TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- If you have a bad boss, you are not alone. A new "Terrible Boss" research in the Sunshine state, shows there is indeed growing trouble these days between bosses and their workers.
Florida State professor Wayne Hochwarter has interviewed hundreds of employees in recent years and discovered an increasingly poisoned relationship.
"Many of the managers are becoming more abusive, more difficult, more cajoling, more willing to mistreat employees for their gain or their survival than in years past," says Hochwater of his findings.
So what is fueling the poison? The professor says the bad economy is creating an increasingly antagonistic relationship between bosses and workers. Jobs are at risk, the stakes are higher and so is the stress. It's a sad recipe for trouble.
Hochwarter says it's a new era in the workforce with 24/7 demands for bosses and employees and the consequences can be far reaching. "Things are more tense at home. Things are more tense with the children. Things are more tense with the spouse. The quality of life isn't what it used to be."
But Hochwarter says there may be one good thing about a bad boss.
"Most people will look at that and say, 'That will never be me. I'll never do that. I don't want to do that," ads the professor.
The research does find hope for the employee-boss relationship. An improving economy could shift expectations for employees from daily benchmarks to yearly output, and that he says, could help make horrible bosses a little more human.
And there is another sign of the increasingly sour relationship between employees and bosses. Hochwarter conducted a survey that found more than 40 percent of workers would not acknowledge their boss if they saw him or her on the street.
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