Can your boss yell at you in front of other employees?

Brad Nakase, Attorney


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We can agree that no one likes a boss yelling at you in front of other employees. Work can be pretty stressful at times. Projects may be piling up, and sales goals may be missed. Depending on the structure and leadership in your organization, you might come across a boss or supervisor who is so aggressive that he prefers to communicate by yelling. This may seem undesirable or even the wrong way of communication to any person. But can your boss yell at you in front of other employees?

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Yelling at employees is not something that automatically makes someone a better supervisor or leader. A boss yelling at you in front of other employees will deflate an employee’s self-esteem at work.

The Harvard Business Review noted in an article that some of the great business leaders of our time, such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Steve Jobs of Apple, have a reputation of being yellers. These bosses yell at an employee in front of other employees.

It was also noted that “the notion that raising one’s voice represents a managerial weakness or a failure of leadership seems to be prima facie nonsense. The empirical fact pattern suggests that in a variety of creative and intensely competitive talent-rich disciplines around the world, the most successful leaders have yelling as both core competence and a brand attribute.”

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