COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Most adults have had a hostile boss or manager at some point in their working lives, and have also surely dreamt up sweet strategies of revenge -- imagined telling off that manipulative micro-manager in front of the entire office staff.
Some have even done this, dishing the abuse right back from where it came. And these people, new research suggests, may have been more than just bold -- they may have been smart.
Ohio State researchers say they found evidence that returning a boss's hostility has real advantages.
"Before we did this study, I thought there would be no upside to employees who retaliated against their bosses, but that's not what we found," said study author Bennett Tepper, professor of management and human resources at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business.
"The best situation is certainly when there is no hostility. But if your boss is hostile, there appears to be benefits to reciprocating. Employees felt better about themselves because they didn't just sit back and take the abuse."
There is a caveat, of course. When researchers talk about returning a boss's hostility, they're talking about passive-aggressive strategies -- not flipping your supervisor the bird or cursing his or her mother. Instead, researchers found employees who purposefully ignored their boss, feigned ignorance of a boss's ridicule, or simply just didn't try very hard, reported less psychological distress and higher job satisfaction than their cowardly counterparts.
Tepper says his study isn't intended to encourage retaliation against workplace superiors. The revelation, he says, is the study's proof that society seems to prefer a dog that bites back so to speak.
"There is a norm of reciprocity in our society," he said. "We have respect for someone who fights back, who doesn't just sit back and take abuse. Having the respect of co-workers may help employees feel more committed to their organization and happy about their job."
The new study was published this week in the journal Personnel Psychology.
