What Can We Do About A Slanderous Super?

Doctor,

What steps should be taken when a supervisor exhibits inappropriate and unprofessional behavior by making snide and slanderous remarks about her manager? This behavior is having a negative impact on the morale of the rest of the staff.

Signed,

Upset Over Badmouthing

-- Hello Upset:

The counter-intuitive answer to bad speech is more speech. What evidence does the maker of snide remarks have to back them up? If there is substance to back them, she should be challenged to put up or shut up!

Many employees feel that they could better manage than their manager. Such a feeling is particularly keen when the manager doe not work collaboratively.

What does your policy book say about badmouthing? What resources are available to help you learn what steps would be most appropriate? What steps are within your sphere of influence? Asking these above questions, of course, does not provide a step by step procedure. But they do suggest things to consider.

I assume from your remarks that you are a concerned co-worker, who wants to work in a company not only with climbing stock values but is a place in which civility is the rule. So what might you or someone do?

1. Have a face to face informal talk with the individual and share with her how snide and/or slanderous remarks about the manage makes you feel and how you see it is hurting morale. Such a talk might surface what provokes the remarks and stimulate a heart-to-heart head-to-head talk about how to deal creatively-constructively with the behaviors which provoke the remarks.
2. At the behest of a cluster of senior co-workers, arrange a meeting with the offending supervisor to discuss the inappropriateness of remarks and the consequent hostile work environment generated by such. The badmouther might be invited to voice again the bad things you have heard her say and to put them on record. This might lead to a problem solving interpersonal human relations exchange. Also it might both flush out the bad blood and lay down the rule of civility. That civility rule might be knock off bad mouthing or we together will bring you before us again and see that you are disciplined, dismissed or transferred. If the badmouthing is really hurting morale, there should be a group of concerned co-workers who want to deal with incivility.
3. In addition to speaking with the badmouther, tell her that you will speak to the manager about the situation and see if a meeting of reconciliation can be arranged.
4. If these above steps do not resolve the situation, the individual might be asked to resign by the manager. This assumes that the manager, although not perfect, is worthy of her/his position.

In several other Q&As I have discussed conflict and verbal aggression at work. See the file dealing with that topic and other related questions. Most of all I believe that employees should have voice--that they should help manage their work group and see themselves as collectively engaged in seeking to please their customers, internal and external. If you and your co-workers can dare to make this your objective, the bad blood should be transfused to warm-blooded caring.

WEGO knows that all members of an organization talk about their workplace and most of them want that talk to be positive.

What will you do? Please send me a postscript about what you elect to do and what does and/or does not work.

--Bill Gorden

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