Sixth Sign of a Toxic Workplace:
Cold-Hearted Systems for Controlling People

A bully lives to control others. He thrives in a workplace that tends to dehumanize employees and control their behavior. Companies fall into this mode of operation by designing and implementing highly detailed, cold-hearted operational systems.

Detailed operational systems may seem like a good idea in theory, but they are based on the premise that people can't be trusted to think for themselves. Because of this, highly detailed systems are created to control their every action.

Operational systems include detailed reports, work programs, job descriptions and performance evaluations. Employees are criticized and punished for failing to comply, regardless of whether the task makes any sense.

With operational systems in place, employees are criticized and punished for taking the initiative to modify the approach or add a task that makes the company operate more efficiently. Only hard-working, task-oriented, perfectionist robots are rewarded.

You will usually find a bully behind the design, implementation and/or enforcement of these systems. A bully is the biggest proponent of using an operational system to pressure, belittle and punish his subordinates, or to undermine and destroy his peers.

An operational system is another weapon in a bully's arsenal of intimidation.

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