When workplace bullying spurs desire for revenge
In Firsthand, FP Work’s Rosemary Counter talks about big ideas with big thinkers. Today, she chats with academic Aaron Schat about revenge of the workers.
They say the customer is always right, even when they’re wrong. But what about the unlucky employee forced to deal with them? Aaron Schat, associate professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources Management at Mcmaster University, is fascinated by those unfortunate workers.
Q How can employees possibly come to work and love their job? And when does vigilante justice become their only revenge?
A My work is about work, specifically the tension between these two realities: One is work as toil, something you do because you have to. The second is work as opportunity — to engage your skills, provide for your family, serve others, to grow and learn and flourish. These aren’t competing notions, they’re both realities that exist, sometimes at the same time. Work can be wonderful or terrible, and there’s this ongoing tension there, a stress and frustration, when people’s experience of work doesn’t match their expectations.
Q Your most recent study looked at the effects of terrible-sounding “psychological aggression.” What do you mean and how did you spot it?
A We used a survey of workers at a bank to measure how often people reported being yelled or shouted at or unfairly criticized. We’re not talking about people being hit or punched, but hostile or harsh behaviours from supervisors or customers. Bullying is a pattern of psychological aggression that is targeted and ongoing. “Micro-aggressions” tend to refer to subtle forms of aggression, like someone walking down the hallway and not acknowledging you. Measuring this kind of behaviour would be very difficult because they’re just not as readily observable by most. Psychological aggressions are much more obvious.
Q Let me guess, employees do not like them much?
A Not surprisingly, people who report mistreatment at work experience diminishing levels of what we called “vigour” — basically, your effort, motivation and engagement at work. I’m interested in the behaviour and response of those people, which was surprising: If organizations don’t actively support their employees, if they expect them to just put up with this aggression, the employee can start to seek revenge. They start to act out to balance the scales of justice, so to speak.
Q When you say “revenge,” are we talking like spitting in someone’s coffee? Or keying a car in the parking lot? A No, we’re not talking about fireable or even illegal offences. We’re focused on hidden forms of revenge. We looked at this specifically in a service environment, but it’s true of any business where there’s a balance to be had between clients and employees. In the restaurant in our study, that meant things like delaying the service or watering down a drink. In an office, that could be making disparaging comments behind someone’s back or working too slowly and missing deadlines.
Q As far as revenge goes, that doesn’t sound too bad.
A Usually when we think of revenge, we think of something done to send a message to the target. But in this case, the target probably isn’t even noticing, to be honest. It’s not about them, it’s about the employee’s subtle way to restore justice and save face in their own minds because their manager is unwilling to stand up to the offender.
Q Why don’t bosses just do that then?
A Businesses need both clients and employees, so they’re often torn between these two important stakeholders. They need to support their employees and also not alienate clients who may be dissatisfied, which isn’t easy, but it’s very possible to serve them both and cultivate an environment with a high bar of behaviour. Whereas a doctor’s office might just hang a sign stating that bad behaviour won’t be tolerated, organizations don’t quite know how to do this just yet.