Comments on: What to do when insulted by your boss?

By: jm

jm — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:20:52 +0000

I’m a manager of a fast food restaurant. There was this employee who thinks I insulted his dignity (according to his wife), walked out during operations and never came back to work. It went this way: He was a food handler but made a dishwasher for the week until he submits his training booklet (as required by our head office that all food handler in the kitchen must be certified to prepare food, the booklet will be the evidence and incidentally that day we are expecting someone from the head office to check those processes). But it seems that he didn’t like his new/temporary duty so instead decided to prepare food and be the dispatcher (a dispatcher checks the quality of a product before bringing out for serving). Naturally as the product quality manager I would do random checking of the products in the counter and on three occasions I found three same products and lacking ingredient which in our case is considered substandard, I reminded him on those three occasions of lapses but would just give unreasonable excuses. On the fourth time I exploded and out of bad temper I angrily said “stop dispatching food if you don’t follow sop’s” “Go to the dish washing area!” he replied “I’d rather go home!! I said “then go home” and so he went home and never came back. Out of humanitarian reason and due to article 285 of the labor code, If he believes that I insulted or treated him badly then he can terminate his employment of just cause, so we didn’t put his salary on hold, he submitted his resignation during my day-off and got his salary by then. But the funny thing is that He or His wife is threatening/harassing me thru txt and recently in may facebook wall that they have a relative in DOLE and their relative will run after me. I simply shrugged it off since its just a waste of time to even think about it. I just want to share that sometimes our labor code is applicable to whoever is the better strory-teller ^_^…

By: mercury

mercury — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 21:59:24 +0000

https://plusweb.org/index.cfm/p/Journal.Article/articleID/100034.htm

{{{Under current law, employees have little or no legal recourse against supervisors who non-discriminately intimidate, insult, verbally abuse and demean them in the workplace. Those days may soon be over. Over the last five years, at least thirteen (13) states have introduced legislation that permits employees to sue their employers and supervisors who insult, intimidate and verbally abuse them regardless of race, gender, age, national origin or disability (“Bully Legislation”). Although none of the Bully Legislation has yet been passed into law}}}…..this is part of an article from the above URL….Hopefully it will be passed into law sooner… Honestly this is hard for me to believe that an employee be a victim of a mentally ill manager, and have no option other than quitting, in this modern and democratic country.

By: Fides

Fides — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 06:57:36 +0000

I do agree with Sally’s comment. If you were insulted once which you felt that is below the belt then give another try but if the Boss habit is to insult his employees then I believe you need to leave the company before you totally lost your self esteem and self respect. You aimed to be productive but if you feel that your boss is pulling you down your performance and cannot get any support at all then it is high time to take a hike and find a better company who will acknowledge and value their employees.

By: Lazarus

Lazarus — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:42:54 +0000

Give the boss a second chance. It might probably be a slip of the tongue, or anger just clouded his reasoning at that certain point in time. If it’s because of performance, I’d rather do my job well the next time.

If he’s unreasonable most of the time, I’ll move on in another company, and strive to surpass his level.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 08:41:29 +0000

I think many people prefer option no 1 i.e to resign and look for another job.I would prefer option no 2 i.e to stay and do your job well; much as you pray for God to come through for you.I was in a similar situation 2 years back;and decided to resign while my fellow workmates decided to stay and wait on God.God worked miracles for them! The nagging Boss was transfered to another department and a very understanding boss replaced that one.A few months later they got a pay hike something i could have really enjoyed if i was patient enough to wait.I had prayed and commited the issue of salary hike to God apart from trusting God to change our boss or replace him with a another one; but my making the wrong decision of quiting that job led me to loosing everything.
I would suggest that if one is competent in his/her job,it is wise to continue working irrespective of the situation ,for God will one day change that situation.No season is permanent.What we go through is for a short while and if we don’t give up on the way; our patience will be rewarded greatly by God.
Another suggestion is, if someone is not professionally empowered ,it is wise to go back to college or university and further his/her studies so that one can have what it takes acdemically too and to avoid being retrenced.
Regards.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:29:02 +0000

Regarding the response from “Danny”

Stay and pray is hardly a strategy for success. That sounds dangerously close to complacency to me. Furthermore, pressure for results from the ownership is a weak reason for verbally abusing subordinate employees. If the manager is too weak or unskilled to perform as they are expected, then perhaps they should be replaced.

By that rationale, all of the distasteful things in the would would go on unchecked (discrimination, etc…) if bad behavior is chalked up as a bad day for the boss.

Managers should be held to a higher standard the farther up the ladder they stand or face the consequences (increased turnover, internal complaints, increased unionization, and litigation).

By: Danny

Danny — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 09:36:45 +0000

You will understand until your standing on his/her shoes. He/She experienced the same insult and learned from it. Besides, Boss responsibility is to run the company or else he/she’ll be fired not only insult from the owner.

Better stay and pray.

By: Sally Lo

Sally Lo — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 07:54:25 +0000

If you have the patience of Job, what you can do is stay on and “educate” the boss.

I can take insult once or twice from my boss particularly if I’m at fault, but to have him/her do it out of habit is something I will not allow. Bosses are stress-prone humans just like the rest of us, and sometimes they lose the brain-mouth connection when they experience pressure from their superiors or from their wives.

Sometimes it’s worth the trouble of diplomatically pointing out to the boss that he/she has made an error in judgment. Make your boss realize/understand his/her mistakes. What’s better than to have the boss treat you to lunch so that he/she can say “I’m really sorry, I made a mistake”? The feeling is priceless, I can tell you–my first-hand exerience.

By: jose

jose — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 03:53:18 +0000

If you can’t stand the heat get off the fire or get the fire off if you can do so. Both has some consequences though that a person should face with a ball.

By: Sam Acosta

Sam Acosta — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 02:21:19 +0000

Well, it’s so nicely explained…

I have been a regular employee and a boss and sometimes, we can never read minds. In any workplace or in any given situation with conflicts… there is a need for OPEN CONVERSATION not necessarily confrontation.

One has to understand each other’s side before taking any further action. And this is possible only with having open talk. In the process, you will not even need to like the other, but having expressed your side is quite a psychological and physical relief.

And oh, one think, when you’re not sure of anything yet… DON’T MAKE ANY DECISION.

Regards to all.