Flaws of a Leader
Being a bully leader
Unlike the common bully, a bully leader uses fear or the threat of humiliation to silence critics or contrarian voices. These kinds of leaders do not all have the same personality. The most pernicious type of this kind of bully is the one who comes across as polished and sophisticated. Everything about him sends the message that he is the smartest person in the room, the one who will make the decisions and get the credit. Although he may ask for others’ opinions and give lip service to their ideas, it is clear to everyone that it is their way or the highway. I never knew what to call the person I currently work under, but after reading the flaws of leaders, he perfectly fit the description. In fact, most people in my office do not even want to work for him or under him. We are literally forced to be his subordinates because he sucks the life out of you. I believe the only reason he still works in our office is that he knows his job more than anyone else in that department does. Most associates avoid him at all costs, if they have a question they would rather spend hours searching for the answer than asking him. It has come to a point where he himself has alienated people and no one apart from those who work in the area can come into that area in the office. I also find myself taking time off just to avoid having to deal with him. He intimidates people to the point that no one will say anything negative about him because he has the senior leadership at the palm of his hands. It is also sad to mention that many employees have rejected promotion opportunities after learning that they will have to work for him. People’s voices have gone unheard numerous times. People have complained about him several times but since he is manipulative, everything is swept under the rag. One colleague that took his complaints to the next level no longer works with us; this speaks volume of how his issue was handled. The rest of us figured if we want to keep our pay checks might as well keep quiet and hope someone will eventually stand up to him without repercussions. Morale in our area is always low but we all try to hope for some kind of change. Amongst ourselves, we can tell there is a lot of unspoken resentment and we are hoping no one explodes at the wrong time. If leaders like this eventually fail I have a suspicion that many in my office even those that do not work with us are waiting for that day.

Playing favorites
I have seen the results of perceived favoritism, unintentional and actual favoritism. Perceived favoritism took place in my office when employees started noticing that an older male supervisor seemed to be treating younger female workers with friendly smiles and encouragement while benignly ignoring male workers in the hallways. This led to resentments from most male employees and soon enough rumors of the supervisor asking for sexual favors and making sexual advances toward the female workers started to surface. As a result, morale started going down and we had more complaints and as excepted people started pointing fingers at each other. Work production started dwindling down and some did not put effort in their work because they felt that no matter how hard they work, it would not matter because preferred employees will always get better benefits, more attention, and greater opportunities. There was a lot of resentment toward the “special workers” and most of them were being treated with unkindness and gossiping about reasons for preferential treatment. More and more people also resent the supervisor and became less willing to participate actively in the company mission. This resulted in lower productivity, missed deadlines, and lower overall morale. Some employees also went as far as threatening to take legal action against the employer citing preferential treatment at the work place. Due to the tension created from these accusations the supervisor was moved to a different section in efforts to diffuse the mistrust in the air.