Remember that playground tyrant? Well, she’s
moved into the corner office where she can wreak havoc on not only your career
but your health too. Here’s what you should know about this growing trend.
When stacie started as an account
manager at an architecture firm two years ago, she
couldn’t believe her luck. In a tough market, she’d landed her dream job at age
31, complete with a great salary, friendly coworkers, sleek high- tech offices,
and a corporate gym membership. There was just one problem: Her boss was a
nightmare.
There
was just one problem: Her boss was a nightmare.
The first time that became clear, Stacie
was stunned. “I had turned in a project I’d worked really hard on, making sure
to submit it to MV lOSS on time,” she recalls. “I was sitting at my desk in my
cubicle, and suddenly she was standing over me screaming, ‘What the hell is
this crap? And why is it so late?’ I tried to say I thought I’d done exactly
what she asked for, hut she cut me off and yelled about how incompetent I was.
Everyone in the office could hear I was so humiliated.”
Soon Stacie found herself flinching every
time she went to a meeting, handed in an assignment, or even just saw her boss
walk toward her. She never knew what to expect, but she was sure it would
involve outbursts and insults and that she would feel completely helpless. “A
few months ago, mv boss abruptly pulled me into her office and accused me of
‘not having my Sh*t together,’” says Stacie. “I asked her what the problem was,
and she replied, ‘I don’t know I’m going to have to think about it.’ Another
time, at a team meeting, I was singled out as ‘the employee you don’t want to
be like.’”
After a few months of encounters like that,
Stacie was unable to relax even during her downtime. “I’d he anxious and
nauseated all weekend, wondering what my boss had in store for me on Monday. On
Sunday nights I couldn’t sleep at all.” Finally, she went to her doctor, who
prescribed anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills, but Stade admits that
what she really needs is a new job. “It’s so sad, because I love what I do!”
she says. “But I simply can’t take the abuse.”
Power Trip
Stacie’s situation may sound extreme, but
it’s surprisingly common. Some 54 million Americans more than a third of the
workforce have been tormented on the job, according to a 2010 survey by the
Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), a research and advocacy group. And the toll
on their psychological and physical health is high, with many people reporting
mental health problems and a wide variety of other ailments.
Stacie’s
situation may sound extreme, but it’s surprisingly common.
Nearly three-quarters of those identified
as bullies hold positions of authority, but their behavior goes beyond just
being irrational or lacking strong management skills. The hallmark of these
abusers is that they repeatedly target a specific individual with the intention
of causing distress or harm, As a result, the picked- on employee feels singled
out and held up to public ridicule. Her work might he disparaged in front of
others, and she may be subject to personal insults (“How did an idiot like you
get this position?”) or become the focus of vicious office gossip. Sometimes
the mistreatment is more subtle, with bullies taking credit for their victims’
work, cutting them out of the loop, or sabotaging their projects.
That’s what happened to Dana, 35, when she
was a communications coordinator at a Boston area university. She was in the
midst of launching a major publicity campaign when a higher up began taking
away some crucial aspects of her job and reassigning them to students. “It made
me feel totally worthless,” she says. “She also started excluding me from
important meetings. I’d find out about them after they’d taken place or she’d
schedule them when she knew I had a conflict.”
One time, after Dana left a brainstorming
session early to attend to a prior commitment, a coworker told her that the
supervisor spent the rest of the time belittling her and asking her peers
whether they thought she was mentally ill. “She seemed intent on beating me
down,” says Dana. “I couldn’t believe I was in my 30s and being bullied.”
