Your jerk boss is making you lazy

Employers who verbally abuse their staff are more likely to have lazy, under-performing workers, research shows.

Even when the abuse is part of a motivational "tough love" tactic to help motivate people it will still undermine productivity. That's according to a study of 268 workers by organisational psychologist Dr Kevin Eschleman, who explained rudeness tended to lead to employees "acting out".

"I think there are a lot of supervisors who believe that this could be an effective way to lead," he said of the study, published in the Work and Stress journal, "but I don't necessarily think that's the case for a lot of people. In general, a lot of people are going to respond negatively."

Responding negatively ranges from taking too much time on breaks, ridiculing their bosses behind their backs, stealing or general "counter-productive work behaviour".

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