h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A definite form of bullying is when a boss or work colleague never ever has it in their heart to praise something you do, but is always ready to leap up and criticise even the most minor error. The fact that you might have won a contract, saved the company thousands of pounds or achieved something worthy of comment goes unnoticed, but a small typo in an email leaves you open for ridicule.

If you turn the tables and point out their errors you're accused of being petty. And worse, they might never bother to praise you, but if your department is praised from outside they're always willing to take the credit.

That's just something that really annoys me.

From the Little Book of Management B*****ks:

"PERSONAL GLORY: If people congratualte you personally on something that was actually the work of your team, smile and murmur, 'I couldn't have done it without my team'.

"Everybody will think you're just being modest."



I *love* this book

In my office we joke:

'Leaders are like eagles...
...we don't have either around here.'

It annoys me, too, Jimster. One of my bosses even has the habit to do the following:

You proved him to be wrong in a certain case (and, by the way, saved his head by doing so, because you found out about his mistake before anybody else did, especially a client); next thing he does is not to say "Thank you", but busily seeking for any small mistake you did and come down on you like a ton of bricks...

Disgusting!

The reason that happens is because you are a constant reminder that the boss is inadequate in their position - if they can get rid of you, they can get rid of any evidence of the fact that they can't do their jobs properly. This happens a lot in banking, media and sales.

I think a lot of people are uncomfortable with giving praise, or feel that to be paid at the end of the month is reward enough for good work. A little praise for doing a good job goes a long way. It needn't be gushing, just a simple message to let me know I have turned in a good report or that my boss appreciated the hard work I put in, or the long hours I worked in order to get the job done. Happily I have a boss who does just that at the moment, but it hasn't always been that way ...

One boss was tasked with sending reports to a customer of ours and asked me to come up with the data. I was quite happy to oblige until I found a fax in the machine one day, thanking my boss profusely for the reports and the great attention to detail that he had undoubtably paid . The customer also mentioned that he had written a letter of praise to our company's chief executive.

I didn't let on that I knew all this and offered, quite nonchalantly, to compile and send the reports myself in future. I did this in front of a whole room full of co-workers and managed to make it sound like I was doing him a favour by taking on the extra work and lifting the amount of stress he was under. He accepted the offer (looking more than a little uncomfortable as I remember). I then spent a frantic week researching different ways of presenting and analysing data and presented a killer report. I received a letter of praise from the customer, who commented that this was an improvement on previous reports ... naturally I floated this on the office correspondence file, for the rest of the management team to see, including my boss

Ah! revenge is indeed sweet

It is... as long as you got the chance to take it...