Bullying at the workplace - how not to motivate your staff!

I've had a really rough day at work. The bosses had taken it upon themselves to get everyone standing up in the office until they sold something. This sort of practice died out in the 80's or 90's but according to the director this is perfectly acceptable to expect.

Thankfully my boss saw through the rubbish and didn't tell myself or my colleague to join in with this barbaric practice and abuse of authority. It's probably just as well as we would have flipped.

We instead left the office to visit the areas around us but the whole time we had our thoughts for those left behind. I was fuming and we made certain to do everything we could to not go back until we absolutely had to.

When we got back we saw everyone completely demoralised and demotivated by the experience. The stupid bosses were all congratulating themselves for their efforts to appease the director. It was totally callous and unfair treatment. Even one girl sold something and sat down but as it was something that was agreed yesterday but the confirmation only came through today she couldn't claim that as a sale and was promptly told to stand back up again.

Maybe somewhere someone thinks that this sort of practice is normal or acceptable and even offers a bit of an edge. It doesn't work though when you have to use the computer to send emails and so on. Sure it may motivate people to push harder to stop the punishment and sit down, but seriously, when we're used to being on our feet (as we're all field sales) it doesn't do anything other than frustrate and hinder us from doing what we need to do when we are in the office.

Needless to say, some girls were crying and everyone resented this practice. And if you look at the fact of what was sold and if indeed it resulted in anything bigger or better than usual, chances are it did absolutely nothing positive and actually made people less enthusiastic and unhappy at the workplace.

I swear, if they try this on and try to make me comply, they will regret it far more than me! I really want to leave this place more than ever now. I'd really like to see these incompetent members of staff leave or be caught out and fired for their inadequacy.