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What If... - Page 2

Maicman, I am assuming that you are asking me this question. In retrospect I am okay, now with my reaction. This guy is nuts, he runs off at the mouth. He jumps to conclusions, accusing others willy-nilly. If you are in his store he feels he has the right to butt into your conversations. That is fine if you are his employee, but these are customers he is interrupting and making smart mouthed remarks to.

At the time I was stressing about how he was treating me, and how he was treating the customers. Remember this is in a town of no more than 2,500 people. Real small. Not only did he scream at me for assisting the customers in finding the hardware products they needed, he was harassing me about my religion. No, not that I was LDS, but that I was a Christian and active in my faith. When he hired me we had agreed that I would not work on Sundays because of my faith. Then three weeks later he was bribing me to work on Sundays. He would pay me for 8 hours and I only had to work 5. He would pay me $1.00 an hour more. I would be eligible for extra bonus's. I thanked him politely and turned him down. (those who were working Sundays, were not receiving these promised extra's that he had promised him, so I knew he was lying to me.)

One of his cronies saw me leaving my attorneys office and told him about it, I got laid off a week later. Yes I was going to an attorney ~ Religious harassment is against the law. I couldn't pursue it, because I didn't have enough documentation!! I was actually relieved when he laid me off. I had wanted to quit, but I also wanted to put an end to his harassments. I knew I needed more documentation and I had to keep working to get it.

The moral to this story ~ Documentation!! No matter who it is who is yelling at you, calling you stupid or a fool, if they are harassing you in any way shape or form ~ Document it. Keep a small note pad on you, pull it out and jot down the day, date, time, place and enough of what was said and by who, & in front of whom so that when you get home that night you can enter it into a Work Journal in more detail. Keep the small note pad along with your work journal, it is a legal document! Then after talking with your Union Rep, or Human Resources person, etc. write the person up. Report it to the proper authorities. In my case it was the owner of the business. So the Religious harassment would be taken up by my lawyer.

If What

I couldn't tolerate being ill-treated by an employer. In fact, I've quit a couple of jobs just for that reason! I can understand that someone with anger problems will probably tend to own their own business rather than be an employee because they can't hold a regular job -- because of their temper. Unfortunately, they don't make any better bosses than they do employees. (About 10 years ago, I was dating a man who went through 9 jobs in 12 weeks, and nothing was ever his fault... that was my first clue that something was wrong...) That type of behavior has no place in the work arena -- employee OR boss.

IMO
Roz

What If... Health & Special Psychology

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. In this case though, I suppose a lot of factors may come in to play - my attitude at the time, what the cause of the negative remark was derived from. I would like to think I would not respond exactly the way my boss would want me to. The boss I have now is explosive, yet I am a manager under them, so the way I react may be weird for the other employees.

Page 2 If What

I know this isn't the brightest thing to do but I had a boss call me stupid three times, the last two were within one breath, I didn't appreciate it so I grabbed my tools and walked off the job. I don't tolerate people putting me down. So if a boss was to call me a fool, I'm afraid that he definately would hear about it.

If What

It all depends on my mood, the mistake I made and my boss' state of mind. If I were in high spirits that day and I did make a terrible mistake, well I would not bat an eyelash, if my boss called me a fool. However, if I am in a bad mood or not feeling well, I think the roof may collapse after my boss' negative remark. I may remain silent for a few seconds and then in a cold and subdued voice, I would inform him that I did not appreciate that comment. If I am aware that my boss is experiencing personal problems, I would just dismiss his remark blowing off some steam!

Edited: Geenie on 25th Apr, 2007 - 3:27am

What If...

This is an excellent question, and one which demands an explanation of me before I rave my reply.

I have studied philosophy, had a book of poetry published, and spent time as a professional writer. One thing I learned through all of those professions... they won't make me enough money to live the life of luxury I desire (heh). So, to supplement my income, I became a "worker".

In my pursuit of being a "worker", I became the boss of a division within the company I worked for. I had the odd ocassion to call somebody "stupid" or "a fool".

Don't hate me just yet.

I never, ever called them these things within earshot of other employees, and I always followed my remarks with explanations. In doing this, I made them realise that I wasn't actually calling them stupid or foolish, but that they had done a stupid or foolish thing. Secondly, I always praised them at the same time with sentences like, "You always got this right in the past. Are you just having a bad day?"

Then, I would sit (or stand) with them and explore where they went wrong. Once the error was ascertained, I would leave them to fix it. Very rarely was the outcome not fixed!

I guess the way you talk to people is paramount. As a boss, if you don't show employees respect, then they won't respect you. if you don't have respect as a boss, then your division/ department will suffer. If this happens, YOUR boss will look at you with a critical eye, because you are the one he/ she entrusted to run that division.

I believe in information sharing, multi-tasking, and ongoing communication. I also like my employees to perform their jobs to a level satisfactory to their reasons for being employed... ie... get the job done!

But... and this is very important to my work philosophy... Your work should compliment your lifestyle, not vice versa. In other words, I like my employees to be happy at work so they can carry thet emotion back to their private lives. When you leave work for the day, leave your work behind!

What If... - Page 2

Bravo Philosopher you nailed it. I would be glad to work for you as I am sure your employers did.

I have a supervisor who is very short of fuse and as such he did say some nasty things on several occasions. One thing life has taught me thought to to give a donkey enough rope eventually they end up tangled in it.

I used to work very hard for this person but after saving his bacon thrice and being scolded for how I did it, I just simple turned a blind eye to his mistakes there after and let his boss see them. Unfortunately it did spray a bit on me in the fall out but since then my supervisor now has more respect for how important his employees are.

So to all supervisors or owners remember it is the people below you that make you look good or bad so treat them well and you all will succeed!

Edited: krakyn on 11th Jun, 2007 - 12:56pm