Stick a pin in workplace woe with voodoo

ALLOWING disgruntled staff to put pins in voodoo dolls of their bosses could help them feel less resentful and improve the quality of their work, a new study has suggested.

According to the Health and Safety Executive, more than 12 million Britons take time off work each year because of stress and anxiety, often blaming overbearing or abusive managers.

But rather than allowing staff to brood over their mistreatment, which can be detrimental to work, business experts have suggested that workers should be allowed to take out their anger on voodoo dolls.

A study of 229 workers in the US and Canada found that “symbolic retaliation” lowered feelings of injustice by a third. Dr Lindie Liang, an assistant professor at Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, said: “We found a symbolic act of retaliation can make people feel like they’re getting even, and restore their sense of fairness.”

Participants were asked to recall and visualise a workplace interaction that had involved abuse from a supervisor. Some were then asked to retaliate using a voodoo doll, before all completed a word-based task. Those who had stuck pins in their virtual boss were far less likely to still feel bitter, and were also better at completing the exercise.

In the journal The Leadership Quarterly, the authors conclude: “These findings suggest that retaliation not only benefits victims, but may also benefit the organisation as a whole, given that justice perception is important for employee performance and well-being.”