A very interesting question for this week’s online poll, from both the employer and employee perspective. I’m sure at one stage or another you can remember an employer who may have made your workplace experience ‘less pleasant’ at the time. Perhaps you’re in that situation now? Regardless of the circumstance, if the employee had the opportunity to let go of their employer, would they go ahead with it, and what drives them to this conclusion?
From personal experience, I have had employers who I have regarded as the ‘super boss’; juggling a million tasks whilst simultaneously looking after their team beautifully, which is no mean feat. Under no circumstances would I want to “sack” them. However, I have also gained feedback from a close friend of mine whose employer is incapable of performing their role effectively and, given the chance, would gladly give them the ‘boot’, so to speak.
While 45.8% of poll respondents agreed that employees should have the power to sack the boss to the 37.5% who did not agree, I was actually impressed to see that the comments of this poll were, overall, very diplomatic.
Feedback such as “if multiple employees were providing feedback about one boss being inappropriate then the correct action should be taken” and “in some extreme cases, an employee should be able to ‘remove’ the boss from their position if they have broken a law or policy”, shows that if employees were in the position to fire their boss, they would do so based on professional misconduct, and not really for personal reasons.
A number of responses suggested employees should be able to give feedback on performance to, and conduct performance appraisals on, their manager on a regular basis, especially in the event where a manager may have behaved inappropriately in a situation. Wouldn’t it be fun to have the manager sitting in that chair while you ran the review?
This poll ties in neatly with our recent Press Release Sick of the Boss, where employees are pulling a ‘sick day’ due not to actual illness but based on poor management within their workplace.
Perhaps this leads to a need for further investigation: “What does it take to be a ‘qualified’ manager in this day and age?” Furthermore, “If you believe your employer should be fired, would you be willing to step into their position? What would you do differently or better?” Stay tuned for future polls and posts on these intriguing questions …
