U. of Va. magazine editor commits suicide, blames bullying boss

Just a thought. An employer is legally required to provide a physically safe environment in which to work, no? At some point, if there is a "mentally unsafe" environment caused by bullying, should OSHA take a lead in tackling this?

I know that opens up a huge of worms but it's worth considering...

 

If you don't like an employee's work, set them up on a plan of improvement and go from there.

What pops into mind immediately for me is many coaches could be considered bullies, and a practice field in the pros, and in college, could be considered a workplace.

 

I can't believe the paper let him have all those weekends off.

 

Oh, the administration has a hand in this, too . . . whistling by the graveyard re the DB under discussion.

 

What are the things this guy did, slappy?

 

A different look at the tragedy, from someone who knew both men. Refutes the bullying angle.

http://www.observer.com/2010/media/tragedy-trend-story

 

From the story: "Paradoxically, as the magazine pulled in National Magazine Award nominations and critical acclaim, Mr. Genoways' relationship to his staff became increasingly toxic. Job productivity suffered and resentments accumulated, even though Mr. Genoways, Morrissey and Waldo Jacquith (the former Web editor of VQR, who told The Today Show that "Ted's treatment of Kevin in the last two weeks of his life was just egregious") were drawing a combined compensation of $320,000."

What the heck does the amount of money being paid have to do with someone being a lousy boss?

If there were resentments, and issues involving the boss and his employees, they should have sat down either together, or with the school's higher-ups, and hammered out their differences. They didn't, and Genoways just continued to be a lousy boss.

And complaining about his e-mail about the suicide being meant for friends instead of the employees is ridiculous at best. He should have just written, "I know we had our differences, but I'm horrified by his death, and I wish I could have had an opportunity to calm him down." Instead, he wrote the douchbag e-mail, and managed to make himself look worse.

 

A bitter mercurial micromanager. Had a particular fondness for pet stories. He'd been to the Philippines once, so every story about the country went on the front. He was born in Pennsylvania, so that was a pet. He liked Tom Monaghan, so Dominos was always on the front. Same with prostitution. He had a whithered arm, flipper for a hand and walked with a limp, so he compensated for his physical problems by being a class A bully.
You never knew who was going to show up. Follow his instructions to the letter and you'd be chastised for not thinking for yourself; deviate from his plan and you didn't pay attention.
His wife would call the office, you'd look and his office door would be closed. You'd relay that message and his charming wife would say "I know that. Now get him." His page critiques weren't geared to make your work better, they were for him to vent his spleen for whatever pissed him off on a particular day.
He forced good people out the door because no matter what hell awaited them in their next job, it was going to be cake compared to working with Joe M.

 

I loved working for the guy, but I think he he took a shine to me after I wrote the series about the door-to-door Filipino prostitutes posing as Dominos delivery drivers in Pennsylvania.

 

Only if they wore Imelda Marcos's shoes...