Theory: Why Bully Bosses Are Bad News (by Adrian R. Lawler)

Theory: Why Bully Bosses Are Bad News (by Adrian R. Lawler)

A sick organization usually has one or more bully bosses, who help/cause organization to be sick in its actions to others. Such toxic people usually have political connections or some other way to operate without getting themselves replaced, like nepotism, money, bringing money into the organization, or the organization may use them to help purge the organization of people they do not want. Many can be recognized by their "hissy fits," shouting, cursing, wagging their finger in your face, spitting in your face when they rant, etc. when they do not get their way initially. They operate by doing anything they want to anybody at anytime, and think nothing of it. They have an advantage over many other people because they know people of character will try to do the right thing, so they know the moves most will make beforehand, but they will do anything they want.

If you get on their "hit" list, for whatever, or no, reason, you can possibly kiss your job (and maybe career) goodbye. The reason can be you know too much, are too smart (and show somebody up), are too dumb, will not play their way, make them jealous, make them afraid of you (loose cannon), embarass them, do not bow down to their "greatness," etc. In a bully's eyes, everyone is for their use and advancement.

The only way to survive (but usually under constant harassment) is to have more ammo (proof of illegal actions) on the sick organization/bully boss than the bully boss has on you. And this is a dangerous game to play; you cannot openingly threaten them with exposure, but have to let it be known through the grapevine, or your actions, you are writing down or have evidence secured at a place away from your home or job. When they make a move on you, you have to make a move that is smarter, and further reaching, and difficult to trace directly back to you (but they "know" it is you), than their move so they decide it is best to keep you partially under their thumb rather than cut you loose to possibly tell all.

Unfortunately, as with about every profession out there, there can be crooked, bad, unqualified, and/or bully bosses. If they are politically appointed, they can have any, or all, the previous traits. The present posting is about bully bosses. If the bully bosses are "researchers/scientists," then they can be a very bad blot on the professions of those supposed to be seeking the truth. The bullies prey on interns, students, and underlings to further advance their report/publication list, their reputation, their awards/grants, or their pay, etc. They also sabotage or remove their underlings who get more space than they have, or become more famous than them, or are recognized as being smarter than them, etc.

They literally hold the future of their underlings in their bully hands, controlling their careers and pay scale while stealing ideas, inventions, data, pictures, new discoveries, etc. from their underlings. They demand and get authorship on their students' and underlings' reports and publications to further their own "production" list of reports/publications, which they use in applying for awards/grants, seeking promotions and raises, and impressing others on how great, or how smart, they are. (If a boss contributes a good amount of meaningful information to a publication they can rightly seek more than just an acknowledgement on the publication. Bullies demand authorship, sometimes with little or no contribution to publication.)

Bully bosses can break a young worker by killing the desire to question or seek the truth, by denying a higher professional degree, by withholding or writing a bad letter of recommendation, and various other ways, etc. Although they can sometimes be considered a "great researcher/scientist" by those who have no idea of what is going on, or do not care what such people do to others, those that know them or have experienced their actions think they are horrid people, and usually do not associate with them unless forced to in order to keep their own job or maintain their position (stay in favor) in the organization.

It is not unusual for dishonest bully bosses to steal ideas/findings and inventions from their students or workers because they hold the power of controlling the future (higher degrees or jobs) of the students or workers.  (The victim gets things stolen from him, and usually does nothing in order to get his degree or keep his job.)  Some "researchers/scientists" have become famous by taking ideas, findings, inventions, pictures, etc. from their students and workers and either claiming as their own or putting their name on their underlings' reports/publications and then later getting honored for "achievement" or being "prolific." This action might go back to the olden times school of thought where anything done by an apprentice belonged to the master.  And since those with many reports/publications usually get more grants, more salary, and more "awards," the present researcher/scientific reward system continually (but maybe unintentionally) tempts some bosses to steal from their underlings (so they will have many reports/publications, etc.), leading to a more and more (as seen by me and others) dishonest "researcher/scientific" community (Those that would steal from others probably would not be against "cooking the books," and reporting false results to obtain the experimental answer they want, the organization wants, or some politician wants, etc.).

When the leaders of an organization condone the actions of a bully, cater to the wants/demands of a bully, refuse to punish a bully for lies and slanders, and essentially let a bully do anything, etc., then that organization becomes a "joke" in the eyes of the bully's victims, and others who know about the bully.   The organization is known as sick. 

Keep a daily "Memo of Record" (if you suspect a bully boss or co-worker, etc., is trying to get you, or your ideas/findings) of anything you think important so, if needed, you can use it in a legal battle. Record description of incident, subject, words said, location, time, date, and witnesses in the log. Keep daily entries to the log on your body while at work, and have the total log properly secured elsewhere offsite, and not at home. Tell no one, including spouse, about the log or where it is hidden. Leave directions to log location in safety deposit box. 

A person who hurts no one, tries to do his job, and trusts too much is an easy victim for a bully who wants to steal time, ideas, discoveries, credit, etc. for his own use, especially if the bully controls the job status, or higher degree status, of the victim. It is really horrible to have a bully in control of one's time, job, career, higher degree, salary, future, etc., etc. A worker, intern, or student should think long and hard before he accepts a position with a bully boss.

Some theory examples of bully bosses:
--- one who got underling taken away from a big project he co-founded that was getting more attention than the boss was.
--- one who connived with an enemy to get worker demoted and salary cut.
--- one who delighted in violating job preformance evaluation directions and giving bad job reviews to workers to keep them on "their toes."
--- one who put major report of underling in closet and "forgot about it" until almost past the deadline.
--- one who violated many laws, rules, and policies and then delighted in telling complaining victims to "hire a good attorney."
--- one who delighted in slandering those not liked and using them as "teaching/intimidation" tools to keep others in line.
--- one who delighted in holding "fixed" "kangaroo court" hearings to justify illegal/immoral actions against those not liked.
--- one who delighted in leaving nasty notes for the workers.
--- one who worked people very hard without allowing leave time, etc. for a year and then fired them so there would be a constant turnover of fresh eager bodies and so there would be no raises given.

A bully boss will intimidate (under threat to job or professional degree) and bully people into:
---working overtime and holidays for free.
---working through break or lunch time.
---putting his (boss) name on ideas, projects, reports, inventions.
---giving up rights (to him) to any new discoveries.
---not claiming sick, vacation, or comp time.
---training his buddy who is destined to either be your new boss or your replacement and you can do nothing about it.
---spying on others for him.
---taking blame for, or covering up, his mistakes.
---letting him take credit for your work, ideas, inventions, discoveries, etc.
---covering up for him if he leaves work early.
---using private resources in support of job/work for bully boss. 

Some really delight in being a bully boss, exercising their absolute control over the professional futures of their underlings. Horrible in many ways!!

Some thoughts:  Bully scientists are essentially nothings. One cannot be a seeker of the truth and be a BULLY at the same time. He's just a bully. 

One cannot say he's a scientist seeking the truth IF he lives/acts like a BULLY never seeking the truth before bullying/slandering.

Google "bully bosses" to get a wide range of information about such people. 

Adrian R. Lawler, Ph.D.,    (C) 2012 --