Is this abuse

hrwoman

Ops Manager asks an employee a question. Employee doesn't know the answer said she will find out. The ops mgr per the employee states
he repeatedly raised his voice and got very agitated. He was disrespectful to the point of yelling comments like "you're not listening to me" and "That's great, but you're not answering my question". She said it was abusive behavior. He says she kept going on about being overworked and she was going to quit. He says she wasn't giving him an answer just causes as to why she didn't know the answer. She comes back stating this was abusive behavior. I don't see this as abusive behavior. Am I missing something?

Balloonman1

Hmmm, sounds like there is probably more to the story....... The manager should not be yelling at employees, you have to deal with that issue. I have found in the past when people are acting inappropriately like this manager in the past, if you respond in a calm manner it just ticks them off more. Could that be the case here? Does the manager have issues with this employee? Just some thoughts.
My $0.02 worth,
DJ The Balloonman

dchr9203

Without knowing the whole story, I would say no. More times than not I've had employees whine to me about how mean their manager is when the manager was only holding them accountable for reasonable expectations. We have one now that has to be repeatedly told how to do things because she does not listen, and you can see it in her eyes and body language that she's not listening. I don't blame a manager for frustration when they're dealing with employees like that. However, they should be expected to act professionaly in spite of the frustration. Just from the info given, I would say the employee's defensive because she got caught not having an answer that she knows she should have and was evasive in her responses. It is not abusive for this manager to expect an answer, or at the very least a plausible reason as to why she doesn't know the answer.

TN HR

From the information you have presented it is my opinion that you have an ee who is overly sensitive and perhaps may even lack effective communication skills.

If I had a buck for each time a superior has made either one of those comments (especially when I've offered ambigious answers as she may have) to me I could take the entire forum out for a beer tonight down on Music Row (had to represent Nashville).

Gene

System

You could be right, Gene, but I get more out of it than merely a sensitive employee. It appears to me that the conversation dropped to a level of dysfunctional and the manager should have desisted. There's no point in berating an employee or continuing on when the employee can't or doesn't respond. That should have been handled later and in private. Granted, there's not enough to call it abuse, harassing, or hostile. But maybe the manager needs a little coaching.

I can't make it tonight. Have a beer for me.

hrdir03nafcu

The info you present is pretty sketchy, but it sounds like there's some fault on both sides.

As to whether the behavious is "abusive"-- as you describe it, I would have to say yes. Probably not abusive in any actionable way (unless the mgr was abusing the EE as a woman, Black, Latino, disabled, or other protected class of EE)-- but repeated yelling at an EE does fit the defn of "abuse" in my book.

Managers have a responsibility to the org to bring more effective management/supervisory skills to their work than what this story portrays. If the EE said "she'd get the info", then perhaps a more effective response from the mgr would have been to respond, "OK, pls get it to me by.... ", and let it drop for the moment. If the goal is to get the needed info, this behavior probably delayed receipt of the info by a substantial period of time..?

The EE also has a responsibility to do her job. But, again, as a an effective technique for motivating EEs to do their jobs, and do them well, this mgr's technique fails in my book. If there's an underlying issue of chronic non-performance on the EEs part, the correct way for the mgr to deal with that is thru her performance reviews, through timely constructive feedback on her performance, and, if those fail, with disciplinary action (probation?) clearly based on her poor job performance.

hope this is helpful,
hrd

>Ops Manager asks an employee a question.
>Employee doesn't know the answer said she will
>find out. The ops mgr per the employee states
>he repeatedly raised his voice and got very
>agitated. He was disrespectful to the point of
>yelling comments like "you're not listening to
>me" and "That's great, but you're not answering
>my question". She said it was abusive behavior.
>He says she kept going on about being overworked
>and she was going to quit. He says she wasn't
>giving him an answer just causes as to why she
>didn't know the answer. She comes back stating
>this was abusive behavior. I don't see this as
>abusive behavior. Am I missing something?

Crout

Sound like the Ops Manasger was being a little jerky and could use some coaching, but unless he was calling the EE a little #%!#$&$!$#$! so-and-so, I don't see the exchange as "abusive."

Don D

You asked, "Am I missing something?" What you're missing, in my opinion is being a witness to the event. Who can judge without having witnessed it? We can speculate all day as to who might have said or implied what by their tone or mannerisms or words.

Our Ops Manager often raises his voice and occasionally berates his direct reports. It is always due either to frustration or the perception of incompetence or both.

But there is no black and white answer as to what did or did not rise to the level of abuse.

hrwoman

Thanks. I had them both sit down w/ me present and discuss what happened. The ops mgr stated he was frustrated bc/ she wasn't giving him an answer and couldn't understand the question he was posing. He said he didn't mean to appear abusive in any way as that wasn't his intent. she accepted his answer and is fine w/ everything. Guess sometimes you just want to hear i'm sorry.
thanks for everyone's help.