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January 16, 2007
Don’t Trust Your Boss? Join the Club
A new report says that nearly half of employees don’t trust senior management. It gets worse. Employees are not simply losing confidence in their senior managers — many workers think their front-line supervisors are flat-out callous liars stealing credit for anything good that happens. Ouch.
With a brand new year comes the start of the season that many employees and their managers dread: performance reviews. Results of a new survey really should have every manager concerned.
Watson Wyatt’s WorkUSA 2006/2007 survey of more than 12,000 full-time U.S. workers across all job levels and major industries showed that senior management’s confidence ratings from employees have dropped slightly since 2004, from 51 percent to 49 percent.
Now a “silver lining” type of person may say, “Well, the survey merely indicates a 2 percent drop in trust and confidence since 2004.”
However, in contrast, many of those ratings had risen considerably from 2002 to 2004. The fact that only 49 percent now say they have trust and confidence in their senior managers means more than half of the employees surveyed have serious, deep-rooted problems with management.
Perhaps what is most telling, compelling and, really, just sad is, either way — 49 percent or 51 percent — nearly half of employees don’t trust their manager.
“This dip in ratings is concerning because employees’ attitudes about their senior leaders are a key factor in building engagement,” said Ilene Gochman, national practice director for organization effectiveness at Watson Wyatt. “People want to work for companies where they have confidence in the organization and trust what senior management is doing. Fostering that trust is especially important in today’s global market as it creates an environment in which employees understand that changes to the workplace may be necessary to remain competitive.”
Certainly, the notion of a dysfunctional workplace and tedious management is well documented and represented in our culture, from Dilbert comics to the movies “Nine to Five” and “Office Space” to the BBC and NBC television programs “The Office.”
It gets worse, with another recent study showing results that are even more dispiriting.
Apparently, employees are not simply losing confidence in their senior managers — many think their front-line bosses are flat-out callous, lying to employees’ faces and stealing credit for anything good that happens.
A survey from Florida State University, to be published in the scholarly journal Leadership Quarterly, found that many employees work for people who don’t keep their word, don’t give credit where credit’s due, talk poorly about them behind their backs and invade their privacy.
Recently, Wayne Hochwarter, an associate professor of management in FSU’s College of Business, along with two doctoral students surveyed more than 700 people who work in a variety of jobs about their opinions of supervisor treatment on the job. Depending on your personal workplace, the results may or may not be surprising:
• Thirty-one (31) percent of respondents reported that their supervisor gave them the "silent treatment" in the past year;
• Thirty-seven (37) percent reported that their supervisor failed to give credit when due;
• Thirty-nine (39) percent noted that their supervisor failed to keep promises;
• Twenty-seven (27) percent noted that their supervisor made negative comments about them to other employees or managers;
• Twenty-four (24) percent reported that their supervisor invaded their privacy; and
• Twenty-three (23) percent indicated that their supervisor blames others to cover up mistakes or to minimize embarrassment.
Employees stuck in abusive work relationships were found to have experienced more exhaustion, job tension, nervousness, depressed moods and mistrust, according to the study.
Employees “were less likely to take on additional tasks, such as working longer or on weekends, and were generally less satisfied with their job,” the study found. “Employees were more likely to leave if involved in an abusive relationship than if dissatisfied with pay.”
Of course, this is not to say that all bosses are bad. In fact, most employees don't have these kinds of problems, said Otis “Scotty” Scott, president of the San Antonio Human Resource Management Association, in a recent San Antonio Express-News article.
“Most supervisors tend to give credit and try to do a really good job,” Scott said.
You know what, though? Here at Industrial Market Trends, we're anti-“us versus them.” So we wonder why there doesn't seem to be any reports or surveys done on managers’ confidence in their workers. It seems safe to assume that all managers have seen their share of inveterate curmudgeons who, day after day, gripe about every work situation. Perhaps the attitudinal numbers above and their implications represent management’s confidence in their workers. These numbers are rather telling of the current state of employee-employer relationships, no?
Tell us about your relationship with managers, or, if you're a manager yourself, tell us about your problems with employees. If we can't hug it out, let's type-talk it out.
