Employers From Hell

Bad employers can make great jobs miserable and make their employees dread work every day.  A negative work environment decreases employee morale and makes workers less productive and more likely to quit, and can result in an organisation becoming mixed up in employment disputes. Most employees have a few minor issues with their jobs, but there are a few common things that the majority of employees cite as being definite indicators of an employer from hell.

A major issue that many employees mention when asked about bad bosses is favoritism.  Bad employers often choose favorites and make either make excuses for their poor work performance of tend to promote them or reward them over other equally deserving employees.  They may also actively discriminate against employees who are not their favorites. 

Favoritism causes favored employees to slack off since they know they can get away with it.  It also creates animosity amongst employees and may cause those who are not favorites to not work as hard since they believe that they will always be second to their bosses favored employees. 

Another very common issue that drives employees crazy is when employers fail to communicate effectively.  Employees generally want to do well at their job and meet expectations.  This is difficult to do when bosses frequently change their minds, forget to communicate changes, or just flat out never communicate expectations or goals to their employees.  This can be very frustrating for both bosses and workers.

Failure to provide positive reinforcement combined with excessive punishment is another major problem that workers have with employers from hell.  Many employees have issues with bosses who ignore them until there is a problem and then punish them.  Employees like to know when they are doing things well in addition to when they are doing them incorrectly. 

Often times if employers provide positive reinforcement, even just verbally, to employees when they do well it encourages them to do even more good work and lets them know that they are on the right track.  They will also usually be more willing to listen to criticism if they have also received some positive feedback along with the negative.

Obviously, when there are issues with an employee’s performance, they need to be corrected.  However, many bad employers do this by yelling or speaking rudely.  This is counterproductive and does nothing but make the employee feel resentful and embarrassed in front of their coworkers. 

Once a criticism is made, bad employers often do not provide a forum for the employee to respond to criticism.  Employees often cite this as a frustrating indicator of an employer from hell.  Many times an employee is disciplined and not given the chance to provide their reasoning for why they did the things that prompted the criticism.  Often times the employee has a valid reasoning or they just did not know about the policy.  Allowing employees to explain their thought process can give employers insight into what their workers are thinking and even give the employers new ideas about how to do things.  It will also make workers feel that their opinions are valued and respected.

Ultimately, employees like bosses who are fair and listen to their concerns.  Employers from hell are the ones who take credit for their employees work, bully or speak rudely to them, do not listen, fail to communicate effectively, and play favorites.    ­