Terrible Boss? Just Say “Thank You”

Have you ever worked for the “boss from hell?” That’s the guy or gal who won’t be satisfied with anything you do, treats you like scum, and whom you hope dies an early and miserable death.

Well, a new study suggests that if you show that person a little gratitude – no matter how awful that sounds – you may be better able to survive in the workplace.

The researchers, from the University of Southern California, say that if powerful people were shown gratitude by their subordinates they would be less aggressive toward others.

So how does one know if being nice to a cruel boss might really work? The researchers conducted two experiments and concluded that people in power whose competence has been threatened are more likely to denigrate others while the powerful that are shown gratitude – even if it’s not deserved – feel self-affirmed and therefore more pleased. Somehow, according to the researchers, that makes them less likely to be aggressive in the future. Sounds good on paper, right?

Bad Boss – Good Boss

In the first experiment, the researchers told volunteers they were being divided into two-member teams and that their other “teammate” was in another room and able to communicate via written notes. They were next asked to write instructions for how to assemble an object clearly enough so someone else could assemble it. Then they were asked to review a draft of the instructions — ostensibly written by their partner, but really written by the researcher — and provide feedback.

The volunteers were randomly divided into “high power” and “low power” positions. The high power subjects were told that they were to offer feedback as well as “evaluate” their partner’s work (both of which would affect potential monetary rewards). The low power subjects were told that they were to analyze and provide feedback.

The subjects were given the notes from their supposed partner, which either contained no gratitude expression with the feedback, or the same feedback with the line “Thank you so much! I am really grateful.”

Will This Work?

After viewing the partner’s message, participants had the opportunity to denigrate their partner’s competence by rating the degree to which their partner seemed “competent, intelligent, capable, incompetent unskilled likely to succeed and likely to fail.”

The result? According to the study, “high-power participants whose competence was threatened denigrated their subordinates. This pattern disappeared when the subordinate expressed gratitude. Among low-power participants, there were no main effects of competence and gratitude expression, nor was there an interaction between competence and gratitude expression.”

In the second experiment, the researchers sought to assess “whether perceived social worth in the eyes of subordinates accounts for the ameliorating effects of gratitude expression on threatened power holders’ tendency to denigrate others.”

They asked their subjects to write a description of a picture so someone else could draw the picture from the description. Subjects were once again divided into “high” and “low” power roles. The people with power who felt incompetent denigrated their partner if they didn’t receive any gratitude.

The researchers concluded that when people have power they feel the need to meet demanding role expectations, and when they don’t feel competent they lash out with aggression toward others.

So should employees who want a better relationship with their bosses start demonstrating some appreciation? The researchers aren’t sure.

“As a long-term solution, we are not sure if this is going to be effective,” they say (so what was the purpose of the research?).

On the other hand it may be simpler to just brush off the old resume and move on.

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