Feeling dejected at workplace: Employees can react in unusual ways to take 'revenge' on their bosses

It was not too long ago when the employee of a Mumbai-based IT company cheated his boss by stealing his credit card and making purchases to the tune of Rs 1.36 lakh . The employee had watched the boss using the card and had memorized the details to commit the crime. When arrested, he confessed to the police that he had committed the fraud as he felt the appraisal given to him was very poor.

This is just one of several such cases reported in the recent past, where employees reacted in unusual ways to take ‘revenge’ on their bosses after facing unfair treatment at the work place, which also impacted the company’s reputation.

What ails the employee? And what ails the employer?

Some HR experts that Firstpost spoke with said increasing competition at the work place and in industry exerts tremendous pressure – from top-down to within departments.

This trend has increased in recent years and is expected to continue in the coming years, according to HR professionals.

HR experts say the age of  saying `Haanji Sir’ and being subservient to the boss has disappeared long ago. However, some bosses have not realised it.

If some employer or owner thinks he /she is the Master and the employee the Servant, then rude shocks from the employee – shouting back, speaking frankly and in worst cases, leaving the organization– can be only expected, they said.

Lack of empathy

Organizations may cite increasing competition as one of the reason for the higher-ups’ short-fuse. But it only complicates things for an employee who, faced with expectations from family, friends and society, is shouted at or humiliated by the employer.

Sachin Adhikari, Transformational Training Designer and Chief Mentor, Viztar International, says the problem arises when the expectations from the job and his role is not understood by the employee. “The organisation must define the employee’s role and the organization’s expectations from the job to the employee,” says Adhikari.

Sometimes expectations are unreasonable and team leaders are unwilling to sit down with the employee and understand the latter’s thought on the new responsibilities.

The questions is: Who has the time to talk about expectations when everyone in the organisation is meeting deadlines?

Providing a training to employees, making them work-ready and giving them a salary cannot be the end-goal of a company.  An organisation should take necessary steps to make an employee feel wanted and be empathetic towards him. These gestures help an employee to progress at the workplace, says Bharwani.

Capable bosses?

Employees are usually promoted as team leaders or heads of departments because of their experience and good performance. “If the team leader continues to think of his growth instead of providing opportunities for the team’s learning and development, his team is bound to be stressed. This can be aggravated if the leader micromanages the team or has a controlling approach. It will not bring any positive results,” points out Prof. Zubin Mulla, Associate Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

When appraisals are done by such bosses, then there will be some employee who will feel he/she has been unfairly appraised. In such instances, a third party who is chief/head of any other department could be on the appraisal panel to provide the much-required neutrality, suggests Chaitrali Singh, HR Head, ZS India, a sales and marketing consultancy.

With employees spending a large part of their daily lives at work, it is critical for organizations to be sensitive to their needs. There must be a system that allows for mentoring and coaching so that an employee can approach someone he trusts to discuss issues and find solutions.

Adhikari points out that no employee sets out to be a bad worker. However, an alert manager may be able to notice the signs of dissatisfaction in the employee’s body language and his disinterest in work.

In the case of the employee who stole credit card details of the employer, Adhikari points out that it is a case of deviant behaviour and a materialistic frame of mind. “Sometimes, an employee wants to `teach’  his employer a lesson when he loses out due to his own inadequacies at work. Or it is the `thrill’ of doing something wrong that spurs an employee,” he said. In such instances, the onus is not on the employer.

One of the ways to avoid the situation, say industry experts, is to explain to the employee the reasons why he could not become a permanent employee of the organisation. Chaitrali Singh says an appraisal is not the time to give feedback which reflects in the salary. “Organisations should give feedback on work at regular intervals to the employee, more so when he falls short of what is expected from his role. Transparency in such matters help,” she adds.