Abused Workers Fight Back by Slacking Off

[devilgrrl]

Source: Yahoo

Abused Workers Fight Back by Slacking Off

Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience Staff Writer

Employees toiling under an abusive supervisor often rebel quietly and indirectly by slacking off on the job and handing in sloppy work.

Researchers at Florida State University surveyed more than 180 employees from a wide variety of professions, asking whether they had endured a history of abuse from their bosses, then asking a slew of workplace performance questions.

Employees with difficult bosses checked out in the following ways:

* 30 percent slowed down or purposely made errors, compared with 6 percent of those not reporting abuse.
* 27 percent purposely hid from the boss, compared with 4 percent of those not abused.
* 33 percent confessed to not putting in maximum effort, compared with 9 percent of those not abused.
* 29 percent took sick time off even when not ill, compared with 4 percent of those not abused.
* 25 percent took more or longer breaks, compared with 7 percent of those not abused.

Whether the abusive boss causes apathetic employees or vice versa is not known.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20071008/sc_livescience/abusedworkersfightbackbyslackingoff

[SteppingRazor]

1. So, subtracting the not-abused totals from the abused...

basically, about 25 percent of the U.S. population is seriously passive-aggressive. :silly:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

28. lol

while i am not passive agressive in my personal life, i am TERRIBLY passive aggressive at work

[Warpy]

2. All they have to do is follow workplace situations where the

boss changes from an abusive sack of shit to a competent manager, or vice versa.

My guess is that the abusive sack of shit causes the passive resistance and monkeywrenching.

[tridim]

3. That's practically the script for "Office Space"

Except they forgot, "Play Tetris while waiting to meet with the Bobs".

[Kolesar]

4. "I'm going to have to ask you to...go away"

[Javaman]

36. "somebody has a bad case of the Mondays!" nt

[AnneD]

5. "whether the abusive boss causes apathetic employees or....

vice versa is not know". Is that one of those false fair and balanced statements or does the reporter have shit for brains.....

The truth is those that are not abused did not engage in counter productive work activities to the extent that abused employees did. The truth is the truth.

[kath]

12. Yeah, what a stupid fokking statement that was - like sure, it's the *employees'* fault that the

boss is an asshole.

Give. Me. A. Break.

[Javaman]

37. It's always our fault, the 6-7 figure asshole boss is always right. nt

[lovuian]

6. welcome to what brought down the USSR

the workers got poorly treated and so the rebelled in a work screw you

[Occulus]

10. In my USPS facility

we face certification after certification... what for, we do not know, as we don't "lose" our jobs if our plant closes- they MUST find us another slot... (we gave up striking in return for no layoffs).

Certific ation, at least where I work, really means pressuring you to work harder and harder for the same amount of pay.

I don't do that anymore. They're entitled to my "fair day's work", and I'm in charge of deciding what "fair" is.

That said, there's no reason for mail dated a week from now to be worked tonight. The mailer wants it delivered NEXT week, not THIS week, but DAMMIT- that's mail sitting there while you're standing there, and dammit, yer gonna werk it! Git 'er dun! (sic)

:eyes:

[blondie58]

25. yeah, and being a carrier for the USPS.

isn't a whole lot better. Management has started sending "spies" out to do street observations on us. You know, our time is their time and they think that we all steal precious minutes away from them.:sarcasm:

And we also have the same reward for working hard- more work. Your route gets added onto, or abolished, so that there are less routes in a station.

We also get the threat of losing our jobs. I will never forget the standup that we had where the manager said something to the effect of "I have a masters degree, so I'll be fine. But YOU (as he slit an envelope and put it on his head, as he turned around from having his back turned to us) will be asking would you like fries with that?" How insulting. There are many people that have college degrees, even masters that work for the USPS. But the pay and benefits are better than their chosen field of work, thanks to the unions.

I like my job, but I can honestly say that I have never worked for such a dysfunctional organization.

And it seems consistent that if a manager harasses his employees or does something unethical- they get punished by being promoted.

[lovuian]

26. Its dysfunctional when workers are treated badly they have

ways of screwing the system... I'm expecting whips next Mush Mush worker Mush

and this is America and your unionized

if they have to hire a guy to check up that the worker is doing their job then you know the organization is going to have to hire a guy for every worker to watch what they are doing

that not productive

[kineneb]

17. the famous: I pretend to work, and you pretend to pay me. n/t

[KansDem]

7. Those five ways look awfully familiar...

I mean, not now, of course, but in the past I think I've used all five of those responses to "an abusive supervisor." Even at the same job!

[cornermouse]

8. I don't think its necessarily slacking off as much as it might

actually be discouragement and depression. If you give it a good try and you get your head bit off, why bother?