Resources
Employee Ratings of Senior Management Dip, Watson Wyatt Survey Finds
Watson Wyatt, Jan. 4, 2007
Who's afraid of the big bad boss? Plenty of us, new FSU study shows
by Barry Ray
FSU.com, Dec. 4, 2006
Bumbling Bosses Hurt Employees
by Aissatou Sidime
San Antonio Express-News, Jan. 3, 2007
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30 CommentsMy job is great except for my boss. My doctor has put me on anti-anxiety meds for times when I need to deal with him. He belittles, he spins, he corners and if you ask any of the friends he's hired or the president who he puffs himself up to, he's great. He favors his "boys club."
I've tried various ways of communicating with him to no avail. He's even somehow made me out to be the bad guy who tries to jump over him, so now I'm not even permitted to contact HR unless I go through him.
I'll just keep job hunting and bide my time. Unfortunate, since I like my job and the company.
January 16, 2007 5:21 PMIt is an interesting topic. I thought in modern countries like US and Europe this condition would still be, but not at that percentage.
I am surprised. I thought this situation would be shown as a big percentage only at "growing countries" (like Indonesia, where i am a citizen ), but I felt this when I was working with a big hand-tool company located in U.S.
That's why we need a supervisor or manager or someone to lead us that should have show good leadership, be wise and understand the reality of the field.
January 16, 2007 8:03 PMI have a manager who is fair in all respects but lacks confrontation skills to some degree. Perhaps this is a good thing, though, as she has managed to win many a situation without whacking someone.
I am an 'employee', and even though I do gripe I try to find solutions to all problems I may have. I never want to manage anyone, as people are just too complex and unique and I am too confrontational. My bad, but I am ambitious in other areas.
What I have found most distressing however is a senior manager who sits on his/her throne and has a chip on their shoulder the size of a menhir and who never listens to reason. I question how anyone with so many emotional hang ups and lack of interpersonal skills becomes someone who is expected to deal with people on different levels daily.
Is this something that only happens in major corporations or in smaller businesses as well?
January 17, 2007 1:33 AMI have been "fortunate" to have a boss for 16 years who although excitable, abusive in the earlier years, hot tempered, still provided excellent leadership, trained, and inspired the department to do the job. Turnover in our industry is high, but in our department the key personel have never bid out or given up. Our boss gives us credit for our accomplishments and once we attained the mind set to function, empowered us and stepped back and let us run the department.
He knew that we had to achieve a level of competency and discipline to run the department in his absence.
In a perfect world, the bosses are perfect, polictically correct and in my experience the ones who steal credit and don't stand up for their employees.
Several months ago, I accepted a position with another company. However, due to the timing, this new employer allowed me to choose when I would start (long story).
This, combined with my sense of loyalty to the old employer, caused me to delay leaving for several months, even though I would have earned substantially more money to leave immediately. When I told my boss that I was leaving but that I could stay on longer than normal, he practically begged me to stay; which I did, mainly because the department was going through a major transition at the time.
When year-end bonuses (based on the year's profits) were handed out, I was skipped over because I "wasn't loyal to the company."
When management wonders why their employees don't trust them, this is a perfect example of why. You try to do something that will help them, and then you get slapped.
January 17, 2007 1:28 PMOur supervisor (and I use that term loosely), comes to work every day wearing his emotions on his sleeve. It is like a crap shoot trying to figure out if he is in a good mood or if he is mad at his wife or kid and is going to take it out on one or all of us that day.
We are professional engineers and most of us have been with the company for many years; I personally have been here for 13 years. When our Manager was promoted and took over another area of manufacturing, he put one of our fellow engineers in charge of our group. That engineer whined until he was made a supervisor; mind you, he is a supervisor of four professional engineers, but a supervisor none the less.
Along with his new position came his new hat size. I have never seen anyone that micro-manages people worse than this supervisor. Not only that, but out of the list that was mentioned in this article, he meets every one of them. He gives the silent treatment depending on what side of the bed he awoke on, he doesn’t give credit to anyone in the group if he can take it for himself, and he makes negative comments about his manager and the other senior management as well as members of his own team when they are not present. He required access to our email so he could monitor “work related” email but has since read personal mail and made judgments about his team members based on invading their privacy. He will never take the blame for anything that may go wrong; it will be passed to anyone that is convenient, even if that means making one of his team members look bad. He takes time off of work and tells his manager that he is working at home so his PTO is not docked, yet he makes each of us use our time if we miss even one day even though we are on salary. We work overtime and weekends and he tells the upper management that we all are working long hours when he hasn’t put in 40 hours for several months. We don’t get any comp time off for working the weekends but we sure have to use our vacation time if we take one day off.
