As we go up the corporate ladder, we come across a range of managerial characteristics. Some bosses are considerate and fair, while others are unfair and rigid, behaving as if the commercial world is a war zone.
Managers' expectations also vary. One may be sexist or expect you to have no life outside work. Another may assign projects with impossible deadlines, fail to respond to your business needs and then get unreasonably angry when the work is not done on time.
Enter the Toxic Manager - 90 per cent emotion, 10 per cent logic and a 100 per cent reality of corporate life. These are people with crude management skills who can make the staff's life miserable.
Toxic managers can have a demoralising effect on employees. Their mix of aggression and emotion can stifle and irritate staff. That, in turn, can encourage people to put in less than their best effort, be late for work, be absent often or even leave the organisation for more emotionally stable pastures.
So why is this deep, dark side of the corporate family allowed to exist? Primarily because the accounts permit it - if a manager generates considerable revenue, few questions are ever asked.
Fortunately, termination is not the only solution to the problem. There are other mechanisms that can be used to ease such situations.
From a corporate perspective, one method is to encourage staff discussion. Although not everyone will speak up, it is important to keep all lines of communication with staff open. The exit interview, unfortunately, is one meeting too late.