A survey of more than 1,600
workers out today by the Keep Britain Working campaign, whose mission it is to
promote innovative ways to preserve and create jobs, found that more than half
(52%) of all UK bosses have become worse at motivating their employees since
the recession began.
Some of the results were
startling with one in three bosses found to have increased their criticism and
blame of others, nearly a third have hidden themselves away, more than one in
four have simply become indifferent, a quarter have pretended that nothing's
happening, while 17% have started shouting and raging. Only one in six bosses
have done more to motivate staff since the recession began, the survey said.
It also cited some
astonishing examples of a number of clearly unstable bosses who had blatantly
ignored every single piece of communications advice ever given to them. These
included:
- A
charity boss who brought in his hunting rifle and pretended to fire it at
staff to make them work harder.
- A boss
who made staff clean toilets because she had sacked the cleaners to save
money.
- A boss
who cut staff hours and pay while boasting about using his bonus to
re-decorate his house.
- A public
sector boss who advised a worker that people were queuing up for her job.
- A telecoms boss who chanted, “hit this target, keep your job...hit this target, keep your job”.
