Job Stress: One Boss, Two Victims
Jane worked for the same company for three years. She knew her
job and was frequently the one who trained new employees. She
was 29 and single, and always volunteered to work extra hours or
holidays. She planned to make her job a career. That is, until
recently.
When the head of her department retired, a replacement was hired
and things changed rapidly. Procedures that had been in place
for years and that worked very well were completely changed,
making more work for Jane and the other employees. Some of the
changes caused employees to make mistakes, which were then
sharply criticized by the department head.
He seemed to focus his tirades more on Jane than on the other
employees. Jane began waking up several times a night worrying
about what her boss would blame her for that day. She started
having severe headaches, which affected her work, and her
appetite suffered.
Carolyn was 22 years old. She was a more recent employee, having
worked for the company for only about eight months. She also
came in for her share of criticism by the department head, and
went to the rest room to cry on more than one occasion after one
of his scathing outbursts.
It soon became apparent that the new department head was power
hungry. He took credit for the successes of his employees and
wormed his way out of blame for anything that went wrong. He
overacted to anything he considered a mistake or that he was
afraid would make him look bad. He became golfing buddies with
two top managers, which solidified his position in the company.
When Jane realized her job was affecting her health, she made an
appointment with a manager in Personnel. Caroline asked if she
could go with her. The manager listened politely and said he
would look into it, but made it clear that he was reluctant to
do so.
The following week, Jane was called into the manager's office
and told she could transfer to another department but would have
to start at a lower salary than she was receiving at present.
Although she considered this totally unfair, she decided to try
it. The last I heard, she was fairly comfortable in her new
position, but was definitely looking for something better.
And Caroline? She walked out after one of the department
manager's vicious tirades.
And the power hungry boss? He is still there in the same
position. But there is an unusually high turnover of employees
in that department.
Copyright 2006 Robert T. Lewis, Ph.D.
*The above case has been fictionalized and neither the persons
nor the incidents are identifiable to any real person or
situation.