I have a friend who works in a doctor’s office. She mentioned to me that the doctor fixed a couple of her toes the other day and I joked with her as I asked if the

procedure was done at her desk. She laughed as she said I was pretty close to the truth. Not only did she have the office phone with her during the surgery to answer incoming calls, but she also assisted in her own surgery. This bad behavior from her boss didn’t happen overnight. It started out with, “Can you help me out this one time” and “Could you do me a favor”? Before she knew it she was picking up his dry cleaning, washing the surgical linens and driving him to the airport. He has gone from being respectable to the butt of many jokes. The office staff stopped caring about the quality of their work because they didn’t like him. Customers could sense there was something wrong in the office. While most of us can recall a horrible boss or two the big question is, how do your employees perceive you? Does it measure up to the servant leadership model? Here are a few of the complaints I have heard recently. 1) My boss empties the coffee pot and doesn’t make a fresh pot. 2) My boss told one of our older workers not to take a front parking spot because it is reserved for customers, and then the boss started parking there. 3) My boss asked to borrow money for lunch and then didn’t want to pay it back. 4) My boss bellows for one of us to come to his office. The longer we take the louder he gets. 5) My boss stands in front of my desk while I am talking with a customer on the phone and she expects me to listen to her and the customer at the same time. 6) My boss does not say “good morning” to anyone. 7) My boss says he doesn’t believe in giving compliments or praise because we are just doing what we are paid to do. Some managers believe they are great bosses and they tend to base that on the way their employees respond to them. Smart employees don’t tell the boss how they really feel! I once evaluated an office and its employees only to uncover that the employees did not like their general manager who they felt was insensitive and demanding. It was clear that they resented him and it affected their work. I told him candidly that his employees thought he was mean and it was affecting their performance. He responded by saying that everyone seemed friendly towards him. We provided detail on specific things that were brought up by his staff which he acknowledged. He confessed he was just not aware of how he affected his team. He had a critical choice to make. He could carry on as he had in the past and have the same performance results from his staff, or he could make some simple changes that would change the dynamics of his team for the better. He chose to do nothing and eventually was replaced. Be proactive and partner with your H.R. department and create a simple, anonymous survey for your employees to take. You need to be intentional about making improvements based on those results. It will be motivational and contribute to the quality of the work your team must complete. Remember, unhappy employees talk to and serve your customers. Your customer can tell when something in wrong in the office.