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| Office ballistics. (Photo from BusinessNewsDaily.com) |
toward our IT support officer and deposited the laptop with him. Not immediately finding the charger of the laptop inside the laptop bag, our officer asked the woman where the charger was. Without even trying to help our officer in finding the missing charger, she immediately whipped out her mobile phone and called someone. Her voice was cold and monotonous as she talked to the person on the other line - apparently a subordinate of hers. All of us in our department were within hearing range as she berated the person she was talking to for forgetting to pack the charger in the bag, spitting venom in that cold, dry voice of hers. She excused herself from us then stepped out of our office, leaving all of us with mouths agape.
After asking our support officer about her identity, I found out that she was an account manager for one of our laptop service providers. Turns out that he had one of our office laptops returned to them several weeks ago for repair, and the said laptop was returned to us only now. He added that this particular service provider has a habit of rendering very slow service.
Our support people were still explaining to me what happened to that laptop and who that lady was when one of them shushed us. From our first floor lobby, we could actually hear a woman openly scolding someone at the top of her voice. We could hear her from three floors away - imagine that! The same support guy who shushed us whispered, "Ma'am, that was the girl who just came over."
I then told our support team never to make any transactions with this woman and her company anymore.
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Our supervisor asked me why her actions in our office would make me come to such a decision to break any business ties we have with that woman's company which is one of our IT equipment suppliers. Here is my explanation. You have a boss with a crappy attitude lording over an office. Thus, the tendency is for her subordinates to have low morale. Low morale could translate to the following:
Our support people were still explaining to me what happened to that laptop and who that lady was when one of them shushed us. From our first floor lobby, we could actually hear a woman openly scolding someone at the top of her voice. We could hear her from three floors away - imagine that! The same support guy who shushed us whispered, "Ma'am, that was the girl who just came over."
I then told our support team never to make any transactions with this woman and her company anymore.
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Our supervisor asked me why her actions in our office would make me come to such a decision to break any business ties we have with that woman's company which is one of our IT equipment suppliers. Here is my explanation. You have a boss with a crappy attitude lording over an office. Thus, the tendency is for her subordinates to have low morale. Low morale could translate to the following:
- SLOW AND UNSATISFACTORY WORK OUTPUT. Deadlines and quality of work will no longer mean anything to an employee who initially tries to make the cut by painstakingly doing tasks on time, and yet is received with negativity and/or total lack of appreciation by the boss.
- FAST EMPLOYEE TURNOVER. Unless an employee has a masochistic streak, he/she will not be able to tolerate the stressful conditions in the office under that kind of leadership. The office will always be going back to Square One with each new hire when the more experienced and more knowledgeable employees resign from the toxic work environment.
- DISAPPOINTING CUSTOMER SERVICE. You have a new hire taking on your issue. Poor kid barely knows the ins and outs of what he/she should be doing to resolve your issue. Then there is the added stress of that oh-shit moment when the kid does make a mistake and his/her boss publicly shames him/her. How can any sane person perform well under those circumstances? At the end of the day, it's not only the employee who gets affected by all the negativity. Even the client suffers, being at the receiving end of less-than-impeccable service provided by the hapless employee.
This woman did not have the decency to hide her crappy attitude while visiting a client. So what does that say about her as a leader? On the macro level, what does that say about the company she is part of?
Personally speaking, a company that keeps people like her with no regard for human dignity and corporate team building is a company that gives little or no value at all to its manpower.
If I were this woman's boss and I found out about this incident, she'd be out of the door before she could say, "F*#k you!"
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I've had my share of crappy bosses before, and I know how it feels to be degraded and deprived of any respect in the office. I also know how it is to wake up every weekday morning feeling as if a boulder is bearing down on you as you prepare for work. Trust me when I say that this is not the best feeling in the world. My only initiative during those dark days was the fact that I needed my job to keep my family alive - nothing more, nothing less.
Despite my unfortunate corporate experiences, I am still grateful for having lived through them. These taught me one solid concept -- that more than the clients, more than the business reputation, more than the income, the biggest asset an organization has is its people. This is the reason why before anything else, a company must first see to the needs, aspirations, and goals of the people within because the talents, skills, and ingenuity they possess are its treasures.
A company with happy employees is a company who will have the empathy, knowledge, and skill sets that can be used to serve their clients well. It is these same characteristics that will attract potential customers because as a leader of the organization, you armed your employees with positive traits that will shine through in every transaction or deal they make.
Now that I was also given the task to manage a team, I could only thank my former toxic employers for the experiences I had under them because I definitely am not emulating any of them, haha. I'd like to think that I am doing well...so far.
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By the way, there is a postscript to that incident with the "Screaming Lady." We knew she left our building already when the shouting downstairs died down. Our support officer who received the repaired laptop went back to going through the laptop bag's contents. He then felt a bulge on the bag's front pocket. Just as he was taking out the no-longer-lost laptop charger from the front pocket, his mobile phone suddenly rang. It was that woman. She called to request our support officer to check the front pocket of the laptop bag to see if the charger was there - which he already did. He confirmed the finding of the charger, thanked the woman, got off the phone, and let out a hearty "tsk, tsk, tsk."
Gee, all those ballistics spewed at random directions just for nothing.
We definitely aren't doing any business at all with this woman and her company in the future.