[gateley]

15. I think you nailed it. The OP and yours help explain why I just kind of 'gave up'

at my last job. VERY discouraging and I didn't care enough to try to improve my attitude.

[CoffeeCat]

16. That's exactly it...

You nailed it.

I recognized some of those "symptoms" in myself at one of my jobs. I loved
the company with a red-hot passion, but my boss was a psychopathic piece of
frog poop from the bottom of a New Jersey scum swamp (Oh, did I say that out loud?).

I was very depressed and upset most of the time. The man would steal my work one
minute, then tell me I was incompetent the next. He was an abusive idiot.

I know that I went into first gear after working for him for a while. I think I was
just tired. I didn't want to give up the great job, and I stuck it out.

I hope the man is folding shirts at Chess King now.

[raccoon]

27. And some abusive bosses are going to find fault no matter what,

so you figure, why bother?

[MountainLaurel]

29. Hit it in one

If you struggle to make things better and nothing ever helps, or if you are a model employee and just keep getting the slackers' work dumped on you, you're gonna give up eventually.

[Thor_MN]

9. Hell, I'm doing several of those right now.

[martymar64]

11. They pretend to pay us so we'll just pretend to work

:evilgrin:

[kath]

13. Ding ding ding, we have a winner!

[superkia]

14. Under paid, over worked and treating me like shit? I'll show you!

I think it happens more than what those percentages show. Eventually people get beaten down to a point where they only give enough to keep their paycheck. If you take care of your people, they will take care of you.

[Cobalt Violet]

24. That's what I do.

They cut my pay, I cut my work. It's that simple. They will only get out of me what they are paying for, no more.

[kineneb]

18. We, the unwilling,

Lead by the unknowing,
Are doing the impossible
For the ungrateful.

We have done so much
With so little,
For so long,
That we are qualified
To do everything with nothing.


Yeah, I had a job like that. Why should I bust my butt for people who don't offer any benefits, and are not happy with what I do.

[rocktivity]

19. Candidate for this month's "You Call This NEWS?" Award

the "You couldn't figure this out without doing a freaking STUDY?" division.

:headbang:
rocknation

[NashVegas]

21. Yup. Right Up There With "PMS Is Real"

..

[Ellen Forradalom]

34. Masters of the Obvious, they are.

I could've told them that for a quarter.

[Hydra]

20. I'm doing all five right now

I'm underpaid, overworked, no chance of advancement and my boss wants me to do more. No fucking wonder. :evilgrin:

[FloridaJudy]

22. Sounds like my last job.

[lligrd]

23. Those Are The Smart Ones

What is wrong with those of us who keep working extra hours for little or no appreciation?

[ileus]

30. Slack is King...just ask bob.

[Odin2005]

31. This is what happens when you treat human beings like cogs in a machine.

Employees being treated like just another commodity to be exploited, to be used as a means to the end of making the rich richer, is the main reason I DESPISE Corporate Capitalism. I am a HUMAN BEING with my own goals, wants, desires, and dreams, and as human beings we thus a deserve to be treated, as Immanuel Kant said, as NOT solely as a means, but as an end unto our selves. I AM NOT A COG, DAMN IT!!!

[lonestarnot]

35. Whatsa cog look like? Slave looks like a person.

[MetaTrope]

32. Been there, done that, quit my job

Six months later, I suppose it's time to start looking again.

[fujiyama]

33. Isn't this one of those "No Shit!" type articles...

You need a study to show this? It's called basic motivational theory.

My management is so fucked up. They fire people, claim it's downsizing, give me extra work, then hire somebody that's close to upper management (*cough* nepotism) in my position.

So I'm stuck training several people...and I'm being asked to "document procedures" because they know even though I know more about the systems than others in the group, I'm expendable. Meanwhile, I am gaining few if any transferable skills (other than learning how to deal with corporate enviornment bullshit).

Meanwhile, as a temp, I have no benefits, am getting fucked over by another useless middleman taking 30% of my already shitty pay.

And management expects me to fucking care? Everyday, I go in thinking I'll just go ahead and quit. Then I remember. $X > $0.

It's sad, because I still sort of care. I don't like not wanting to do well.

Is there ONE job out there which I DON'T feel like calling in sick EVERY fucking morning?

[Javaman]

38. I work at a place that does just the opposite of the Peter Principal...

We have no management training here, no defined set of rules for managers, no guidelines for them to follow. so as a result incompetency is almost a virtue here.

I've seen very very competent people fired out of jealousy. I've seen very fine people quit out of pure frustration.

Why am I still here? I don't know. It's a regular paycheck, but worse still is I can't get further promoted, I have reached the peak in this area. Believe me, it ain't much.

What makes it so frustrating from me is: I have management training and I see all the basic stupid mistakes that the "managers" make here day in and day out.

blah blah blah.