A Bad Boss Can Send You to an Early Grave
By Dr. Travis Bradberry
It seems there’s always a steady supply of sympathy
available for anyone stuck working under a bad boss. Most everyone I know has
been there at one time or another, working under a tyrant who somehow manages
to survive in this world without people skills. If you haven’t had a boss like
this, you should consider buying a lottery ticket—-and I mean soon. You
are that lucky.
According to a recent study published in Human Resource
Executive magazine, a third of US workers spend a minimum of twenty hours per
month at work complaining about their boss. The Gallup Poll estimates US
corporations lose 360 billion dollars annually due to lost productivity from
employees who are dissatisfied with—-you guessed it-—their boss.
And if there’s but one hard truth the Gallup Polls have taught US Corporations
in the last decade, it’s that people may join companies, but they will leave
bosses.
In the days of a strong dollar, bulging tech bubble and
robust housing market, people working for a bad boss had options. Careers were
mobile and talent was in short supply. It was a snap to pack up and leave. But
nowadays, things are decidedly different. Jobs are scarce and the prudent
worker stays put, even if he or she is working under the worst type of boss
imaginable—-the seagull manager.
The roots of seagull management can be traced back to the
days when “micromanager” was the worst non-expletive you could utter behind
your boss’ back. Managers fear of this label grew so intense that they learned
to keep their distance from employees, assuming a “good” boss is one who spends
as little time as possible breathing down people’s necks. And most do. They
give people room to breath until the moment a problem flares up. Then—-instead
of getting the facts straight and working alongside their staff to realize a
viable solution-—seagull managers come swooping in at the last minute,
they squawk orders at everybody, and deposit steaming piles of formulaic
advice before abruptly taking off.
Seagull managers interact with their employees only when
there’s a fire to put out. Even then, they move in and out so
hastily—-and put so little thought into their approach-—that they
make bad situations worse by frustrating and alienating those who need them the
most. Today, seagull managers are breeding like wildfire. As companies flatten
in response to the struggling economy, they are gutting management layers and
leaving behind managers with more autonomy, greater responsibility, and more
people to manage. That means they have less time and less accountability for
focusing on the primary purpose of their job-—managing people.
As it turns out, seagull managers aren’t just a US
phenomenon. After reading a study that found employees have lower blood
pressure on the days they worked for a supervisor they think is fair,
researchers from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health decided to take a
closer look at this phenomenon. They followed British civil servants for a
period of fifteen years to see if the type of boss one works for has any impact
upon long-term, physical health.
The researcher’s findings cast a grave shadow upon anyone
working for a seagull manager. The team from Helsinki found that seagull-type
managerial behaviors lead to a much higher incidence of employee coronary heart
disease. Employees working for a seagull manager were 30% more likely to
develop coronary heart disease than those who were not. What’s more, the
incidence of coronary heart disease-—the #1 killer in Western
societies—-was measured after the researchers had removed the influence
of typical risk factors, such as age, ethnicity, marital status, educational
attainment, socio-economic position, cholesterol level, obesity, hypertension,
smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity.
No one influences an employee’s morale and productivity
more than his or her supervisor. It’s that simple. Yet, as common as this
knowledge may seem, it clearly hasn’t been enough to change the way that
managers and organizations treat people. Few companies recognize the degree to
which managers are the vessels of a company’s culture, and even fewer work
diligently to ensure that their vessels hold the knowledge and skills that
motivate employees to perform, feel satisfied, and love their jobs. The very
individuals with the authority to alter the course of company culture lack the
facts that would impel them to do so.
With the stoic pragmatism that one might expect from a
Finnish University professor, Dr. Mika Kivimäki, the director of the study, had
this to say about the study’s findings, “Most people care deeply about just
treatment by authorities.”
Indeed we do, Dr. Kivimäki. Indeed we do.
*************
Dr. Travis Bradberry is the president of think tank and
consultancy TalentSmart. His new book, "Squawk! How to Stop Making Noise
and Start Getting Results," addresses the problem of seagull managers in
the workplace and is published by HarperCollins
.
Michael Schmidt
Director of Public Relations, TalentSmart
858-509-0582 x 250
mmjs@TalentSmart.com
