Does your boss like public reprimands? How do you handle it?

If this occurred, I would wait until later, and then go to his or her office and say, “I would prefer that if you have feedback on my performance that you call me into a conference room rather than give it to me in a public setting.”

Will it help? Probably not with the type who would do that in the first place, but one can but hope.

I assume you mean your boss reprimanding you, not you reprimanding your boss.

I have no respect for any boss who reprimands in public. It is shameful and a dirty trick to pull, and shows that the boss has no respect or consideration for the employee. Back when I worked at McDonald’s an event like this occurred, where another manager chose to yell at me (I was a manager too, she had been there for longer though) in the middle of the cash register area where all the customers and workers could hear and watch. It was completely humiliating and I was absolutely furious with her behaviour. So I went and talked with the head manager of the store, who apologized profusely to me for her actions, and asked the manager for her resignation that day. The way the king boss handled the situation really highlighted the differences between a shit boss and a great boss, and I am glad to say I’ve never had to deal with a shit boss since that fateful day.

I’m in an enviable position now where my boss is one of my best friends at work and also a person who really understands me. I can’t imagine him ever reprimanding me, let alone in public.

That said, I think the way dynamic duo handled her public reprimand was successful. You should probably try discussing it first with the boss who is at fault, then if you get no satisfaction, go one level up and see if you are heard.

It shows abysmally poor people skills. I doubt I’d work for such a boss in the first place; if somehow that happened, I’d have my resume sent out and my friends all notified that I was looking for a new position before I got to work the next day.

As my mum always says, “Praise in public, correct in private.”

No. She actually knows what she’s doing.

Some bosses actually think such a thing makes them look GOOD!

They are wrong.

It makes them look terrible. Especially if they shout. Then your building neighbors wonder about calling security.

It makes me hate corporate types. This kind of behavior is prevalent here in Arizona, I wish we had a union.

Hey, if they like public reprimands, I say take it to ‘em.

That’s what I always seem to do.
But in a friendly way, of course.
At least from my point of view.

I have had such a boss. Though he never reprimanded me, he did so to field employees in the middle of the office where everyone could hear it. Yelling, insulting and cursing were routine during these events. It was extremely uncomfortable. So much so that I spoke to my boss in private, and asked that he not do it again. He became angry with me, and told me that as the owner of the company, he’d conduct his business any way he damn well pleased. I conceded that he was indeed correct on that point, but I wanted him to know how it was affecting morale in the company. He basically threw me out of his office, but he never did it again. (At least not within earshot of me.)

@augustlan, I think you hit the nail on the head. The most effective people with a boss like this are NOT the people being abused but the people WITNESSING it. Unfortunately, the people not getting the abuse are usually too scared to say something lest they be abused as well. But I definitely think that’s the way to go, i.e., if a “witness” can say “Hey, the whole office reacts negatively when you do this to Joe”, that can be effective. Also, unfortunately, the boss’s yelling at Joe often makes people think if they agree with the boss that Joe is a jerk, they’ll be in good favor with the boss. So Joe is treated like a jerk by them as well.

It can only be effective if the person is willing to listen to the witness and can trust in their opinion. If Augustlan had been a temp staffer or a new girl, her comments could have been taken far worse than if she had been with the company for a while and the boss had built up a measure of trust or respect for her opinion.

True.