Recently I had the (dis)pleasure of hearing an employeer tell me that they had intentially tried to make an employee mad. Why would someone do this? I implored them to realize that it was not right in any way to provoke your own employee.  I felt very upset over this, given that the person involved was more than 10 years younger than the manager.

Had the employee done anything wrong? I had asked myself the question for a week, asked friends and bounced the situation off a lot of websites. In the end I concluded that in fact the employee did nothing in public to suggest that the reason the manager gave me. Intentionally trying to make the employee mad is not only bad, but makes someone appear liable if that employee decides to crash their car and kill five people.

Why did the manager do this? I asked this question the most in the last week and have only the manager’s own explanation as to why. I examined the accusations and can find no fault by the employee, yet only reckless libel laced behavior by the manager.

If you are a manager, take some tips from Casey Hawley who wrote these ideas:

1. Your employees are not going to talk to you about faults.
2. When you think an employee is truly trying to make you mad, write a letter in his or her point of view. After you are done, you might see how paranoid you really are and what a fool you could have played the part of.
3.  Do not clip people when they talk, give appropriate time for a response. No matter what do not ever talk over people. If you think you do not do this, ask a friend or an employee if you do. Listen to both of the people you ask and wonder why one told you that you don’t.

In the end, the only employee that tries to make you mad is the one you already did that to. I’m glad that if you’re a manager and you’ve read this article this will never happen to you. I am the employee in Hawley’s book that cannot get an appropriate response from his employer. Taking my frustration out on a blog is the better route for anyone when anger is an issue, even if you do not feel angry. Take it easy on the little guys that work for you and for everything Holy: do not ever try to provoke an employee into anger.