The list just goes on and on!!
This supervisor was not always this way, and he used to be a very close friend of mine. He was even the best man at my wedding. They say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I can tell you that for this individual, that statement holds true.
January 17, 2007 2:22 PMI have worked at the same institution for 20+ years and under my current supervisor for over 12 of those years. I must be in a minority group here since I enjoy my supervisor, department, work place and coworkers.
My supervisor came up through the ranks and has never forgotten where she came from. She is a leader who demonstrates what she says. She encourages you to grow both professionally and personally and understands what a "family" means; both at work and home. She stands up for us and, in turn, we do the same for her.
She is a truly great leader and supervisor.
I have worked for the same company for 15 years. My position has changed several times so I have worked under many different managers. I have also been a manager. My president suggested to me good employee manages, both up the management chain as well as any employees working in their department.
Our attitude towards upper management is one of our biggest problems. Look at the titles of the resource materials given, "The Big Bad Boss" and "Bumbling bosses". Call me idealistic but how can we approach our bosses with a working relationship viewing it through these filters? We have become a nation that wants to fix everybody and not take responsibility for our own actions.
There will be people that are hard to get along with as managers. There will be self-centered managers that take credit for our work, but we are the ones that ask for employment and usually our employment was a blessing for us until we start looking for the faults in others. We expect what we do not give to others.
The golden rule is so simple and changes the way we look at others. Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. Let's look at ourselves as employees through this filter and manage our bosses to do the same. It works!
January 23, 2007 2:02 PMI left a good paying civil service job in 1991 because they took me out of the lab, sat me behind a desk and had me answering to a lying, petty, sneaky, unqualified female. It was more than I could take, but in retrospect I realize now I should have just transferred rather than go into business for myself. Ever since I went into business, I have had a terrible boss who is never finished or happy: Me.
January 25, 2007 1:32 PMI can think of 2 adages which fit this discussion.
1. People are usually promoted to the "highest level of their incompetence". The upper managers generally take someone that is a good, competent performer and promote that individual into a supervisory or managerial job. Most times that person is not qualified for the job, but many companies do not have a management training program. You either know it or you don't. Unfortunately, that is oftentimes the only track to take for better pay.
Some forward-thinking companies have a dual-track promotion program, where you can be promoted within your area of expertise and still be able to make wages comparable to the supervisors and managers. They put proven managers into the managerial jobs.
2. "First class managers hire first class workers; 2nd class managers hire 3rd class workers." This movement starts at the top and filters down through an organization.
Good Executives hire good Managers, give them training, credit, praise and incentives to continually become better. This trickles down from manager to supervisor to associate. NOTE: People are your best resource and need to be nurtured and developed!
Bad Executives hire worse Managers (non-threatening), provide no training, chastise them regularly, and shaft them every chance they get. NOTE: People are expendable and easily replaced...over and over again!
My feeling is that, as long as companies continue to downsize in search of the almighty buck, the remaining workers are going to be asked to do things for which they aren't qualified, and this trend toward worker/boss dissatisfaction is only going to get worse.
January 25, 2007 3:18 PMIt has been my experience that people tend to think everyone else is just like themselves. If they were a "non-producer", doing just enough to keep themselves out of trouble, they think others are doing the same.
Often times these (who have created no trouble) are promoted to a management position that requires they put demands on others. If they have never grasped the idea of producing, it becomes a self-defeating scenario.
A less-than-top-drawer leader will run-off those who expect to work at full speed, leaving him with people he understands.
I have produced super human results and been laid off by management that did not even understand what they were loosing. I have seen people made fun of because they expected to be working when they were getting paid.
Particularly in the "experienced" work force, the one who is always looking for a quicker way or a way to eliminate rework is likely to make mistakes. He will probably stick his nose into someone else's area of responsibility. This sets him up for being the fall guy when they are looking for some one to cut loose. This tends to be less than productive for the company.
January 25, 2007 6:35 PMI am no world reknowned management expert like Deming or Drucker. I have no Phd, have conducted no scholarly research or gathered statistics. My opinions are drawn from over thirty years in middle management. I am neither executive, consultant, nor belong to any elite institutions.
