When you experience the perplexing games of a toxic manager or coworker, it is helpful to know the bully or jerk category they fit within. Bully DNA is amazingly consistent, regardless of the organization.  It helps to be prepared, if not predict, their behavior before you experience your next toxic encounter.

Knowledge is power if you want to survive a toxic workplace.

According to our good friend Dr. Gary Namie, founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute, based in Bellingham, Washington, there are four categories of toxic bullies scouring the workplace.  Dr. Namie developed these descriptive four categories after exhaustive research and his very own close encounters with the inhumane kind.  According “Busting the Workplace Bully” by Kie Relyea, The Bellingham Herald, the four types are the Screaming Mimi, the Two-Headed Snake, the Constant Critic, and the Gatekeeper.

• Screaming Mimi is “the fist-pounding, vein-bulging maniac who chooses a public setting.” She yells. She cusses. She points her finger in your face. Think of her as the sales manager who shrieks at you in a meeting.

• Two-Headed Snake is the “smarmy Jekyll and Hyde back-stabber.”  He steals the credit for your work. He smiles into your face, then shares private information about you with your co-workers or other bosses. “It’s really about rumor, innuendo and damage of reputation. Their goal is to control others’ impressions of you,” Gary Namie says.

• Constant Critic gets you behind closed doors and tries to erode your confidence in your own competence. He’s the negative nitpicker who accuses you of getting it wrong. He’s not above doctoring documents to pin “mistakes” on you.

• Gatekeeper withholds the resources you need to succeed.

We recommend the Workplace Bullying Institute website to find advice on how to deal with these bullies.

Image Credit: HK Pro Club

The gift of a great workplace is, in fact, a rare gift. Very few people find themselves fortunate to work in a great work environment where employees are treated with trust, dignity and respect. At a time in history when our work should be challenging, rewarding and financially beneficial, most employees are faced with turf battles, brutal office politics, unethical decision-making and management by fear.

That is why The People Group Team is solidly focused on the creation of great workplaces. Research has proven, and we have observed, that positive people practices (P3) transform company cultures. As we approached the Christmas Season, it was very easy to decide what message to include on our Christmas cards:

The gift of love,

The gift of peace,

The gift of happiness,

The gift of a great workplace.

May all these be yours at Christmas and the New Year to come.

The gift of a great workplace also brings a number of other benefits, especially the gift of financial success.  Companies with great workplaces outperform their competition and experience enormous financial success.  These same companies are more likely to volunteer and invest in their community, making our society a better place to live.

To all our clients and their employees, business associates, vendors, business partners and providers, we wish all of you the absolute best as you celebrate with your employees and families during this holiday season.  This truly is a wonderful time of year. We are trying to bottle the spirit of this season and distribute it throughout the year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE PEOPLE GROUP TEAM!

Brittany Hulsizer, Consultant, Branding & Corporate Communications

Lori McNulty, Consultant, Administration

Kurt Webber, Consultant, Company Culture

Kevin Kennemer, Sr. Consultant, Founder & Partner

If you are a business leader working to create a great workplace built on trust and respect, the typical company grapevine and rumor mill can work against your best efforts.  The people who tend to run these unofficial underground communication systems may not always be healthy for your organization.  These seemingly untraceable messages can work against your great workplace strategy.  In other words, the water cooler can be a toxic meeting place.

Not everyone will join the great workplace movement with your leadership team, even though they are proven to be the most financially successful, innovative, creative and long-term successful organizations.  Not everyone wants to play nice.  And there are those who prefer to create turmoil and misery in the workplace.  Toxic employees and managers can feed the unofficial communication pipeline with questionable information merely to stir up controversy.

According to grapevine experts, the majority of water cooler talk doesn’t really happen at the water cooler any more.  Employee chatter, rumors, gossip and grapevine banter transpires at company kitchens and breakrooms across America.  Although a certain amount of communication through the grapevine is to be expected – and can be utilized as a positive tool by leadership – the vine can cross the line and hurt innocent people inside or outside your organization.

When leaders work to create a great work environment, it is a good idea to squelch rumors fairly quickly to prevent people from getting hurt.  Observing the grapevine participants allows leaders to determine who may or may not be a good cultural fit.

In companies where there is little communication coming down from the top, grapevine traffic will increase to counterbalance the information void.  The problem occurs when the information being distributed through the vine is purely speculative, untrue or aimed at individuals that could be devastating.  Leaders need to be careful not to be held hostage by the gatekeepers, gossips, rumormongers and snitches that can overrun a company if they are not properly dealt with, according to Paul Falcone, a human resource executive and best-selling author of several human resource books.  He defines the different types of grapevine participants, as follows:

• Gossips: These folks typically initiate unfounded rumors.  They obtain power from having the “scoop.”
• Rumormongers: Perpetuate rumors even if they are completely untrue, lack a foundation in truth or could damage the reputation of a coworker.
• Snitches: This role is fairly self-explanatory.  Snitches derive their power from sharing juicy information that is usually hurtful to others.  Playing the role of a tattletale is just plain wrong.

When someone volunteers a juicy piece of information while you make your morning or afternoon run to the break room, do you choose to participate, even if the information could be hurtful or degrading to a fellow employee? It is best to live by higher standards and refuse to listen to or perpetuate company gossip.  Creating a great workplace requires a certain amount of discipline.

