My boss is verbally abusive, should I quit?

Question

I work for a well established company. I make pretty darn good money. But I am sick and tired of my boss making mistakes and finding someone to blame it on. He cusses at me emberasses me in front of clients, is rude and i'm tired of it. I'm scared to leave and not be able to get unemployment if I quit. At least untill I find something else. Not to brag or anything but all day i'm running back and forth while the supervisor sits and reads the specials on the newspaper all day, gets personal calls all day and does nothing. How is it possible for him to see that she does nothing at all. The other staff member is totally rude to the clients. Is there something wrong in this picture? I need advice?

Answer 1

start documenting and go talk to personnel. No one should be verbally harassed at work. He doesn't look better in the eyes of a client when he cuts you down-- it just makes him look unprofessional to those clients. That is how you should present it to the HR department also-- that it is uncomfortable for you to be talked to like that, but that it also looks bad for the company in front of clients.

Document everything because if you do end up quitting and you have a paper trail of the abuse and you trying to address it with personnel, you might get unemployment even if you quit. It is duress.

Answer 2

Unfortunately this happens all the time. Supervisors without any training or decency force more quits than anything else in the workplace.

Your best bet is to grit your teeth and immediately start looking for another job. Tell any prospective employer what's going on, if at all possible, so that they can expect a possible bad report when they call your employer for an evaluation of your work. Many companies, though, will not give out any information except that you work for them and have for a certain number of years.

With luck you will get a new job and will have checked it out beforehand to be sure the workplace climate is good and that your work will be appreciated. If your supervisor gets really stupid and has you fired, you can apply for unemployment insurance. The company might say you were fired for cause, so you better have proof of your treatment and of your good work.

If you need a good recommendation from your present employment, ask a co-worker or former good supervisor at the company to give you one. That often is as good as anything you get from a company.

Good luck! Remember, we have the very best job markets out there now, so you should be able to move to another position. Just be sure to work smart at finding the new job.

Don't let anyone tell you to fight it out to stay in the company unless there is some very good reason for this. That might be, for example, that you can retire with a nice retirement income, in six months or six years, for that matter :-) I had to do it for even longer and, still, I am not sure if it was worth the agony, but that is another story.

For some fun on the job you might just start recording everything on a small recorder. Sneak in some video taken with a cell phone that does that or a small digital camera. [A new one is out that is only about $50 or $20 for the disposable. You can download it directly to your computer and then do the editing and transferring to a DVD. Keep looking for a job.

After you have plenty of evidence of what he is doing, here is what you can do. Everytime dumbass supervisor acts up with you, break down crying, put your head on your desk or on the counter or whatever and really sob, then go to the ladys room to collect yourself. If you can record the whole thing, it will be wonderful to show to the the employment office or anywhere it will help you. Remember, do this EVERY TIME you are harassed. So, they fire you, but you have all the evidence now of what you put up with and what you tried to do to change the situation (by showing dratically how hurtful this type of behaviour can be).

All this stuff about going to HR, and lawyers is usually expensive and useless. Most of the time the company wins. If this company hasn't found the idiot yet, they probably think that is the way you handle employees and they won't do anything until dragged into court. Unless you have a lot of $$ or a lawyer husband, union rep or some way to get others to pay the costs, forget it.

Good luck. Save your sanity and make a quick exit if you can.

Answer 3

If they are well established then they should have an HR department, an anonymous note describing not your situation specifically, but rather your boss using foul language may get someones attention. A good HR department would take this seriously, try this first and wait and see, try and not quote things specifically said to you and remain anonymous for now.

With respect to the other employee's unless they are specifically causing problems with your performance it is not your problem, but the companys. Set those issues aside and deal with your matter if you pursue this further.

I would normally advise a coversation with your boss, but embarrasing you and swearing at you tells me he is not mature enough to address this himself, so I wouldn't go that route here.

Even if you quit you'll get unemployment, if they challenge it, have some documentation, a voice recording would serve you well, once that's presented they would not contest unemployment and if they did it would go to arbitration and no doubt rule in your favor, so if unemployment is a concern, it shouldn't be.

The cussing is the real key here, it is harrassment and you could have a cause for action. The question is, do you really want to pursue that? If your willing to really go the full mile, document it, record it and for lack of a better term, build a case against your boss. Dates, times, things said over the next couple months.

Confront management, or the owners, or your HR department if you have one. Demand that it stop, IF they fire you then you have cause for action, even if it's a right to work state (meaning they can fire you for any reason or no reason) the harrassment is another issue.

Hostile workplace issues are taken much more seriously today than ever before. You might try and get a feel for how the company might deal with such a matter, if your boss is well liked and respected by the owners or President you may have difficulty. In which case you should quit and work somewhere else. If you feel they would frown on this behavior then you have a real chance of getting what you want.

