Loyal employee? Watch out, your boss might exploit you!

STAFF who go the extra mile in their jobs are more likely to be exploited by their bosses, a study shows.

Managers take advantage of employees who show the greatest loyalty as they view them as an easy target for extra tasks.

Researchers found such staff are more likely to be asked to stay late, do things that are not in their job description or even take work on holiday with them.

The study, by Duke University in North Carolina, US, presented managers with two employee profiles. One had a reputation for loyalty to their boss, the other was much less likely to be loyal.

They were asked which one they would request to work late for no extra pay or do unpopular tasks with no reward. The results, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, showed bosses were more willing to take advantage of loyal workers than try to get those with less commitment to do the tasks.

The researchers said: ‘Managers presume loyal workers are particularly likely to do this extra work as loyalty comes with an expectation of self-sacrifice to the organisation as a whole.’

Professor Cary Cooper, expert in organisation psychology at Manchester University, said ‘part of the problem is... a lot of managers have appalling people skills’.