e042 Intolerable Bosses: The Harassing Boss

2017 was the Year of #MeToo. Allegations and cases of sexual harassment dominated the news and rarely a week went by without new horror stories emerging. Inspired by the momentum, women began to summon their courage to speak out about their own personal experiences and everyone from sports coaches to teachers, actors, directors and high profile politicians were outed or accused.

Although we’ve all seen plenty of coverage on TV and social media of people coming forward, telling their stories and helping each other out, one thing that we have NOT seen, is some constructive suggestions for people that may be facing a harassing boss every day, people that are worried to go into work on Monday morning or scared to talk to someone about what they are being subject to every day for fear of backlash or related punishments.

For this reason, we’re decided to focus this Intolerable Bosses show on what YOU can do to Survive a Harassing Boss!

And although sexual harassment has dominated the media recently, this isn't the only kind of harassment that victims have been suffering under. There are many other forms of harassment that are toxic and destructive, including discrimination harassment based on race, religion, age, sexual orientation or otherwise, and power harassment, where one person, often in a position of formal authority, dominates subordinates in unreasonable ways.

If there is one way to summarize a harassing person, it is to say that their behaviour is highly disrespectful and demeaning, way over-the-line actions that cause unwelcome pain and suffering to their victim. There is a serious lack of empathy and compassion, although this may not be evident to peers and colleagues that are not being harassed because most of these people are very good at covering their tracks and hiding their actions. More often than not, they are fully aware of right and wrong, but their behaviour becomes gradually more different from their sense of right and wrong each time they get away with something and get a greater taste for power.

As we mentioned, here is a serious lack of help out there for people that are currently suffering under a harassing boss. The good news is that there are several things that people can do if they find themselves in a situation like this. We want to emphasize is that the situation is NOT hopeless. Know that you have options. Just this knowledge alone should become a light in a dark tunnel to let people know that their situation is not helpless. If you know that there are options, you will keep searching. Do NOT allow yourself to become resigned to the situation in a manner that Psychologists call “Learned Helplessness”.

On this episode, The Leadership Brothers describe 8 strategies that YOU can use to survive a Harassing Boss. Don't miss it. Press PLAY now!

And if you feel stuck and don’t know where to turn, reach out to us. We WILL help you, and that is a promise.
Pat is at [email protected]
Terry is at [email protected]

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