Bad Boss Behavior: What Would You Do?

You know the visceral reaction you sometimes get when you hear something painfully embarrassing that someone else did (or when you see someone get a fly ball to the groin, for example)? Well, prepare yourself for such a moment:

My friend, let’s call her Petunia, is currently not happy with her job, and particularly with her boss, “Mr. Blonde.” She feels overworked, under appreciated, and, in general, miserable in the office. And Petunia wanted to vent.

Like this.

So she texted a friend, “Mr. Blonde is an ass.”

What Petunia did not realize, however, was that she didn’t send it to a sympathetic friend. Petunia sent the text to Mr. Blonde.

Ouch.

Now, I could go on a rant about the importance of being careful what you say online or my text, and to not badmouth employees or employers, because you never know who’s going to read it.

But, the plot thickens. Let’s take a look at Mr. Blonde’s reaction to the text.

Petunia sent the offending message to Mr. Blonde, oh, about three weeks ago. And he didn’t say anything. And Petunia was relieved. Maybe he didn’t read it, or realized she was just venting and sent the message to the wrong person.

Last week (so, two weeks after the text was received), Mr. Blonde called Petunia into a meeting.

He told Petunia that he was getting complaints about her from her coworkers. And that no one enjoyed working with her.

He said that it’s up to her if she wanted to work in a company where no one liked her, but he certainly wouldn’t want to.

Then he brought up the text message. Mr. Blonde said that he realizes that Petunia didn’t mean to send it to him. But he said that now he doesn’t know what to think about her. And that he printed out a copy of the text and was saving it in a file.

And then he sent her back to her desk.

So, yes, Petunia should definitely have thought before she put in writing what she really thought of her boss (and she probably shouldn’t have sent it directly to the person she was talking about).

But what do you think about the way Mr. Blonde handled the situation?

Intimidation and passive aggressive behavior are not good qualities for leaders to have. Mr. Blonde could have fired Petunia after he got the text. He could have fired her if he was getting genuine complaints from coworkers.

But he didn’t. Mr. Blonde waited two weeks, letting Petunia sit and worry about when the other shoe was going to drop. He was obviously upset that she called him an ass (although, let’s be honest, most employees think their bosses are asses), and is probably hoping Petunia will quit. I’m guessing so he wouldn’t have to pay her severance.

And if she doesn’t quit, she knows he’s building a file on her, maybe so he can fire her at a later date if he wants to (I’m not sure of her employment status, at-will or not). In all likelihood though, he’s probably just building the file to lord over her head.

So, HR professionals, what do you think of this whole situation? How should Mr. Blonde have handled the situation? How would you handle the situation if you were Mr. Blonde?