There Is a Special Place in Hell for Bosses Who Yell

​Is it ever okay for a boss to yell at employees?

I am not talking about being stern or raising one’s voice. I mean yelling, as in flat-out screaming as an expression of anger and an attempt to exert control. Again, I am not referencing a slightly elevated volume or even harsh language. I am not speaking about stern looks or flinty expressions of disappointment or ire. This essay is about bosses who just yell.

​Take this instance of what I mean. I once had a boss blast me with the insult "I hate your words!" She then ripped into me so loudly that someone across the hall closed the office door. That is what I am talking about. Nasty, malicious shouting unleashed to silence, insult, or mortify an employee. By the way, I still have no idea what I said that set her off. She was just bonkers.

Is it ever acceptable for a boss to yell at an employee out of sheer exasperation or anger, as my former boss did, not to end an escalating outburst or protect someone but because yelling relieves the boss’s frustration or vents the boss’s rage or unnerves the employee In other words. is it ever acceptable for a boss to indulge in sheer obstreperous yelling?

The answer here is short.

No.

Of course, with all things management, there is a nuance to unpack. Some yelling may be appropriate or even necessary, but very rarely and only in very narrow circumstances. I can imagine scenarios where an employee is acting out in public or screaming at a colleague or colleagues are screaming at each other and only the boss’s raised voice will halt the tirade. I can imagine these scenarios because I have lived them and had to, as a boss, loudly intervene myself. I had to noisily assert my authority to stop the shouting and then set about assuring that a more civil tone would prevail. Such things happen. If they happen often, they are a symptom of a larger problem. Whatever the cause, though, yelling should lurk at the very bottom of the boss's well-supplied tool chest.

On the other hand, it is never appropriate for a boss to yell at an employee simply because the boss is angry or annoyed or impatient or furious or irritated or insulted or anxious or offended or moody or bitter or contemptuous or hostile or livid or belligerent or frenzied or confused or in high dudgeon or hangry or simply mad. Sure, yelling will usually achieve immediate gains and succeed in intimidating and humiliating the employee and overawing any witnesses. But at what cost?

A boss who yells purely in anger or animus, even if infrequently, is out of line, plain and simple. Yelling may provide the boss some degree of control but only temporarily. In the meantime, the humiliated employee and any witnesses will harbor a combination of fear and resentment that can gestate into raw contempt for the boss no matter how out-of-character the boss’s anger was. Unwarranted yelling is a sign of weakness. It is never more than an attempt to release frustration and exert raw power to overwhelm a subordinate. Because the employee is subordinate and usually has no ability to fight back, it is the crassest and most pathetic form of bullying and a mark of craven cruelty. A sincere, appropriately public, and well-timed apology may mitigate the resentment, but there will still be much goodwill to make up.

Again, there are rare times when yelling is called for, but I am referring to when yelling is not necessary and happens just because a boss is pissed off and loses it. Those incidents are plainly abusive. If you have been on the receiving end of such a cowardly display, you know exactly what I mean. On the other hand, if you have been the one who occasionally or frequently browbeats employees, you need to listen up.

There is a special place in hell for bosses who yell.

​The ramifications of a boss’s bullying can be massive and long-lasting. A boss who regularly yells will create deep divisions among employees. Most will cower and comply while others will hunker down and hide. The smallest group will want to stand up to the abuse. None of these employees will have any real respect for the boss who relies on fear to lead, though, and the rupture and discord among them is a sure mark of a failure of leadership and an unhealthy workplace. Expect sinking morale, decreased productivity, and rampant turnover.

Most employees with any degree of self-worth will not derive much satisfaction or sense of accomplishment because they have pleased a boss whom they hold in contempt. Those who do, because they lack core integrity and/or resilience, usually end up complicit and conform to and reinforce the culture of dysfunction that emanates from such a boss. These same people, should they ever become bosses themselves, are almost guaranteed to replicate their erstwhile mentor's heinous behavior. Like most assholes, demon bosses beget demon bosses.

In fact, perhaps the special place in hell that is reserved for screaming bosses is a perverse replica of the hell they produced in their own workplace. Maybe, for some of the worst, they will end up with someone just like them or even themselves as their own boss!

In "No Exit," Sartre made the point that "Hell is other people." I posit that for the particularly pusillanimous class of hell denizens, the yelling bosses, maybe the most deserved and torturous hell is just other yelling bosses.