Bullying bosses make working life a living hell
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Your support makes all the difference.A "bad bosses" hot line has been inundated with calls from professional people complaining they are being bullied. It is now the turn of the middle classes to be victimised as well as more junior and lower paid colleagues.
More than one in four of calls to the hot line set up by the TUC come from managers complaining about authoritarian and unreasonable bosses.
In just five days the line received almost 5,000 calls from all over the country and from people in a wide range of occupations. Some claimed that employers were trying to "cancel Christmas" by ordering them to work as normal.
One manager in a Scottish financial firm said her working day had become a "living hell". Her boss would scream at her and in turn would expect her to shout at her staff. "My boss would come out of her office and you could feel the aggression flowing from her. If she came over to you, you knew you were going to get it in the neck - it was your turn for abuse."
A teacher in a small rural school was the subject of bullying by the head and a colleague. Eventually he suffered from depression and was off sick for several months. The TUC received personal testimonies from eight sets of parents saying the teacher was the best thing that ever happened to the school.
Some four out of ten calls to the hotline were from people who felt they were being bullied, according to a TUC report Hard Times. Nearly half of them were men.
A quarter of callers complained of low pay with some earning as little as pounds 1 an hour. Some 43 per cent of those complaining about wages earned less than pounds 2.50 an hour. It is thought that the Low Pay Commission, which will advise the Government on a national minimum wage will set a figure of around pounds 3.50.
Security guards were among those contacting the TUC over wage levels, some of whom were earning as little a pounds 2.25 an hour for which they were expected to work a 12-hour shift. Drivers reported being forced to work dangerously long hours.
Some callers were being prevented from taking paid annual leave and being forced to work through Christmas. A company in the north-east "cancelled Christmas" and will not allow employees time off.
John Monks (pictured), TUC general secretary, is hoping to "name and shame" some of the companies in the new year. He said calls to the hotline had revealed a "catalogue of exploitation" - low pay, long hours, job insecurity and bullying.
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