How to spot an abusive boss

How to spot an abusive boss

Who's afraid of the big bad boss?

In a recent survey, one in four Singapore workers said that he or she feels bullied at work.

Sixty-two per cent of the 2,281 people polled by online job portal JobsCentral said they were bullied by their superiors.

But 74 per cent of the respondents who said they were bullied indicated that colleagues are the biggest bullies, while 21 per cent said they were bullied by their clients.

Some of the common bullying behaviour cited include:

  • Unfair and biased allocation of workload
  • Verbal abuses and personal attacks
  • Ostracising
  • Wrongful accusation
  • Abuse of seniority or power
  • Gossip

Here are some other horror stories from 20 random people that The New Paper on Sunday spoke to:

"My boss makes us 'sign out' and 'sign in' even when we go for toilet breaks. We are given a maximum of 10 minutes, failing which the exceeded minutes will be deducted from our lunch hour."

- Madam Nadia Shen, 48, an accounts clerk in a trading firm

"We finish work at 6pm but at least three times a week, our department head will call for a meeting at 5.45pm. She does at this random so that it's difficult to make any dinner plans."

- Miss Ling Meiqing, 27, an editorial assistant in a local publishing firm

"If we make a mistake, our general manager keeps quiet about it until the weekly meeting. He then calls out our names, makes us stand up and 'read the charge' aloud. Then we have to explain to everyone why we were wrong and suggest what punishment should be meted out."

- Mr Tommy Tan, 39, a purchasing manager in a restaurant

"I work in a supermarket and my supervisor will walk over to me - sometimes when there is a long queue - and say loudly, 'Make sure you don't make a mistake. You know you're going to lose your job if any customer complains about you'. That's so embarrassing."

- Madam Alice Ho, 52, a cashier

maureenk@sph.com.sg

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