Having an ‘abusive’ boss can cover a wide area of issues; including verbal abuse, inappropriate remarks or behaviour, or having an overly demanding boss. Employees can easily feel powerless knowing they can either try to face up to their boss or find another job. However, being in charge does not mean that whatever a boss says or does is acceptable, and an employee should know how to take matters into their own hands if they believe their boss has stepped over the line.
Being able to identify a boss’s wrongdoing can put one in a good position from a legal standpoint in the case of inappropriate behaviour. For example, if a boss makes inappropriate racial or sexual remarks towards their employees, it is considered discriminatory behaviour and it is illegal (it need not be tolerated in a work environment). The best course of action might be to report it to the appropriate channel in HR, who are then be obligated to look into the matter. The benefit here is that such reports are normally kept anonymous, and it does not require direct confrontation with the boss. If a boss has breached the code of conduct in the workplace, then it should be swiftly dealt with.
When a boss is verbally abusive or a bully, it can mean a daunting working experience for the employees; but no one should have to put up with such behaviour. The last resort is to confront the boss directly. Instead, record all instances of abuse and establish contact with co-workers to catalogue other’s experiences and responses through email. This will only help to strengthen one’s case later in the event of escalation, or when HR needs to be involved, whereby having evidence will be invaluable.
An abusive boss can also be over-demanding or assign unreasonable workloads to employees. This includes asking an employee to work overtime, or outside of their usual work schedule, or to do extra reports, projects or other high volumes of work. Being overworked should not mean feeling guilty or lazy when it all becomes too much to handle. It is, however, harder to prove abuse in the case of high workloads. The necessary solution involves speaking up to ensure that everyone else is aware of how much work one is contributing. This means constantly updating higher ups in a company of what projects and work one is doing at any given time, or speaking up during meetings, discussing tasks and projects, and emphasising how much of the workload one has taken on. Again, this is about having evidence of one’s excessive workload, which can be used later to inform HR and senior management. The difficulty is proving that a boss has stepped over their legal boundaries, as there are no fixed legal guidelines for what constitutes excessive work. In extreme cases, this may even call for direct confrontation with an employer, calling him or her out on their abuse; this is not a guaranteed solution in the case of an unreasonable boss, and an employee may need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.
Clearly, there are some similarities between the different scenarios of an abusive boss, and depending on various factors, it is ultimately up to an employee to choose an appropriate course of action to deal with such a boss. The common thing to remember is not to cower and lie back, as this only gives way for more abuse and makes one an easier target. Instead, it is usually better to take action and gather evidence whenever possible. However, whether to confront a boss or report them is a harder decision to make, and may even ultimately risk one’s job in the long run. There are always options, but in the extreme case that none of these actions seem suitable, it is probably better to find another job than to stand by as a victim of abuse.
Edward Mah
Sources
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2017/03/08/how-to-deal-with-a-verbally-abusive-boss-who-crosses-the-line/2/#6350fb603068
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/douglas-labier/how-can-you-deal-with-an-_b_8357286.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2015/10/16/have-a-horrible-emotionally-abusive-boss-heres-what-not-to-do/?utm_term=.8d5922778682
https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-deal-with-a-verbally-abusive-boss-who-crosses-the-line