Be polite, be professional in your approach to the upper management or HR, try and avoid the whining and moaning type of conversation, be specific, to the point, and insist that action be taken. - Have a plan in advance to deal with the potential of getting fired etc. My guess is you want to leave anyway, but if you like the job otherwise, try and work it out.

Good Luck!!

Answer 4

You shouldn't have to be harrassed at work or work in a hostile environment. I agree that you should seek legal counsel and bring it also to the attention of supervisors/HR department. If the supervisors and HR department fail to help you out you should tell that to your lawyer too so the company can't claim that you never reported the problem to them.

You should concurrently be looking for a new job. Do not quit the old one until you get a new job.

Make sure when you file the complaint, file a new complaint for EVERY time it happens (January 9th: verbally assulted: he stated, "You are an idiot." at 9:15 am in the board room), if it happens again, file another complaint (January 10th, verbally assulted: he stated, "You are the dumbest fing employee I've ever had.") and keep filing those complaints on PAPER

The company CANNOT deny you your right to file a complaint or re-file another complaint.

Good luck.

Answer 5

I was in the management field for many years and supervised 160 employees.

In no way should you have to deal with or accept this kind of behavior from any individual with whom you work. This is called harassment. If a co-worker makes you uncomfortable in any way, then they are creating mentally poor working conditions and such acts are not to be taken lightly.

Make sure that you are documenting everything. Every detail is vitally important. If you have co-workers that feel the same or are in the same situation, ask them to begin documenting this information also. If you have witnesses to any of your situations, ask if they will write any statements about those situations.

You can investigate "Workplace Harassment Laws" on the Internet that will also give you more information. An attorney can also give you information on this. It's best to find one that has no consultation fees.

Check to see if your corporate office has an anonymous investigation hot line. Our company has one and all it takes is a phone call. You state what your underlying problem is and the company investigates this situation. You are kept anonymous. It would be great if this were available to you.

Good luck to you and remember to stand strong. Their are thousands of people out their without jobs and would give anything to have one. Individuals such as your boss obviously does not deserve his position.

Answer 6

I have about the same problem but the other staffs are not rude to customers. Yes my supervisor doesn't do much and basically don't know what he is talking about because he is new.
Well you earn good money so maybe you can save for rainy day and look for another job while try to keep your job now as long as you can. I don't make good money, but that's what I have been doing. You don't have to mention in your application that you are still working, because that could land you into trouble when the other company asks your current employer. Good luck. Be very careful with HR. sometimes they don't help you, but actually report what you told them, to your boss.

Answer 7

I actually have a lot of experience with this.....and I'm a hot head so trying to bite my tongue was difficult. But here is what I did...

I started carrying one of those mini-tape players with me whenever I was in a room by myself with my last supervisor. I never used it but at least I had it with me in case I did. (Her tactics were more yelling across the room at you and pulling off her shoe & slamming it on the table while she yelled at you.)

I also filed an anonymous complaint with my HR company--turns out she had SEVERAL similiar complaints over the past 20 years of her employment. HR will investigate it, it might not go anywhere, but at best, they'll calm down if only for a few days.

I kept EVERY abusive e-mail she ever sent me, EVERY abusive comment she documented in my client files (she wasn't too bright).....

I also pulled her aside and told her to knock it off. When she didn't, I told her to pound sand and quit on the spot. When I filed for unemployment, the documentation I had helped seal my case.

Now, if you do file a complaint it might not do anything. You should confront them in a professional manner and let them know if it doesn't stop you'll move your complaint up the chain. Say something like, "I wanted to discuss this with you first before talking to your superiors."

I feel your pain and I too worked at a very well known company. They never did anything to her, she's still there. But the bottom line is, I stood up for myself and there's something to be said about that. You should do the same thing.

Answer 8

well there is definately something wrong with this picture. you should find a job that challenges you but is also something you enjoy. maybey you could not quit just yet but start looking for a job and maybey put in resemes at a few and then if you find one then go in for an interview and if you get the new job, then quit and smoothly transfer to the new job. In the midst of looking for a new job, i would just write him a letter that is very polite, but at the same time expressing your feelings about the situation. Jeremiah 19:11 "For i know the plans Ihave for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future."

Answer 9

The easy thing would be to get a lateral transfer to a different department. You should file a complaint to your HR department to investigate the verbal abuse; make sure you get witnesses before you file the complaint. Verbal abuse is illegal at the workplace in a majority of countries.

I'm sure that in the process of the HR investigation they will be able to find out how lax your boss/supervisor.

Answer 10

Don;t quit and let him get the best of you, in fact you know what it sounds a bit much but use it against him and file a complaint unless he is the highest rank of authority that is in that company. But honestly i wouldn;t quit just because of one person just keep at it and just put your resume out there to different companies and get picked up by someone else, then quit. Good luck