9. Don’t govern by threats

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As a cherry on the cake, complete the circle by threatening employees by a variety of threats and bully them into submission. Completely politicise the working atmosphere by turning each employee against the other and follow through by asking each employee to “report” about the others privately. Although these may be stone age tactics, these are used effectively by managers in dealing with a new and superbly qualified professional team. 

International organisations world over recognise bullying to be detrimental to the work process. Some of the signs of bullying are :

• Micromanagement at all stages of the work process hamper the flow of the work and indirectly question the integrity of the employees. This effectively reduces an experienced employee to a rookie who needs to ask for instructions at every stage
• Intruding privacy with phone calls at odd hours and clear threats to answer emails received on hand held devices within minutes of receiving them. Not answering phone calls or emails would lead to a “dressing down” in front of other employees – another clear bullying tactic.
• Displaying intimidating behaviour about specific employees in front of other employees in their absence by threatening to fire them – incessantly and constantly.
• Constantly deflecting requests for personal time off which is contractually due to the employee thereby traumatising employees.

To top it all, none of these “rules” are available in the company rule book or available from the Human Resource department.  The employee has little or no choice but to fall in line with the bullying tactics of the boss. The employee can

• Establish ground rules and areas to allow the “micromanagement” to slowly metamorphose to a stage where it becomes redundant or even stupid
• Gradually and firmly, establish the limits of office time and private family time.
• For the intimidating behaviour, the employees could unite against such behaviour and stand up to the bully. After all, one can’t “fire” the team all at once.
• For the requests of leave, if it is clearly due and official, the employees should stand up for their rights. Eventually, the bully will back down.

In the tenth and concluding post, look forward to an entertaining piece on email writing. Links to the previous posts are below

8. Support the team on the Ground
7. Provide Mission Critical information to the Project Team
6. Resource appropriately
5. How to (not) do your budget in five easy steps
4. Read the contract you just signed
3. Don't promise the impossible in a ridiculous timeframe
2. How (not) to win a contract
1. New Business Areas