Strewth mate! According to a news story that I read last weekend, foul-mouthed bosses in Australia are now persona non grata.
While it's nice to see that abusive language won't be tolerated from superiors to their subordinates, I've had more than one manager in my career whose colorful use of the English language was more humorous than anything else.
Australia's Workplace Ombudsman recently ruled in a case involving a woman employee who was on the receiving end of a foul-mouthed tirade during the Workplace Agreement dealings last year. Bosses were put on notice that such behavior wouldn't be tolerated, especially when dealing with HR-related issues.
I was surprised to see that previously, such language wouldn't have been considered as harassment or abusive language. It's likely that there still are a few bosses out there that tend to overstep the line when speaking with their employees. Fortunately, in this case, the Ombudsman made the right call and put such bosses on a short leash.
In cases such as this, it might be more worthwhile to try and find a company that is more suited to one's tastes - or at least doesn't abuse employees.
Whether bosses believe it or not, every employee deserves respect. Since this employee in question wasn't getting it, perhaps she should have dropped a few F-bombs of her own in kind.
I think bosses are starting to realize that they have to respect employees in order to get the best from their employees, and not use abusive language. I have been working on a website were we try to promote leading with Kindness as not only the right thing to do, but also the financially smart thing to do. I hope stories like these will serve as a wake up call for abusive bosses.