The Devil Wears Poinsettia

“[The authoritarian] management style is considered Neanderthal by today's management theory and practice.”

—Howard Eisner

BAD BOSSES OUT THERE

This morning, I decided to Google “bad bosses” to determine what goes on out there beyond our benighted district, boss-wise. The search yielded over a million and a half hits. I didn’t read ‘em all.

▲ The first site listed was Badbossology.com. Badbossology lists six “Common bad boss behaviors,” including “bullying.” Aha! I clicked on that, and it brought me to articles such as “Meet the bully boss”, where we learn that

The [bullying boss] problem already is recognized in Australia, England, Germany, South Africa and Switzerland, where laws protect people from workplace bullying…. American businesses are beginning to pay attention to the problem because bully bosses cost them money. Work performance of the person targeted suffers, not surprisingly, but so does performance of other workers because morale sinks….

▲ The second Google item was “Bad Boss: Strategies for Coping”, by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.:

…Maybe you have a boss who is sexist…. Or perhaps a boss who takes all the credit for himself. Maybe your boss … makes you stay late everyday. Or perhaps a boss who gives out too many tasks with impossible to meet deadlines (or constantly changing deadlines). Maybe your boss is a pathological liar….

▲ How 'bout... “Bad Bosses and How to Handle Them”, by Barbara Moses? Moses lists varieties of bad boss, including the “political manager”:

He has an unerring ability to know what will make him look good. He will go to bat for you only on issues that serve his political agenda. He's sneaky and plays favorites. He won't think twice about using you as a sacrificial lamb to support his own career goals.

▲ Then there's this book review from The Washington Post that offered an amazing description of UN ambassador John Bolton’s managerial style. Allegedly, the fellow

“threw a tape dispenser at a contractor who complained about a lack of funds. He is said to have made nasty remarks about her weight and sexual orientation. He is accused of trying to fire people who disagreed with him. A high-up official recently called this boss a ‘serial abuser’ of low-level employees and a ‘quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy.’”

According to the article, one famously evil CEO, Richard Scrushy, created a “culture of intimidation.” Sounds familiar. Evidently, Scrushy “was referred to as the king. He made every decision….”

But that wasn’t his reputation outside the workplace. His former assistant noted the huge discrepancy between the Scrushy known to underlings and the Scrushy known to clueless higher-ups:

"‘Oftentimes bullying bosses look really good, oftentimes they make a lot of money, and oftentimes they do well in terms of what an organization thinks it wants’…. That is because bullies can be charming and funny…. But they also use power tactics, such as bragging, arrogance and sarcasm, to build themselves up while bringing others down…Sometimes the highest of the higher-ups don't know what's going on….”

Tyrannical bosses intimidate or fire employees to make an example of them. Remember when Mathur tried to nix an instructor’s tenure on the grounds that the instructor participated in an unauthorized greenhouse namage? That got lots of faculty worried. It’s called the “spillover effect, in which intimidation of one person makes everyone else cow in the boss's presence…."

▲ Google lists an NPR story called Who's The Worst Boss?
Workplace Warriors Share Tales of Rotten (and Good) Bosses. In the report, one employee described his double-dealing boss:

"I've got a stack of e-mails that this man has sent that threaten people's jobs, physical and psychological well-being as well as income. An example of the latter comes from an e-mail I received several months ago. It reads: 'Listen, Goddamit, and I am deadly serious... Your damn bonus next year won't buy you a cheese sandwich if (production) doesn't turn around.' Later, in a meeting, this individual assured me that he was ‘fighting as hard as I can to get all you new managers as much money as possible.' When confronted with the 'cheese sandwich' statement, he (of course) denied ever making it. When he is in a good mood at the job, the most common comment I heard made is, 'Don's sure in a good mood; watch your back.' Duplicitous, double-dealing and hypocritical are some adjectives that immediately spring to mind."

MATHUR

If you know your way around the district or its colleges, then you know that many administrators dare not openly speak their minds or offer their best ideas. Not unless their thoughts are utterly harmonious with the Chancellor’s.

Mathur is a bully. He’s a bully of the insecure narcissistic variety. He’s obedient and brown-nosing before his “bosses”—as he likes to call them—but, when it's just you around, you’re lucky if he’s civil. And he doesn’t give a damn what you have to say. It’s all about him. Ever see his box of trophies?

No doubt Dave has slipped Raghu a couple of daffy self-improvement books—you know, Ten Stupid Things You Do to Get Called an Asshole or When you point your finger at the Bluebird of Happiness, it shoots right up your nose, etc.—so Raghu's learned how to seem respectful and professional, if you're not lookin' too hard. These days, he can put on quite a show, if he has to. I even saw 'im be nice to someone once.

But then, when the trustees aren't looking, he has a little meeting somewhere. He's sitting quietly, professionally with two or three administrators. He turns to one of them.

He does the Big Ruthless.

THE PRE-ADMINISTRATIVE MATHUR

Long before Mathur became an administrator in 1997, when he was simply a money-grubbing ($124K/year) chemistry instructor who chaired a tiny School, his bullying ways made life miserable for any underling he could, um, ling.

As we noted previously (People walking on eggshells), the case of Leann Cribb was typical. Cribb, a classified employee, found Raghu’s abusive treatment of her to be sufficiently egregious that, finally, on August 3, 1995, she lodged a formal complaint against him. She wrote:

I realize the gravity of my actions, but please understand that I have carefully considered my case, and I have documented Mr. Mathur’s egregious behavior toward me for the past six years…. As the secretary for the Office of Instruction, I take the minutes of the Instructional Council. At the July 18 … meeting, … Raghu Mathur announced that he wanted the minutes from July 11 changed. During the course of his request, Mr. Mathur stated that he felt the minutes were biased against him and were written to make him look bad … His comments are a direct attack on my competency as well as on my character…. Manipulating the minutes of an Instructional Council meeting would be an inexcusable breach of ethics and should be grounds for a reprimand or dismissal….

Cribb then explains that Mathur’s bullying of her began years earlier, when she worked under him at his School:

This attack on me is the latest in a series of attacks that began with my tenure in the School of Physical Sciences and Technologies. During my time there, Mr. Mathur told me that I was incompetent on more than one occasion. He also attacked me personally by accusing me of behaving inappropriately while serving on a hiring committee. He reported this “inappropriate” behavior to the President of the college. Although I asked him several times to specify what the inappropriate behavior was, I was never informed of what I had done to warrant being reported to the President and humiliated in front of the committee…. Mr. Mathur routinely revises facts and manufactures innuendo to suit his objectives. He does this at the expense of employees like me who are merely doing their job….

Three years later, Mathur was the President of IVC. In September of ‘98, he hired a new PIO, Bevin Zandvliet. She quit after one month:

…Professors say they have been locked out of decision-making and that those who don’t go along with Mathur are called into his office, yelled at and often written up. Mathur, on the other hand, says he has an “open-door policy” and has worked hard to include faculty, staff and students in decisions.

Zandvliet said that during her four weeks at Irvine Valley, that’s not what she saw. “People are walking on eggshells around there,” she said. “He said he has an open-door policy and that he believes in communication, but I didn’t see it.” (OC Register 9/25/98)

THWARTED

One thing seems clear to me. There are lots of managers and administrators in this district who would love to do a good job. But some of them can’t. They’re fearful, frustrated, demoralized, angry. ▲

(THE TITLE: it is a reference to an infamous episode at IVC. During a gathering of classified employees, an employee had "won" a poinsettia [at her table] on the basis of her years of service. Mathur, then the President, got up and took the plant from her, declaring that he had more seniority than she. After the episode, some faculty bought her her own poinsettia.)