A post over at  the excellent Ask A Manager  blog caught my attention.  A manager blows up - in front of customers - to berate an employee for calling him to ask for a break.

We all know that there are some managers out there who are not up to their job. And there are many many examples of really bad behaviour from people in responsible positions. But there is something about this story that made me stop for a moment.

This manager screamed at the employee in front of the customers. By any standards that is both inappropriate and  - on the face of it - behaviour disproportionate to the incident itself. So of course, someone has to take this up with the manager involved because I suspect that their breaking point might just have been reached!

I posted about stress a couple of weeks ago. We all live with stress - it’s part of live - but when it becomes distress something has to be done.

Over the past few weeks of really confusing and downright bad news on the economy front most of us will have wondered what that means for us.  The wait to see if you will lose your job is really distressing.  But even if that is not immediately on the cards what about your partner’s job ? What about paying he mortgage? What about being able to pay for the food and fuel bills?  It seems like even those who had financial planning nailed are now finding themselves caught out.

So here is a call out for us all to pay a bit more attention to how our colleagues are right now. If you see signs of behaviour that is a bit out of the ordinary - be it shouting or being really quiet - note it. Offer a hand - or an ear.  It’s always a tricky call to decide if and when to get involved but if you feel you can do something helpful and supportive - please do - even if it is just to ask for advice from someone more experienced on how to help.