be a place that instils fear in the hearts of employees.’
Instead, he insisted that it should be a place that ‘fuels passion and creativity’.
He was responding to the gloomy study that showed that out of 947 workers who were asked, 748 have cried after being given out to by their boss.
And as many as 770 said they hate their job, while 720 said they feel intimidated due to increasing pressure to outperform co-workers.
Mr Price said i t was ‘ simply unacceptable’ that employees would incorporate fear and intimidation into the workplace.
He said: ‘Management sometimes mistake fear and intimidation for a way to gain respect from their employees or to encourage them to work harder.
‘This couldn’t be further from the truth,’ he explained. ‘Making employees anxious and intimidated to the point where they are broken emotionally can have disastrous effects on workplace morale and productivity, whilst also increasing staff turnover, putting extra strain on your financial resources due to recruitment costs.’
He added: ‘Fear has no place in today’s business community.
‘ What’s more, this oppressive nature has filtered across to the relationships employees have with t heir c ol l e agues, dri v i ng an unhealthy sense of competition, stemming from the fear of losing their professional standing within the company or being viewed as an incompetent worker.’
He said that management should always maintain a ‘ high degree of professional integrity at all times’, adding that bosses shouldn’t allow personal feelings to affect their business.
‘Employers have a responsibility to their employees to create a work environment that has their best interests in mind, motivating staff to perform optimally and encouraging positive collaboration,’ he said.
‘Employees spend a significant part of their lives at work, therefore providing them with the opportunity to help fulfil their ambitions and professional self-esteem is extremely important.
‘Creating a working culture based on fear and intimidation will only bring forth negative consequences for the business.
‘If employees feel mistreated at work it could well lead to tribunal action, which will not only hurt a company financially, but also tarnish their reputation publicly.
‘ It only takes one disgruntled employee to create a negative impression of your brand, often leading to bad publicity, or worse, negative legal implications for your business.’
Mr Price added: ‘ The workplace should facilitate learned progression and receiving constructive feedback and criticism is all part of that.
‘But what appears to be happening is quite the opposite,’ he said, ‘employers are supplying staff with negative criticism, which serves no purpose other than to relieve management’s frustration with their employees.’