Killing the Boss

Horrible Bosses opens in theaters July 8.  The story of Nick (Jason Bateman), an executive who's robbed of a promotion after his supervisor (Kevin Spacey) upgrades himself; Dale (Charlie Day), a dental assistant and sexual harassment victim; and Kurt (Jason Sudeikis), whose coke-addled chemical company boss (Colin Farrell) decides to dump toxic waste on an unsuspecting Bolivian village.  "You've never heard of justifiable homicide?" Kurt says.  "It would be immoral not to kill them."

The July 1, 2011 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek has an article about the movie (and horrible bosses) - - This Guy Kills Me.  The article quotes various survey results, such as:

• Only 50% of Americans are satisfied with their supervisors.  This is a decline from 60% in 1987.  Survey results did not specify the percentage of Americans actually thinking about killing their boss.
• Monster.com found that more than a third of workers are dissatisfied with their managers (hence, the reason for taking the survey on Monster.com in the first place - - no bias in that survery!).
• In research published in 2007, Florida State University Professor Wayne Hochwarter likened the employer-employee dynamic to an "abusive relationship" - - workers claimed their supervisors gave them the silent treatment (31%), failed to keep promises (39%), and spoke ill of them behind their backs (27%).

I am sure a significant portion of the managerial ranks are horrible bosses.  A few are absolute monsters.  A historic proportion are both - - horrible and monsters.  The silent treatment?  Consider Hitler as your boss.  When a German general in December 1941 asked Hitler for permission to retreat 30 miles on the Eastern Front, he was asked by Hitler whether he thought it would be any warmer there, and whether, if the Wehrmacht carried on retreating, the Russians would stop at the borders of the Reich (survey results - - 99.99% of employees don't like sarcasm from their supervisors when it is 30 below zero).  Probably the model for employees "Killing the Boss."  History is rather unclear if the German generals attempted to kill Hitler because he was a horrible boss or a monster or both.  Plus, attempting to kill a boss like Hitler and being unsuccessful is a very poor career move.

Stalin probably wins the prize for monsters that were also horrible bosses.  Under Stalin's "Not One Step Back" order several generals were sentenced to death in absentia, and on one occasion the sentence was not carried out until 1950, when the soldier in question, General Pavel Ponedelin, foolhardily reminded Stalin of his existence by writing to him to protest his innocence (survey results - - 100% of employees should watch what they say around a boss that is horrible, a monster, and ruthless).