Ogre managers

This week two readers off load about "ogre" managers. The emails were both from women and the "bad bosses" were both men but bad bosses and their suffering staff can be of either gender. One woman works for a moody real estate agent who snaps without warning. She did the right thing and confronted him about his behaviour telling him how it made her "feel" (that is what the experts say to do). It did a bit of good in that he apologised. He then told her he couldn't change and she shouldn't take offence in future.

The second reader has a café-owner boss who yells and threatens to fire people or withhold their salaries to punish them for misdemeanours. He rants that he's a lawyer as well as the boss and therefore can do what he likes. In reality he is ignorant as well as objectionable. Whatever the changes to the workplace laws, bosses cannot withhold wages like that. Both bosses sound like pretty poor business people too. How will their behaviour lead to higher productivity or cut down on staff turn over? It won't.

Employees probably spend more time on trying to second guess their moods or on avoiding a temper outburst than on getting their jobs done. We have all seen the intimidating boss who makes employees so nervous that they just make more mistakes thus reinforcing the bosses' view that he or she is the only person with any ability.

As well as providing some legal links, my advice to the two readers was to start job hunting. A good hospitality worker and a skilled personal assistant should be able to find a better place to work. Life is too short for putting up with a bully boss.

By Kate Southam, Editor of careerone.com.au

For more useful tips read the other stories in the Job hunting advice section as well as Ask Kate Archives , Kate's Blog and Kate's Resource Library.