A Swedish research team has studied the health of 3,000 working men and found a strong link between the quality of their managers and the incidence of heart disease. The results of their work have been published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Foul Tempered Managers
They yell, kick garbage cans, throw furniture, and behave like spoiled children; most people have encountered such bosses during their working lives. Some enjoy belittling their staff and bullying them.
The antics of even worse examples of toxic managers are revealed by harassed staff at websites such as bigbadboss.com:
- There’s the retail sales assistant who saw her boss take some merchandise. When she asked the manager about this she was told: “Look miss smarty pants, if anyone finds out that these [things] are missing I’ll say you took them. I’m your boss, so they’ll believe me.”
- A gay male, still in the closet, tells how his female boss keeps hitting on him and wanting to date him.
- And, there are many bosses who take credit for any success a staff member has but is nowhere to be found if a project doesn’t work out too well.
Health-threatening Behaviour of Bad Managers
Researchers from the Karolinska Institute and Stockholm University have been looking into how poor quality supervisors affect the wellbeing of those below them. The news isn’t good.
The research project followed men between 19 and 70 for almost a decade. The 3,000 people in the study were asked to rate the competency of their senior managers in areas such as communication and goal setting.
Reporting on the results of the study, BBC News (July 15, 2009) wrote that, “The staff who deemed their senior managers to be the least competent had a 25% higher risk of a serious heart problem. And, those working for what was classed as a long time - four years or more - had a 64% higher risk.”
These unhealthy outcomes affected everybody. It didn’t seem to matter whether the subject smoked, drank, did neither, or what educational or income level they were in – the toxic boss had a negative impact on health.
Stress Results from Poor Quality Management
The U.K.’s Blood Pressure Association puts the heart problems down to stress. “One reason put forward for this increase in heart disease risk,” says the Association in an online commentary on the Swedish study, “is that employees can feel undervalued and unsupported in their work. This produces stress that may cause people to make unhealthy choices - such as choosing takeaway meals, smoking, or giving up on exercise.
“To counter the negative effects of a bad boss and protect your health, the best advice is to keep active and follow a healthy diet. Both these choices will improve your mood and help keep your heart and blood pressure in good condition.”
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