Jerk Alert!

How many jerks have you worked for in your career?  Personally, I've worked for some doozies:

•  The system COO who took credit for all the work done by my team to design, construct and open the new rehab hospital.  He invited his golfing buddy to speak at the ribbon-cutting but didn't invite any of the team or physicians who actually opened the hospital
• The Regional VP who ordered me back to work on weekend after I had driven 8 hours to see my wife, saying "if you leave right now, you can be back in town by 3 a.m." and then called a budget-planning conference call with all the hospital CEOs for 7 a.m. Sunday morning.
• The Division President who took actual joy in publicly firing his hospital CEOs, usually at regional meetings, in front of their colleagues.  And at one regional meeting said, "Fellas, look to your left.  Now look to your right. One of you won't be here by the end of the year."
• The infamous hospital company President & CEO who would fly a troubled hospital's Administrator all the way to the corporate office just to fire him. And then send him home.     

Last week in INC. magazine, there was an article titled: "Jerk Alert: The Real Cost of Bad Bosses."

In this article, the author stated:

• 65% of employees say they’d take a new boss over a raise. 
• Three out of every four employees report that their boss is the worst and most stressful part of their job.
• Bad bosses not only make employees unhappy—they make workers unhealthy as well.

Also, in a study of 30,000 managers, employees cited five top flaws of what bad bosses fail to do:
 

1. Fail to inspire 
2. Accepts mediocrity 
3. Lacks clear vision and direction
4. Unable to collaborate and be a team player 
5. Fails to walk the talk..

 

 Therefore:

Why aren’t these people fired and who condones this type of leadership? Ethically speaking how can a company keep these bosses who can cause morale issues, ethics issues, productivity issues, compliance issues and employee turnover?  

What is the “cost” of keeping these “bad” bosses. They have to know that they are ineffective and yet keeping them says what?  What about the impact of bad bosses on the bottomline, the impact on share prices and profitability...isn't there a fiduciary responsibility to get rid of these folks?
There are enough issues to deal with in a hospital, without keeping bosses that tend to be a “cancer” growing. Aren’t we in a “preventative maintenance” mode in healthcare, then why not in companies?  Be preventative with this issue. Either fire them or retrain them.