BY DOUG ADAMS

The Internet advertisement asks, “Boss, Jerk, Tyrant, Idiot, Clod, Creep, Dictator – Do you know someone like that? Of course you do. Did you tell them off? Of course not. Now, we’ll tell’em off for you! That’s right. Tell us what you want to say and we’ll say it over the phone.” The offer goes on to say that, “We’ll keep your identity secret and tell you how the jerk reacts if you like.”
In Ontario workers have access to a Bad Boss Hotline. At inception this service is reported to have received in excess of 2,000 calls in less than four months. Worker complaints are forwarded from the host sight, The Employment Standards Work Group, to the Ontario Federation of Labour. The OFL in turn reports the alleged employer abuse to the Ministry of Labour for adjudication. To “get the word out,” Bad Boss meetings are being held across the province. Employees are informed that, “To find out about the next Bad Boss Buster meeting in your area, call The Bad Boss Hotline at 1-800 .....”
Disgruntled workers are now able to tell-off the boss under the cover of anonymity or make accusations under the protection of bureaucratic agencies. Victims of workplace oppression who cower under tyrannical taskmasters have a means to vent their anger, a funnel for their frustrations, an anonymous avenue for redressing grievances.
Are nameless telephone calls from hired agitators and bureaucratic notifications which are the result of solicited complaints a sign of the times? If so, perhaps a visit to an earlier time in Southern history, a time largely devoid of our modem technologies, is in order.
With or without technology, bad bosses have always been bad communicators. Bad news rarely comes from a bad boss. It is generally overheard or communicated from secondary sources. The grapevine precipitated a famous confrontation between Nathan Bedford Forrest and his commander, Braxton Bragg. Word reached Forrest that Bragg, a charter member of the Bad Boss Hall of Fame, planned to relieve him of his cavalry command. Fortunately for those who revere Southern lore, Forrest had no “Bad Boss Hotline”, nor was he inclined to confrontational anonymity. What he had was a temper.
According to an eye witness, Forrest proceeded directly to Bragg’s tent. It is says that, uncharacteristically, Forrest did not return the salute of Bragg’s sentry. One can surmise that the preoccupation of the cavalry commander overrode his sense of military protocol. Upon entering Bragg’s quarters Forrest declined to shake the hand which his superior offered. In refusing the handshake Forrest stated that, “I am not here to pass civilities or compliments with you but on other business.” After listing a series of grievances Forrest concluded his audience with Bragg by saying, “I have stood your meanness as long as I intend to. You have played the part of a damned scoundrel, are a coward, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it. You may as well not issue any more orders to me, for I will not obey them, and I will hold you personally responsible for any further indignities you endeavor to inflict upon me. You have threatened to arrest me for not obeying your orders promptly. I dare you to do it, as I say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path it will be at the peril of you life.” Because it was well known that Bedford Forrest was neither prone to idle threats nor a stranger to the terminating lives, Bragg did not pursue matters.
“Bad Boss Hotlines,” and anonymous “Tell ‘em Off’ telephone calls compared with the steely stare and fiery temperament of the man his enemies called “the Devil Forrest”? The diabolical eyes of Forrest, fixed on an adversary being demeaned with the challenge, “. . . if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it” as opposed to a toll-free tattle-tale hotline or the nameless “tell-off” call?
The heritage of the Old South is fancied as Forrest warning Bragg that to “cross my path” will be, “at the peril of your life.” Will the legacy of the our modern age be the unidentified caller “telling-off the boss” or the unknown submission to the “Bad Boss Hotline”? God forbid! Between what might be classified by those disposed to political correctness as verbal assault in the workplace, a la Bedford Forrest, and the anonymous tell-off phone call, one would hope to find a balance. While reasonable prudence eliminates the emulation of Forrest, surely moderate fortitude and average forthrightness would serve to limit anonymous calls and unsigned complaints to none but All-American “wimps.” The venerable General Nathan Bedford Forrest might well surmise that one who engages in anonymous tell-off calls and Bad Boss Hotlines has, “played the part of a damned scoundrel,” is “a coward,” and should have his jaws slapped and be forced to resent it. DBJ

(Doug Adams is Director of Industrial Training at Mississippi Delta Community College.)