Is your boss a bully?

Only last week, I made an innocent call to the head of communication of one of the largest corporate businesses in Oman. I wanted to check on his company’s scheduled conference. He gave me precise detail, word by word, as if he had stayed all night memorising the words. I also detected something new in the style of his speech. Since I was impressed, I told him so but I also needed to know the story behind it. You guess right, the man was going through abrupt changes, most of them forced ones.

“I have been giving new responsibilities and I am not paid extra for it,” he explained but not with the same enthusiasm I noticed when we started the conversation,” I now work late and take piles of papers at home. My wife is not happy about it.”

His superiors, perhaps trying to save money and get more work from him, gave him a fancy little title considerably increasing his workload. Sympathising with him, I said,” they are taking advantage of you. Perhaps you are too submissive.”

I suggest that he squared up with his bosses and made his feelings known. However, the man hesitated and I knew why. When you have several mouths to feed at home and probably unsure of your potential, you think twice before inviting confrontations. However, I told him to give himself more time and chew over the new situation. My advice to him was that, “don’t do anything that will come between you and your well-being.”

Life for him, like most of us, must go on. He seems to adapting to new changes very well and perhaps because he is a thorough professional. When I caught up with him on the conference day, he gave me a tired smile. The facial strain did not influence the way he worked. He appeared to take extra responsibilities very seriously because his body language showed no fatigue at all.

 During the break, I looked around the conference room but he was anywhere to be seen. All I could see were executives in their smart clothing and confident attitudes. They sipped coffee in the assured manner and talked to their subordinates to reflect the authority they had over them. It suddenly dawned on me that all top office bosses act in the same way. They look down at their staff with unseen scorn and make them work by demanding back a visible respect.

After the break, the head of communication returned to the conference room, His boss gave him a nasty look than said some harsh words to him in front of everyone, including the guests. Obviously he got so used at bulling him that he did care who was watching.

The man at the receiving end did not say anything but his body language responded with the sign language that said, “yes, master, my apologies master” before hurrying away like a dog who was beaten up by a stick.

His boss later delivered a speech and when it was time for us reporters to ask questions, I shot up like a bullet to start a very uncomfortable grilling of interrogations with him on the stand. It was my way of avenging the man he was bulling. I made him answer hard questions and uncomfortable ones.

I am sure some of you reading this column may identify a bully in your offices.