Management is so bad at some workplaces that employees become ill from gong to work in an environment that a Danish expert calls Pathogenic Management.

“There are management types that actually directly result in employees becoming ill. And that is grotesque as management is supposed to do the complete opposite – make employees thrive, function and produce out of desire and commitment,” says Jørgen Krogh Larsen to Ugebrevet A4.

Complaints unheard

Krogh Larsen is an HR and personnel issues special consultant and has recently produced an analysis of management that is so incompetent that it results in employees being ill.

He mentions the example of a demanding, aggressive and manipulative hospital executive who constantly belittled and harassed employees who disagreed with him. The result was a terrible working environment, employees becoming ill and an employee drain.

Despite many complaints, the executive was not sacked for several years as he seemed to be a successful manager who was able to manage finances.

Psychopathic managers

“The primary job at a hospital is to cure people. But here was a director who showed such major psychopathic tendencies that he made his employees ill. Absurd,” Krogh Larsen tells A4.

According to A4 Denmark suffers from plenty of bad management. Last year the Working Environment Authority issued injunctions on 930 companies showing problems with their psychological working climate – almost twice as many as in 2007.