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Tired Of Upper Management Thinking They Have A Noose Around Employees’ Necks, This New Dad Quits In Style
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Tired Of Upper Management Thinking They Have A Noose Around Employees’ Necks, This New Dad Quits In Style

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A huge factor why people leave their job is their boss. In fact, a 2018 study found that nearly half of employees surveyed had quit because of a bad manager, and almost two-thirds believed their manager lacked proper managerial training.

A few days ago, Reddit user iBeJoshhh submitted a story to the platform’s ‘Anti Work’ community that perfectly illustrates this problematic reality.

In it, the new dad explained how his toxic supervisor made his time at the company a living hell, and how her actions pushed him to seek employment elsewhere.

This new dad was planning to take paternity leave, but his manager was very much against it

She even went as far as threatening the man





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Image credits: Kelly Sikkema (not the actual photo)

After Gallup studied tens of millions of American employees for its ‘State of the American Workplace,’ company CEO Jim Clifton said: “The single biggest decision you make in your job — bigger than all the rest — is who you name manager. When you name the wrong person manager, nothing fixes that bad decision. Not compensation, not benefits — nothing.”

Leadership coach and trainer Marcel Schwantes thinks bosses must set aside their ego and improve in these three areas if they want to make a positive impression on their workers rather than a negative one:

Communication. “Any good leader knows the value of communication,” Schwantes explained for Inc. “In the hybrid workforce model, the skill of effective communication has skyrocketed in value. According to the Predictive Index Report, it’s the number one skill employees feel their manager lacks. Additionally, communication is the top skill employees value in their manager, second only to confidence.”

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Psychological safety. To illustrate this point, Schwantes highlighted research on the subject by Amy C. Edmondson of Harvard Business School, which indicates that when leaders foster a culture of safety — where employees are free to speak up, experiment, give feedback, and ask for help — it leads to better learning and performance outcomes. “When psychological safety is absent, fear is present,” Schwantes stressed. “And fear is detrimental to achieving a team’s full potential. We just can’t be engaged or innovative when we are afraid.”

Provide growth opportunities. “It’s a known fact that employees with a career mindset want to work for managers that will help with their career progression. If managers don’t give their employees space to learn, stretch, and grow, and if they don’t provide opportunities for promotion, they can’t expect their talent to remain at their company,” the leadership coach said.

The bottom line is that no group can create a more immediate and positive impact on employees than their managers. So when companies hire someone who lacks relationship-building skills and empathy, and instead of setting up their workers for success are more concerned with their own ambitions, the whole organization will suffer.

People gave OP suggestions on how to go about his departure, and he provided more details on the story


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What’s even worse, it’s not like you can just make your managers better by sending them to do a course. American companies spend enormous amounts of money on employee training and education—$160 billion in the United States and close to $356 billion globally in 2015 alone—and are not getting a good return on their investment.

“For the most part, the learning doesn’t lead to better organizational performance, because people soon revert to their old ways of doing things,” researchers Michael Beer, Magnus Finnström, and Derek Schrader wrote in Harvard Business Review.

As the team has found in their studies and teaching and in the advising they’ve done at dozens of companies, as a change strategy, training rarely works. “One manufacturer, for instance, suffered multiple fatalities at its operating plants despite a $20 million investment in a state-of-the-art center for safety training. Participants in corporate education programs often tell us that the context in which they work makes it difficult for them to put what they’re taught into practice,” the researchers highlighted.

A poor return on investment isn’t the only bad outcome of failed training. As it was in this case, employees below the top become cynical, because even though corporate leaders may fool themselves into believing that they are implementing real change, others in the organization know better. So pests like iBeJoshhh’s boss must be gotten rid of for everyone’s sake.

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People were disgusted workers are still being treated like this and applauded the OP for quitting in style





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Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas Laurinavičius

Writer, BoredPanda staff

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Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 235 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

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Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas Laurinavičius

Writer, BoredPanda staff

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 235 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Kotryna Br

Kotryna Br

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Kotryna is a Photo Editor at Bored Panda with a BA in Graphic Design. Before Bored Panda, she worked as a freelance graphic designer and illiustrator. When not editing, she enjoys working with clay, drawing, playing board games and drinking good tea.

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Kotryna Br

Kotryna Br

Author, BoredPanda staff

Kotryna is a Photo Editor at Bored Panda with a BA in Graphic Design. Before Bored Panda, she worked as a freelance graphic designer and illiustrator. When not editing, she enjoys working with clay, drawing, playing board games and drinking good tea.

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idrow avatar
Id row
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"This New Dad Quits In Style" Did I miss that part? I'm not seeing that. Just a statement that they got a new job that starts the day before his paternity leave ends. Doesn't even say he quit, I'm just assuming he did. But quit in style? Where is that?

cynthiac_cutright avatar
The Mom
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In 2002 I was fired while on maternity leave. My supervisor was great until he found out I was pregnant. Turned out he and his wife couldn't get pregnant and I reminded him of that. I was told he had to do his job and mine (graphic design) after that. Within a year he was fired.

fallfun12 avatar
Fall F.
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tell me, you are living in USA, without telling you are living in USA ...

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idrow avatar
Id row
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"This New Dad Quits In Style" Did I miss that part? I'm not seeing that. Just a statement that they got a new job that starts the day before his paternity leave ends. Doesn't even say he quit, I'm just assuming he did. But quit in style? Where is that?

cynthiac_cutright avatar
The Mom
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In 2002 I was fired while on maternity leave. My supervisor was great until he found out I was pregnant. Turned out he and his wife couldn't get pregnant and I reminded him of that. I was told he had to do his job and mine (graphic design) after that. Within a year he was fired.

fallfun12 avatar
Fall F.
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tell me, you are living in USA, without telling you are living in USA ...

Load More Replies...
Load More Comments
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