Australian workplaces straight out of ‘Horrible bosses’, ‘Work in Evolution’ report finds

AUSTRALIAN bosses are behaving like characters out of the movie “Horrible Bosses”, workers say. And here’s some of our biggest complaints.

AUSTRALIAN bosses are behaving like characters out of the movie “Horrible bosses”, workers say.

A new study has found that more than 25 per cent of workers are worried about speaking up, even when they are in the right and a similar number say they do not trust their manager.

It all sounds like the script from the film starring Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Aniston, where angry workers try to kill their bosses.

That’s the one where Spacey makes a joke about his employee’s dead grandmother and Jennifer Aniston tries to have sex with her soon-to-be-married dental technician.

The “Work in Evolution” report, which surveyed more than 1000 employees and 300 bosses, found that managers were selling staff short.

Here’s the workers’ biggest complaints.

1. Workers don’t trust bosses. The report found that 28 per cent of staff did not trust their manager and that 27.7 per cent of workers felt they could not raise issues without “recrimination.”

2. Working from home is a myth. Companies talk about flexible work practices, but employees are not buying the line.

More than 70 per cent of bosses said they would let staff work from home.

But only 52.7 per cent of workers said they believed their bosses would allow them to work at home to improve their work-life balance.

Where’s the respect? Kevin Spacey and Jason Bateman in 'Horrible Bosses'.

3. The open plan office is a failure.

The wall-free office has been making it harder to get work done, with two thirds of bosses admitting that their offices were noisy, distracting and lacking privacy.

4. Women are being left behind.

Only half of the employers responded that they had an even amount of men and women on their staff.

5. Fix my computer. Now. Please.

If you are reading this on a work computer, it may have taken your ancient machine a while to get down to this part of the page. But it’s a common complaint.

Cheap bosses are also holding back employees, with less than half of employees saying they had up to date computers and technology to do their jobs.

And the solution to our office problems? It all comes down to trust.

Professor Andrew Stewart, workplace relations expert from the University of Adelaide, said trust was essential for staff productivity.

“It makes a massive difference. Productivity lies in their attitude, the effort they put in and that happens in any situation where their can be discretionary effort,” he said.

Prof Stewart said that managers needed to upskill so they were getting the best out of their staff.

“Quality of management is a problem in Australia, it must be improved. That’s far more worthwhile that changing our workplace laws,” he said.

@steveheraldsun

Originally published as Australian workplaces straight out of ‘Horrible bosses’, ‘Work in Evolution’ report finds