I am, however, passionate about these views: Employees come to work with an implicit trust that their managers are always working for the best interest of the company and its employees. That trust should not and cannot ever be taken for granted.
Look what is happening today. It is no longer "What's good for the company is good for the manager." It has become "What's good for the manager is good for the company." Top executives have totally lost sight of this phenomenon and are allowing managers to run amok in order to fulfill their own personal agendas.
Several years ago, I wrote a book on the subject of bad bosses, workplace culture and employee morale. It is as relevant today as it was then. The premise of the book is that employee morale is directly linked to the interaction of employees with line managers who are charged with executing the policies and strategies of companies.
Unfortunately, many of these managers subvert the good intentions of the organization to meet their own personal goals and agendas at the expense of their peers and subordinates. This management subculture is the result of a corporate culture of ignorance, indifference and excuse.
This problem can only be addressed from the top echelon of the organization through honest introspection and intelligent skepticism -- not by some consultant's attempts to manipulate the workforce into "feeling" better through gimmicks and programs. Better corporate level leadership is the key. Read more in "160 Degrees of Deviation: The Case for the Corporate Cynic."
Jerome Alexander
February 11, 2007 9:38 AMMy supervisor is unethical and incompetent. When she was handing off a statewide contract, she just parroted the vendor's reasons for a $400,000 increase. In two meetings with the internal client (HR) and the vendor, I shaved tens of thousands of dollars off that price, and was asking for justification for the rest. HR was VERY HAPPY. So, my supervisor tried to fire me. Our manager blocked that. Within a few days, three of my car doors were keyed. She has a self-admitted history for such vandalism.
Funny, she's the "policy & procedure" expert at the Calif. judicial branch.
February 26, 2007 8:20 PMI hate my job. I am going to quit. I feel so empowered even saying those words. "I am going to quit." Wow, I have been in my field for over 10 years, I am very young and have had the opportunity to grow with the organization.
However, I often feel devalued and disrespected. My boss is a real "BS" artist. He's the kinda of guy that can "Piss on your back and tell you that it is raining." Although he and I have a great personal relationship, I hate him as a boss. He does not know that I have lost so much respect for him in terms of his character. I feel that he would hang my department out to dry if given the chance.
I confronted him about his actions and my feelings, and still not even small changes. It seems that some folk in upper management want loyalty that they are not willing to give. I am torn because I love this work and the department I run. When I am not near him, I feel great about the position.
Unlike other departments, I am critically in need of tools and funding that will allow my department to flourish. I have been very successful and even more productive than other departments that are more respected and funded. Because I have created a productive department with less funding, [upper management] feels that I can spin hay into gold. I am afraid if I were to stay that I will miss out on other blessings. I feel such sorrow when it comes to my department. I am afraid that if I were to leave, my employees would be without a job, as this has happened when I was out ill.
Another department closed because of a funding crisis. I chalk it up to my youth that I have not been able to separate myself from my work. But in a mid-level management position, I still care about my staff. I care about the clients we serve. I believe that I work for my staff -- so that they are able to productively work for me.
Any suggestions?
March 13, 2007 3:57 AMI work for a state wildlife agency and I don't trust any of the supervisors. For one thing it is very hard for a woman to get promoted. There are only two female supervisors and they were both hired into their positions. When I interviewed for a promotion and didn't get it, the assistant division chief told me, "At least you didn't cry, I've made all my other female employees cry." Needless to say I lost any respect I ever had for him with that comment.
Now that I am looking for a new job I decided to be up front about it and told my supervisor. I also asked him for a job reference, and he agreed and said he would give me a good reference. We even discussed what he would talk about. Then when the call came in from another state agency, he tells them that he cannot give me a reference and cites a department policy that requires the HR department to handle all requests for references.
Supervisors look out for #1 and don't give a damn about the employees.
April 11, 2008 11:02 PMI work for someone who seems so nice on the surface, but then does undermining things. She tells me I'm doing a great job, but then I give her something and she does it over. Then she becomes short and snippy.
I also let her know that there was a position I was really interested in, and she told me to go for it. But then, she met with me and said had she known that I was going to apply for another position in the company, after this short amount of time, she would not have hired me, although she thinks my work is great (huh?). Why wouldn't she want me to grow within the company. She told me in my interview there was room for growth. I didn't get the position and I wonder if she had something to do with it. I was already assisting the department I wanted to work for.
May 5, 2008 11:47 AM
