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<p><img src="../../../../work/columns/tulgan/img/www_subdomain/xnuggets.gif" width="180" height="216" alt="X
Nuggets by Bruce Tulgan">
<p>
<font size="+1">
<b>
<font size="+2">R</font>EVENGE
<font size="+2">A</font>T
<font size="+2">T</font>HE
<font size="+2">O</font>FFICE
</font>
</b>
</font>
<br>
<p>
<p>Published September 26, 1996<br><p>
<p>
<br>
<p>
<b><a href="../../../../www_subdomain/work/archive/tulgan.html">Other Columns</a> by Bruce Tulgan</b><br>
Tripod <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/work/interviews/960726tulgan.html">Interview</a> with the author<p>
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<font size="+2">C</font>omputer programmer: "You couldn't look cross-eyed at this guy without him jumping down your throat. When we all got together and played basketball one time, this guy was on the other team... He was a marked man. It was hilarious. This guy didn't get any easy buckets, that's for sure. Any time he even looked at the basket he had a forearm across his back or over his arm. He was getting chopped all over the place. We still talk about that one."
<p>
<font size="+2">P</font>aralegal at a small law firm: "When our boss went on vacation for a week... we all worked doubly hard the week before. Then we planned a day where we could sit around the office and do nothing just to spite him. We sat around and laughed every time the phone rang. Then we all went out to lunch, had pitchers of beer... People were doing handstands against the walls. One even left a heel mark. The whole rest of the time I worked there, all of us would go by that mark on the wall and snicker. It was like our silent mark of rebellion."
<p>
<font size="+2">I</font>t is no secret that managers all over America are blowing up at employees, having temper tantrums in the office, actually yelling and screaming, calling names, throwing things, putting employees down, humiliating us, and generally managing us by pushing us around. Some would say it is easy to point fingers -- easier to decry the style of America's worst managers than to offer concrete solutions to managing today's young workers. Well, I am so committed to offering concrete solutions that I founded a company to do just that. But, sometimes it's more fun to press the pause button on the solution tape and focus on the problem for an extra moment or two.
</font>
<p>
<font size="+2">T</font>here is a fundamental rule that all abusers, from the home to the workplace, should memorize: "Anyone you abuse has a psychological imperative to undermine your authority." Why? Authority translates into legitimacy. So, if someone who has power and respect abuses you, it is more likely to hurt your feelings than if the person had no power and no respect. That is why, when someone abuses you, your natural psychological response is to tear that person down. If you can diminish the weight of the abuser's opinion, then you define the abuser and, at the same time, curtail the abuser's power to define you in an unflattering way.
<p>
<font size="+2">S</font>o, how do you undermine an abusive manager's authority? You have many options, ranging from silent-coups (going over someone's head) to public confrontations (screaming right back) to legal action. Most Xers will defy the ethos of fear and intimidation, converting the workplace into an environment of growth and rational feedback by building support networks among ourselves. Where managers make it impossible for us to learn and grow through our work, Xers work together through our shared experience to enhance a different kind of skill repertoire -- one for coping with, avoiding, and exacting revenge upon abusive managers. Because abused Xers divert so much creative energy to this group effort, Xers are dangerous office rebels, inciting subtle forms of rebellion which can affect the bottom line dramatically.
<p>
<font size="+2">B</font>ut, so many Xers prefer to rely on simple private victories. We compartmentalize the job and the abuse and focus our creative energy outside the workplace until we find new jobs. In the meantime, our abusive managers had better think twice before walking onto the same basketball court with us... or going on vacation... or turning their backs. What goes around comes around.
<p>
<center><img src="../../../../work/columns/tulgan/img/www_subdomain/goldennugget.gif" width="175" height="65" alt="The Golden
Nugget"></center>
<p>
<font size="+2">H</font>ow far will American workers go to exact vengeance on their managers? Some people just don't show up to work... According to "Forbes," one million Americans miss work every day. Others show up and then slack off... "Harper's Index" tells us more than 22% of fast-food restaurant workers admit doing "slow, sloppy work" on purpose to get back at managers. Others use a combination of sabotage and humor to make their point... In one case, an editor at "Encyclopedia Britannica" was unhappy enough with the boss to rewrite history by substituting the names of Britannica employees for various historical figures.
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</font>
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<hr>
<p>
<p><a href="mailto:rainworld@aol.com">Bruce Tulgan</a> is the author of <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/work/interviews/960726tulgan.html">"Managing Generation
X"</a> and the President of Rainmaker, a consulting firm
that specializes in teaching organizations how to retain and motivate young talent.
<font size="-1"><p>© 1996 Bruce Tulgan. All Rights Reserved
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