Image Credit: A.V. Club

When the day is sunny, cloudless, warm and bright, I am at my best.  In fact, most people I know prefer the light and enjoy being outdoors when the sun is shining bright. Even your indoor time is better because you know the outdoors are so beautiful.  It makes you want to open the windows and let that good stuff inside.

I have found the same holds true in the workplace.  It is good to keep things well lighted.   Bad behavior tends to occur during the cover of darkness.  Not only is it a good idea to light your actual office or work area, it is also a best people practice to light up your company culture. The company culture needs a good dose of light to keep things headed in the right direction because negative and toxic actions most likely happen in darkness.  In the famous Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the worst behavior of the prison guards occurred during the nighttime when fewer people were around to watch them beat and torment their prisoners.

Toxic managers, office jerks and bullies only survive because they are allowed to spread their toxic venom under the cover of darkness. This darkness comes in the form of leaders looking the other way, human resource professionals siding with inhumane treatment of employees, posting code of conduct policies that are not followed by leadership, Alpha Males who are allowed to create mobs to terrorize individual targets in the organization, coworkers who don’t want to get involved, CEO’s who prefer to keep high-performing jerks regardless of the body count, or the mere fact not one leader is brave enough to step forward and call out the toxic individual’s behavior.  Firing an employee should not be an easy or enjoyable process but sometimes it is needed to save the organization.

Is there sufficient light in your organization? Do you have the official policies but subversive work is conducted behind the scenes in the dark of night?  Is there open communication up and down the organization? Start a revolution of light. Walk into the light and bring some people with you.

Image: iStockPhoto

Asher Adelman, Founder of eBossWatch, started his company to help people avoid hostile workplaces.  Adelman has undertaken an important and surmounting mission.  Unfortunately, there is a great deal of work yet to be done.  In other words, there is plenty of work for consultants like us who are working to create a nicer workplace.   While serving as one of the panelists who selected and ranked the 25 Worst Bosses of 2009, I read some horrifying accounts of just how toxic the workplace can be.  It’s a jungle out there!  We have included the eBossWatch press release below.

The eBossWatch Worst Bosses of 2009

December 7, 2009 — In the first ever contest of its kind, eBossWatch assembled a panel of workplace experts who selected and ranked the 25 Worst Bosses of 2009 from across the country and abroad.  eBossWatch is a career resource that helps job seekers evaluate managers and potential employers.

The Worst Bosses of 2009 include a coroner, the former NASA inspector general, an NFL head coach, and a candidate running for US Congress.

The eBossWatch highly regarded panel of workplace experts includes:

• Dr. Gary Namie, founder & president of the Workplace Bullying Institute and author of “The Bully at Work”
• Dr. Christine Pearson, professor of management at Thunderbird, The School of Global Management and co-author of “The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It”
• Kevin Kennemer, board member of the Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium and founder of The People Group
• Erica Pinsky, workplace consultant and author of “Road to Respect: Path to Profit“

Here are a few of the managers who made The eBossWatch Worst Bosses of 2009 list:

• Alan Parks, manager, US Army Warren Arsenal, Warren, Michigan
  Sued for workplace bullying and disability discrimination by a former soldier who received a Purple Heart and who lost his hand and suffered other serious injuries in an explosion while serving in Iraq.
• Sean Benton, water distribution superintendent, City of Monroe, Monroe, Louisiana
  Benton’s employees recorded a four hour meeting that took place late last year where Benton used hundreds of obscenities and ordered one of the supervisors to physically attack an equipment operator.
• Mike Swindle, supervisor, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama
  A federal jury found Swindle guilty of sexually harassing a subordinate, making lewd comments to her for about five months, and pressing his body against her while propositioning her on at least one occasion.  Other supervisors who the victim complained to either ignored her or harassed her themselves.
• Philip Meeson, CEO, Jet2.com, Leeds, United Kingdom
  Received a warning from Manchester Airport Police after publicly screaming at his own employees in front of hundreds of customers lined up at the airline’s check-in counter, ignoring a sign that warned passengers: “Abusive behavior towards staff will not be tolerated.”

Asher Adelman, founder of eBossWatch, said, “It is shocking to think that such horrific experiences still occur in the American workplace.  Nobody deserves to be subjected to a hostile work environment.  This contest demonstrates how important it is for job seekers to Google potential bosses and to research potential employers on sites like eBossWatch.”

The entire eBossWatch Worst Bosses of 2009 list is available at eBossWatch.com.

About eBossWatch

eBossWatch was launched in 2007 to help people avoid hostile workplaces.  eBossWatch is a popular career resource that enables people to rate their bosses in a professional and non-libelous manner so that job-seekers can evaluate prospective employers and avoid workplace bullies.

eBossWatch has been featured in many media outlets, including ABCNews.com, Fox News, Forbes, TheStreet.com, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, Houston Chronicle, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Orange County Register.

More information about eBossWatch can be accessed at www.ebosswatch.com.

Media Contact:

Asher Adelman
Founder
eBossWatch
contact@ebosswatch.com

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Graphic Credit:  Graphic obtained from The Smarter Wallet