Organizations rightly no longer tolerate workplace behavior that was once widely accepted. It’s time to hold bad bosses accountable
Writing: Mita Mallick
Bad bosses used to be able to hide in plain sight, but no longer. From inappropriate relationships with employees to harassment, from indifference to mental health to racist remarks, employees are fed up. And in many cases, so are the companies they work for, recognizing the harm that bad bosses can do to corporate reputations – and valuations.
The evidence is not hard to find: from the Nestlé CEO terminated for an undisclosed romantic relationship with an employee, to the Kohl’s CEO fired when they were found to have funneled business to a romantic partner, to the Primark CEO forced to resign following an investigation into his behavior toward a woman in a social setting. Boards, shareholders and customers are no longer willing to tolerate bad leadership behavior – particularly when it threatens the stock price, the bottom line, and the company’s reputation.
Social media has fundamentally changed the dynamic. Every employee now has their own microphone. They are less afraid to call out bad bosses publicly, whether on Glassdoor, LinkedIn, or through media outlets – and less willing to keep their company’s secrets. Behaviors that were once tolerated in the workplace, including sexual harassment and bullying, are increasingly unacceptable. The underlying reason is simple: the old corporate social contract is broken. The era of unwavering loyalty in exchange for a paycheck every two weeks has passed. Long gone are the days of comfortable pensions, guaranteed job security, and a gold Rolex after 30 years of service. When employees know they could lose their job tomorrow, they have little reason to put up with bad bosses today.
Here’s how organizations can hold bad bosses accountable for their actions – and stop them thriving in the first place.
Enact a zero-tolerance policy
A zero-tolerance policy may seem a straightforward proposition: most organizations have red lines that cannot be crossed. Leaders, employees, partners and suppliers may all be held accountable for meeting such standards. Yet they need to be implemented with care. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s anti-harassment task force has highlighted that zero tolerance policies can be misleading and counterproductive if they are not properly defined.
A policy needs to be specific – for example, prohibiting weapons, drugs, alcohol and pornographic materials at work. It should outline the behaviors that the organization has zero tolerance for, such as the use of sexist, racist and homophobic language, and threatening or intimidating behavior. Ensure you have a clear stance on behavior outside of work and on social media, too; in an always-on world, we are all ambassadors of our company, even when we are not at work. Then make sure the policy is shared widely and consistently.
Innovate your performance review process
It’s time to think differently about how we evaluate talent in our organizations – especially when it comes to those who are in charge of other people’s careers. Make 360-degree feedback the heart of how leaders are evaluated, tied to their compensation and affecting career progression. Each individual in a leader’s team or department should be asked for feedback; some bad bosses are exceptional at managing up, so this provides a holistic view of their leadership. Ensure that feedback is anonymous and ideally delivered by a third-party coach along with the individual’s line manager.
When bad behavior is identified, leaders should have the opportunity to change rather than be immediately ‘canceled.’ However, the runway for behavior change needs to be well defined and time-bound. Consider hiring a coach for the leader, accountable to their manager, or asking the leader to take a leave of absence – perhaps to seek anger management support or therapy. If behavior change doesn’t occur, and it’s not sustained, they need to leave the organization.
Address conflicts of interest
What if the boss who is behaving badly is the chief human resources officer? What if they are close friends with the organization’s general counsel, or sit on the business integrity team that reviews complaints? A boss accused of bullying cannot be involved in their own investigation. If a conflict exists, place the individual on a leave of absence so they cannot influence or intimidate individuals while the investigation proceeds.
Some forms of retaliation are clear. They may occur during or after an investigation: firing people who were involved in a complaint, or denying them pay increases and promotion opportunities. Others are more difficult to document, including exclusion from meetings, denying employees access to leadership, or removing them from choice assignments. If the boss accused of improper conduct is on a leave of absence, a fairer process for all involved is more assured.
