Calling your boss names
One of the many workplace culture stories - and there have been many! - you may have missed this month is that a British tribunal found that an employee who called was sacked on the spot for calling her boss a d***head was unfairly dismissed.
The judge ruled that the company had not “acted reasonably in all the circumstances in treating [her] conduct as a sufficient reason to dismiss her”.
“She made a one-off comment to her line manager about him and a director of the business. The comment was made during a heated meeting.”
“Whilst her comment was not acceptable, there is no suggestion that she had made such comments previously. Further … this one-off comment did not amount to gross misconduct or misconduct so serious to justify summary dismissal.”
Full details of the conversation can be found here.
Of course, the media have a field day with stories like these. Politics is often dragged into it, as is ‘the past’ and the story is reduced to a puff piece that never gets to the root cause of the issue.
It’s fair to say that many of us (I’m not excluded from this!) have called our bosses names at various times. It’s not something that any of us are proud of, it’s not something we want to do and it’s never something that we’re keen to repeat.
Nobody wants to work in a culture where name calling, back-biting and gossip are commonplace.
Of course, sometimes it feels like a pressure release valve! It’s cleansing and it’s just given me an idea for a toxic boss day spa, but that’s for another blog.
The fact is, work can be frustrating, especially when you’re being managed by someone who doesn’t have the skills to manage or who is unaware of due process. Regular readers of the blog will know that I have empathy for managers. They’re often thrust into people leadership roles without having, or being provided with the skills, to actively do the job.
That’s not to say that employees are absolved of blame for losing control of their emotions, but we’re human, we’re prone to do that every now and then.
There are many blogs, articles and speakers who preach that we should be ‘the best version of ourselves all of the time’. Yet, this is simply not possible, especially if your boss is a d***head!
That said, employees need to at least try to keep their emotions in check. If you feel any frustration with those above you, bite your tongue, excuse yourself and go for a walk or else share your frustrations outside the office with your parents, partner or pet. They don’t really care, but are happy to listen to you!
However, organisations need to train managers to be managers, this is often the root cause of almost all of these types of stories. Once that’s been completed they need to take a balanced approach to emotional outbursts. Rather than - as happened here - seeking to dismiss an employee for an uncharacteristic outburst as well as exposing themselves to the media, they need to take a breath.
Try to understand the context and the personality. What might be happening in their world? Is this the first time they have done this? Do you have a culture in which behaviours have been defined so that people understand what’s acceptable and what’s not? Are you fully aware of the policy before enacting it?
Again, I’m not saying for one minute that calling your boss names is either right, fair (they’re human too) or shouldn’t be met with some kind of reprimand. I’m simply saying that in the heat of the moment we often say things we don’t mean and as humans trying to do the best we can with what we have, that requires greater understanding rather than seeking to dismiss immediately.
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