Not too long ago Time Magazine ran an article about how companies are trying to get managers to become more sensitive to their employees' feelings. During the course of writing this article, the magazine also collected a list of "pet peeves" from employees around the world.
Among these office horror stories we have the employee whose boss sat at his computer and typed e-mails during his annual review. When the subordinate stopped the manager looked up in annoyance and waved his hand for the employee to continue talking.
This same boss was also known to walk into a cubicle and slap the employee on the arm to get their attention even when she was on the phone with a customer.
Another worker stumbled upon his boss listening to her staff on an intercom – in other words, she had bugged all of the other offices.
A manager in Kentucky has a novel approach to dealing with problems. Whenever anyone comes to him with one, he sighs, gets a glazed-look on his face and zones out completely – resulting in complete demoralization on the part of the employees.
One manager from Texas has declared that his employees should be able to get their problems stated in 15 seconds. Therefore, he deliberately tunes out workers after 15 seconds no matter what the problem is.
These are just a few of the stories that this article details. It seems that the initial article truly touched a nerve and that there is a seemingly endless supply of manager horror stories.