Like I’m being micromanaged right now and I risk my stability if I were to tell my boss to inch off, but my boss can basically publicly berate me if they want to without consequence to their own stability. It’s soul-rotting.
It also just intrinsically rewards funneling rage down the chain. If you can't release up, you'll have to release down.
Legally, if you unionize and act as a steward you can cuss out your boss
Sir, the workers voted to unionize. They delivered their demands in this envelope.
Pass it here.
...
It's just a picture of a pig shitting on it's balls.
it might not get you axed but bosses are habitual boundary crossers and they only understand leverage, so if you can deal with the abuse for a while, while organizing to unionize or at least lining up another job then you are at least dong something to address it while your boundaries are getting violated.
otherwise you could just go full on combat mode against the boss as an individual. if you are difficult to replace you can swing it but otherwise for your satisfaction you'll get axed so you better have some money saved up or have some family or other safety net or be cool with homelessness
It's even more fucked up, in a way, when it's one of those offices that pretends that there's no hierarchy and/or it's all "a family" because everyone knows who is allowed to be an asshole but it's vague and unofficial except it's obvious.
One of the most valuable parts of getting away from economic precarity is having the option of saying no to your boss and/or threatening to quit if they don't fix things. When you have the option to quit, this anxiety melts away.
99.9% of people don't get to experience this, but everyone deserves it. And things like, foe example, employer-dictated healthcare is a tool to prevent that individual worker power flex.
Yep. At my old job two times I just said "fuck it I quit" and started walking away when my boss was on his bullshit and both times he near instantly changed his tune and let me get my way. It's great and everyone should be able to do it and not just the well off or apathetic.
if you are a headache to replace you can do that much more than otherwise
This is an important element in why lower/middle managers end up as petty tyrants so often.
Yup, middle management gets bullied by upper management and then middle management bullies you.
Most bosses won't impulsively fire you if talk back or show frustration. Hiring people is work, especially if you work somewhere where newbies can't immediately step in and be effective.
I work at a startup of <10 people and firing me would destroy the business, so I get to fight with my boss until I'm no longer necessary. Waste of time though.
We all know this, but of course the fair matchup is boss vs union, not boss v worker. Hope your boss fucks off.
Yeah I've got my annual performance review today and I'm 50/50 on whether I should cuss out my boss for the bullshit he's been pulling against all of us for the past year. If he tries to imply I'm not doing enough for the team because I showed up in a "low system activity" report, idk. My coworker showed me the hidden report which tracks overtime by employee, and I'm literally half of the overtime for the 6 people on my team. And I got 4 recognitions from coworkers this year. So I might just go goblin mode if he wants to imply anything, fuck him
