The Toxic Bully Boss: Echoes of American Slavocracy Tactics in Adverse Workplace Leadership Styles

Leadership is essential to making and establishing policies, directing and controlling environments, and influencing people to perform at a high level. Innovation awaits the proper balance of labor and motivation. When employees desire to perform at a high level of efficiency for the organization and are committed to making a living for their families, they should not be subject to abuse, harassment, or workplace stressors. Yet, many workers struggle with leaders who are toxic bully bosses.

Today's toxic bully boss is reminiscent of the 17th-century American slavocracy leadership tactics. Slaveholders valued the slave body, a source of enforced free labor, but convinced themselves the enslaved person's mental capacity was essentially nonexistent. Slaveholders maintained this mindset to control the laborers toiling in the fields and maintain their focus on agricultural productivity (Morrow, 2004). During the slavocracy, the fields were equivalent to today's offices. Notably, working conditions then were forced, while today's workers earn wages for their labor. Workers spend the majority of their waking hours at work. According to Hulin (2002), very few things “…influence … each of us, our families, our children, our values, or our status as much as the choice of a job or occupation” (p. 8). Leadership is at the forefront of decisions and policy implementations (Namie & Namie, 2009).

Leslie (2015) introduced nine tenets for leadership efficacy: “change management, inspiring commitment, taking initiative, building collaborative relationships, leading employees, strategic perspective, strategic planning, participative management, and being a quick learner.” Regardless of the leadership style in the 21st century, Leslie's tenets can help convert a toxic workplace into a productive environment. The following definitions provide clarification about destructive leadership styles.

Toxic bully bosses may exhibit any of these five distinct leadership styles that are detrimental to successful leader-employee relationships because of the destructive behaviors associated with each one: destructive leadership, tyrannical leadership, derailment leadership, supportive–disloyal leadership, and laissez-faire leadership. These leadership styles have the potential to destroy a person's humanity through the leader's abuse of power by conditioning, controlling, and diminishing the worth of those who work for them.

In the last 20 years, researchers of the toxic bullying-boss phenomenon, or workplace bullying, have seen a steep increase in the number of studies examining the relationship between workplace bullying and mental health. According to Conway et al. (2021), “Workplace bullying represents a powerful stressor and a severely traumatic experience that may profoundly shatter people's assumptions about themselves and the surrounding world” (para. 1). The effects of the actions of the toxic bully boss on an individual can include depression, anxiety, psychological distress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and burnout. The resulting damage to one's mental health can be debilitating. Consequences include sleep disorders, fatigue in women, lack of vigor in men, major depression, mood adjustment disorders, socioeconomic consequences, and even work-related suicide (Sansone & Sansone, 2015).

Self-preservation is the most critical lesson to embrace when working with a toxic bully boss. Just as one can examine the effects of a toxic workplace on a person's physical health, one must pay close attention to the effects of that environment on a person's mental well-being. One must create a space for building relationships and developing people to be courageous to take risks and increase the skills Leslie recommended. There will not be anyone coming to rescue followers; every ounce of energy followers have must be applied to elevating themselves above the conditioning and control of the toxic leader. If followers encounter a toxic bully boss, they must not make the mistake of thinking the bully boss will change, especially if the bully boss is not conscious of their transgressions. These types of leaders will not allow themselves to see past their gains. The longer the victimized employee is entangled in this labyrinth, the shorter their lifespan will be. The individual should never be afraid to speak out about abuse, harassment, or psychological warfare. If individuals do not give themselves a voice the world cries out. Moreover, followers should not make themselves small so that others may appear to be bigger (Williamson, 1989).

For more than 300 years, people have silently endured the toxic bully boss. Today, workplace victims still suffer from the abusive power of the toxic bully boss. The scars, pain, death, and memory should never be forgotten. All these significant factors inspire active and dynamic practices of social reconnection (Brown, 2009). If American corporations are to thrive, there must be a transformation from the old “us-against-them” mentality to a more wholesome environment of collaboration, communication, respect, and value. Dehumanization is a past practice that must be eradicated from all workplace environments. Leaders can inspire, lead, and transform cultures and organizations by seeing and respecting people as people. The connection among people can build a momentum that diminishes the power of the toxic bully boss, thus let everyone lift their voice, till earth and heaven ring (Brown, 2008).

Let us not continue the path of past leadership where the wounded are discarded without regard. Moreover, as Hulin (2002) stated, let us remember that work influences us more than anything; it is where we spend most of our time. Leaders must be more accountable and responsible in their interactions with employees (Pechan, 2021). While the toxic bully boss may not disappear, responsible leaders can change how they lead and develop others (Sippio, 2019).