Bullying bosses get corporate comeuppance

Most of us can agree there are — or should be — consequences for bad behavior. Although not often the case in the corporate world, karma, justice, fate, what have you occasionally kicks in. I witnessed a form of payback when I was a senior network admin at a company where the owners figured their clout allowed them to bully their employees without effect to themselves — not so.

This well-known design firm received a high number of applicants for a networking job, and I was thrilled when I was hired for the position. The company had a strong presence in the United States and Asia and wanted to expand even more; it was my job to help the business reach that goal.

About a week into the job, I started meeting with the co-owners to plan for the expansion. They needed to hire more people, and I was called in to upgrade and make their IT systems more scalable. I felt the plans were coming together nicely, and the co-owners and I worked well with one another. The future seemed bright.

But as I became better acquainted with my colleagues, I began to learn about a dark side to the company culture. I heard rumors that the co-owners and some senior managers were not only tough to work for, but were also known to yell at and belittle their subordinates. I hadn’t witnessed any of this behavior — they’d always seemed professional to me — so I wasn’t sure what to make of the information.

Then I noticed other peculiarities. Staff from the IT help desk would appear visibly shaken when an owner or certain senior managers called. People would go on vacation but still be expected to answer the phone, so most didn’t take much time off.

Most alarming, though, was the fact that employees were quitting their jobs frequently. Because so many people wanted to work for the company, the positions were filled again quickly, but it was hard to ignore the high turnover rate. I continued hearing rumors about bullying, even from people I’d gotten to know fairly well and trusted, but it took six months for me to realize the severity of the situation.

On that day, I happened to be in the restroom when I heard some yelling outside the door. In a loud and demeaning way, one person was telling another how worthless and disappointing they and their performance were. The tirade continued. Finally, the yelling stopped. The verbal dressing-down had made my hair stand on end.

I waited a couple more minutes before opening the door, still processing what I’d just heard. In the hall, I saw a woman from marketing literally in tears. It was the first time I’d seen somebody cry on the job. She quit about a month later.

Little by little, I heard and witnessed more of these situations. The co-owners and some senior managers would loudly belittle subordinates if they made even a small mistake or if their work wasn’t up to “standards.” Every project created by one designer was rejected — to me, a consumer, they seemed just fine — and he was told to start over. To another employee, an owner suggested in a snide way that he find another job. The list went on.

I told myself if they ever yelled at me or treated me in such a manner that I’d quit on the spot. The pay was good, I enjoyed the work I was doing, and having experience at the company would look great on a resume — but none of it was worth that kind of treatment. Somehow, I was never on the receiving end of these incidents. I ended up staying for another year.

Why did I leave? The company, surprisingly, ran into funding issues caused in part by its own bad behavior.

The company had expanded aggressively, and more capital was needed to get the products made and sold. It was a privately held company, and the co-owners went to a few sources to procure funding. Their products sold well, so there was no apparent reason they wouldn’t be able to land a line of credit.

They were wrong. The bankers asked questions and found out the company had a shockingly high employee turnover rate, with many leaving after less than a year of employment, others after one quarter, and still others even less. Of the three different bankers the owners approached, none would give them the loan.

The company eventually declared bankruptcy, and I jumped ship immediately. Less than six months later, the company folded and its remaining assets were bought by a competitor. Their products still exist as a line from the former rival.

What goes around does — sometimes — come around, at least to some degree.

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