Reimagine your investigation process
Many investigation processes are ripe for improvement. Too often, HR business partners are tasked with conducting investigations when they have not been properly trained – which can lead to inadequate investigations, and jeopardize the wellbeing of all parties involved. Instead, consider investing in third-party investigators – ensuring, of course, that they follow the company’s investigation protocol, understand applicable law, and are able to work with legal counsel.
When leaders investigate other leaders, checks and balances are difficult to maintain. Complaints can be too easily dismissed – as I’ve experienced. I once reported a boss’s bad behavior to another senior leader, only to be told, “They are a major a-hole – but you need to move past it.” The individual had a long history of inappropriate behavior, yet they were protected by the company; internal investigations never materialized for fear of the leader retaliating. In such cases, organizations should bring in law firms to investigate claims of bad behavior, free of such fears.
If you have a code or business integrity committee, consider nominating select employees from different functions and levels to serve on it. When I was an MBA student at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, the institution’s Code Committee included both professors and students who were nominated by the community. Creating a shared responsibility promotes a real climate of integrity. Then, share investigation themes with the leadership team and board to inform discussions about appropriate interventions.
Treat exit interviews like customer reviews
Employees are our forgotten consumers. If we receive a customer complaint, we move to fix the issue immediately. We should act on employee complaints raised in exit interviews with the same sense of urgency.
Exit interviews are the most undervalued tool we have. Sometimes they are not conducted at all or are poorly documented. Employees may not be honest about their experiences. Start by standardizing the process, putting in place consistent questions to be used in every exit interview. Ensure that the employee conducting the exit interview is not the departing employee’s manager or even from their department, and that they are properly trained. Then follow up with a short questionnaire to capture anything missed. Consider offering exit interviews several weeks after the employee has left, to give them time to collect their thoughts.
The themes that emerge from exit interviews should be shared regularly with the leadership team and board. Leaders should be held accountable for attrition, too: if a departmental leader has had five women of color resign from their team within the same month, start asking tough questions. Attrition data should then feed into performance reviews; if a lot of people leave a team, it may be time for that leader to leave as well.
The urgency of action
As a South Asian woman and a woman of color, I grew up and entered the world of work at a time when people who looked like me weren’t always accepted and celebrated. As a child, I was bullied – both verbally and physically – by my peers.
Those bullies thrived because no one stopped them: not the teachers, not the parents, not law enforcement. They were born into ecosystems that enabled their behavior. No one warned me that those same schoolyard bullies would be waiting for me in corporate America.
I was renamed Mohammed because a former boss couldn’t pronounce my full name, Madhumita, and refused to call me Mita. I was told I was incompetent and that no one else would ever want me on their team. I was screamed at over and over again. I was called a rat; my work was questioned and undermined; my job was threatened. In each of those moments, when I couldn’t find my own voice, I wondered why no one around me was standing up for me.
For decades, harassment training led by HR and legal has focused on the perpetrator. By the time an employee calls the ethics line or reports an individual, it may already be too late – the matter has escalated to a point of no return.
In an interview with the Harvard Business Review, employment lawyer Asha Santos (with whom I have previously worked) warned of exactly this problem: the “gateway behavior” that begins as relatively minor, but is allowed to grow unchecked. “When people look the other way during an incident of low-level harassment, it allows the harassment to intensify over time,” says Santos. “By intervening early, at the first sign of a red-flag moment, bystanders can break the cycle and prevent the problem from worsening.”
As leaders, we each have a responsibility to protect the culture we have worked so hard to build. When we see something, we cannot look the other way. Intervene in the moment or quickly after an incident occurs. Check in on the person being impacted. Document what you witness and ask trusted colleagues – particularly those with more authority – to help.
It’s time to stop bad bosses from thriving in our organizations and hold them accountable. Employees expect to work in places where they are respected, supported and feel they belong. Talent will no longer tolerate the behavior it once did. It’s time to protect our people – because without them, there is no company.
Mita Mallick is a marketing and human resources executive and author of The Devil Emails at Midnight: What Good Leaders Can Learn from Bad Bosses (Wiley)
