IMPACT FROM BOTTOM

It is usually not so easy for office workers to achieve the resignation of their immediate superior. But today they have a chance

In whatever search engine you start typing the phrase “what to do if the boss ...”, the same options pop up: find fault, tyrant, scream, yell, fool, idiot, goat. Previously, the answers to such questions mainly boiled down to how to establish a relationship with such a boss. Now they are increasingly giving advice on how to get rid of such a leader. Before, people just left. But times are changing, and not everyone is ready to leave because of problems with their superiors. People have become more literate, says Elmira Davydova, general director of the Professional Guidance and Career Development Center Profgid, and they are learning to defend their rights. “Starting in late 2008, office wars became more violent, and this trend continues to this day,” agrees psychotherapist Mark Sandomirsky.

However, in the war with the bosses, office workers so far often fail.

The easiest way is to complain about the boss to his own superiors. There are examples of success. In early March, employees of the purchasing department of a trading and manufacturing company entered the CEO's office with an ultimatum: "Either we, or him!" He was in charge of the department. "A real monster," recalls Olga Soboleva, an employee of the company. At seven in the evening, the office elevator is usually overcrowded. But the head of the purchasing department did not like the fact that people left exactly on time. “I looked like a wolf,” Sobolev’s employee continues, “I immediately felt guilty, as if you were committing a crime.”

At the end of winter, three employees at once decided to quit their jobs, they were just tired. But Olga Soboleva thought: no, this is a good company and a good team. At her suggestion, people went to the CEO. And he listened. The same Olga Soboleva, the instigator of the riot, became the new head of the department.

With the crisis, top executives of companies have become more demanding of department heads, explains Konstantin Borisov, CEO of HR consulting company Support Partners: “If a middle manager does not live up to expectations, then he will be fired in a few months, six months at most. And before that, they would have waited a year or two. Consequently, it is easier for the team to “overthrow” the boss now than before the crisis.” More often such uprisings happen, for example, in sales departments, in the departments of logistics and human resource management, in creative companies, says Borisov. Go kick out such employees for sabotage—where can they quickly find a replacement?

Scandal is a blow to the immediate superior. His position will be shaken. In the design department of a large construction company, a manager forced employees to work overtime. They were indignant, but before going to complain, they collected compromising evidence against the boss—fixed delays at work and even recorded conversations on a dictaphone. Then they took it to the CEO. An open scandal began, and the head of the department had to leave.

And yet, riots like those organized by Olga Soboleva often end in nothing. First, a boss who fires a middle manager under pressure from employees admits that he has a poor understanding of people—after all, he put him in. Secondly, this is a bad example for the future, which means that you can put pressure on him. So a frontal attack is an extreme method. Better to be subtle.

For example, to put pressure on the manager himself, and not on his boss. All bosses want to please their subordinates. In a trading company that specializes in the production and supply of finishing materials, the new head of the supply department did not fit into the team at all, says employee Maria Smirnova: he thought he understood the market and was still trying to put his crazy ideas into practice. He was boycotted. His assignments were ignored, and his suggestions were laughed at—so that he would notice. And he quickly began to look for a new job.

You can arrange for the boss to be tested for strength - organize some kind of training that he will not pass. However, here again, understanding from the higher authorities is needed - such intrigues from their arsenal. If the boss is dissatisfied with the manager he appointed, then he can, for example, resort to the “360 degrees” method, says Elmira Davydova. This is a circular gathering of opinions about the employee, and the task is to organize it correctly—so that the picture turns out to be ugly.

This is how the art director of one of the divisions of a large publishing house was fired in early May. “We unanimously hated the boss,” says Elena Zaitseva, an employee of the art department, “and all because he humiliated us with a sweet smile.” It was impossible to be late or leave early, even a legal vacation cannot be interrogated. "We talked to the girl in the personnel department," Zaitseva says, "and asked her to hint to the management that it was time for our boss to appoint an appraisal." As a result, the art director left of his own free will.

In general, the practice of a covertly organized information war basically justifies itself. There is an effect. Marina worked in one of the insurance companies as a simple employee. Now she is the head of the corporate insurance department there. The subordinates were dissatisfied with the previous boss—too strict. Marina, having found out that the management regularly looks through information about the company on the Internet, under various pseudonyms began to report on her immediate boss, so that it looked like objective evidence. Something like this: "Everything would be fine in company N, if not for the rudeness of the staff, in particular, Mr. Z." It worked.

It is possible on the Internet, and it is possible in a smoking-room. Power corrupted Ira when she was promoted and she headed the financial department of a trading company selling bedding. At least, this is what Olga Kirichenko, an employee of the financial department, thinks: “She has turned into a market woman. I tried to talk to her and ended up losing a friend and making an enemy boss.” Market woman Ira or not, in fact, it is not clear, but it is known that she has quite cunning subordinates. In the smoking room, they began to intensively praise their boss—what a great chef she is and how they don’t let her turn around. “We chose tactics after reading advice on the Internet,” says Kirichenko. The calculation was that other bosses would become jealous—well, they would snitch on the leadership. It worked too—Ira had to leave.

In 2009, every fifth large Russian company changed its CEO. These are the results of a study by the international consulting company Booz. According to personnel officers, middle managers are now also being removed with enviable regularity. The situation on the labor market for employers with the crisis has become generally more comfortable, and many businessmen are thinking about personnel changes. So if office employees want to sit or at least move their immediate supervisor, who does not allow them to leave minute by minute with the end of the working day and allows himself to raise his voice, there is such an opportunity today.