The Savvy Manager

The following is a short Christmas play. Written in five staves, the play teaches a “what comes around … goes around” lesson to a wayward boss who discovers the true meaning of Christmas one strange, magical night. With apologies to Charles Dickens …

Just when you thought you’ve seen it all at work, here comes Stan to start his shift with what looks like a sieve on his head. That’s right, a sieve. But before you put a stop to it, there’s a recent news story you need to consider.

If you’re a manager, you’ve got workplace horror stories. You know, that new hire from hell that chased away your biggest account. The budget cut that torpedoed your six-month-long project. That sweltering July when the building’s air conditioning system decided to retire. But it gets spookier. You can deal with those one-time scares. There is, however, an ever-creeping shadow that dims most workplaces at the worst times, and it permeates at will. And all the sinister shenanigans that go on in the workplace, strangely, are preserved on film. Here are the classic horror flicks whose scenes can be found where you work.

There are subtle ways a boss can bully his workers that are not so apparent to him or even his superiors. But the workers feel it. Those would be the little idiosyncrasies or habits that he picked up on his way to bossdom that begin to alienate his staff and chip away at morale. Here are four things that make you monster lite, but nonetheless repulsive.