No Band of Brothers
When the Going Gets Tough, Supervisors Pick on their Weaker Staff
British Psychological Society
A crisis occurs; layoffs ensue. Colleagues are gone. The rest must adapt. But how? Does the shared crisis bring people closer together? Sadly no, new research by Pedro Neves of the New University of Lisbon suggests. Rather, supervisors vent their frustrations by bullying the most vulnerable of the employees in their charge. Data from employee surveys at 12 large to medium-sized Portuguese companies in industries ranging from financial services to construction showed a clear pattern: Individuals with lower self-confidence and fewer coworker allies received more abuse (as indicated by their agreement with assertions like “My supervisor blames me to save himself/herself embarrassment” and “My supervisor tells me my thoughts or feelings are stupid”).