
A bad manager can potentially make the life of employees miserable at work, bringing about work dissatisfaction and also threaten their career advancement opportunities. But the troubling part is, managers possess some degree of authority, thus, complaining about their behaviours might be risky, and that could eventually result in losing your job.
Some employees when encountering such bad managers, they opt to be passive about the bad management. They avoid confrontations as they do not want to disrupt the relationship and further threaten their jobs or reputation in the company. However, there are also employees who are courageous enough to be ‘heroes’ by speaking up and pointing out the bad management issues they are facing which leads to their inability to excel. Also, at the same time, for the rest of their peers’ overall effectiveness at work.
If you belong to the ‘heroes’ group, be cautious and well-prepared! An effective, professional complaint should be well methodised to drive the upper management for their response and necessary actions, also to heal the working harmony amongst the team, even to take needful steps in future when promoting or hiring the right suited person for managerial positions.
1) Identifying the Cause
When you want to make a complaint about your manager, it must be for appropriate causes and not for personal reasons (e.g. a personal dislike, giving you tasks you hate) or for petty reasons, you can come across as being unreasonable. Therefore, ensure you are making a complaint regarding valid issues.
Valid issues that can justify your complaint ranges from workplace bullying, discriminatory behaviour, breaking violations, instructing you to perform illegal or unethical activities. If you are unsure if the issue you would like to raise is valid or not, it is best to seek a second opinion.
2) Collecting Evidence
Once you have a valid complaint to make. The next step would be to collect concrete evidence to back your complaint. It is important to document the bad behaviours. Be as detailed as you can and with the evidence, it will be justifiable to the upper management where they can take necessary actions.
3) Go to the HR Department First
HR persons play a part in ensuring an efficient workplace, including mediating conflict occurrences amongst the employees. Thus, the complaint should be brought forth to them first for their further investigation on the matter. Commonly, the HR persons will contemplate on the best possible solution to the problem. Once they come to a conclusion, the matter will be reported to the upper management with proposed solution. Be it termination for bad cases or a mediation meeting to be held in minor cases.
4) Threatening Doesn’t Solve Anything
Some employees might get too emotional and scurry to deliver the complaints while threatening legal actions or hinting they will quit should they not produce a satisfied outcome.
Keep in mind that; Your job role can always be there, but you are not indispensable. No matter how much achievements you gain or a very talented employee, nobody is indispensable. Moreover, to rush the management to deliver an outcome, the investigation will not be conducted carefully and objectively.
It is right so that every employee can speak up and help the company to purge toxic people in the workplace but it is crucial that the methods delivering such complaints are done professionally and appropriately. What’s your take on this? Share them with me!
Next read: The Effects Job Dissatisfaction Does to Your Health