Boss chewed out our whole staff

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I work for a small organization. Our chairman called a staff meeting, came in in a nicely pressed suit and tie, and said we didn't make this year's budget, and that didn't sit well with him, and must never happen again, and things were going to change around here. Yes, we brought in more revenue than last year, but that didn't matter. He's used to always making budget, and was embarrassed to go in front of his board and say he didn't. I fully thought he was going to say we all need to start wearing suits and ties, but he didn't.

It was really weird. I know everyone at my company works their asses off. I believe he does too, but it felt like getting chewed out, like being on a football team with an old-school coach who thinks he can fire everybody up by going on a tirade. Everybody just sat there took it, and said, yay, we're so excited for the future.

I'm not sure what my take-away was supposed to be. Should I feel motivated? Because I don't. I already give 100%, and I'm damn good at what I do, and get a certain amount of respect for it. Do I just let it go and chalk it up to the boss being the boss? Cause the voice in my head says, what gives you the right to talk to me that way? Is this one of those things where you swallow your pride and man up, because keeping my job is the important thing?

Both supervisors I've had at my company have the same attitude. They never point out what you do right but turn into monsters when you make a small mistake that takes less than five minutes to correct. I feel so under-appreciated and like I'm just a slave to them. I honestly hate my supervisor.

Where ever you go, there they are. I've worked as a nurse all over the U.S. and the same torment I find in one place exists in all. You can't get away from it. At least I never did anyway. Some places were just tyrannical and the workers were just scared to speak their mind. I guess if you're not being fired just go with it.

Yeah I worked for a General Manager who had plaque of Vince Lombardi on the wall which was a clue about what he considered good leadership. I think Lombardi is a football coach. I'd have to look that up again.

I suppose the main thing I took from that was if I was a football player getting millions a year I'd feel more motivated to.

Anyway, raw effort is rarely the answer. Look at guys laboring on the shop floor and look their supervisor sitting in the office. One is working hard and one is working smart. Which one of these should a company try to emulate?

Thanks for all the feedback.

This is a non-profit? Sounds like the chairman is still in profit mode by raising the money bar then yelling at you for not getting all the additional revenue he demanded. In these time getting a new job is really easier said than done, so keep on doing what you do best and try for an outside chance of finding something better.

If the CEO is unhappy - that's just another day at the office.

The job of the person at the top is to constantly be pressing everyone underneath him to do better, while at the same time recognizing people when they do better.

Not making budget in a non-profit is a *huge* problem - and while you may not have had anything directly to do with that - everyone in the organization needs to understand that so that there's less resistance when mid-level managers start denying PO's.

There are two major types of non-profit organizations - charitable organizations which use public donations to perform some kind of public service; and co-op organizations which provide goods and services to customers, but don't charge more than is needed to keep the business running.

In a charitable organization, the effectiveness of the charity is measured by the amount of money they have going toward the cause they are set up for in relation to the money that is used to keep the organization going - thus, if more money is spent on the administrative side of the organization, the less effective it is and the less likely people are to make donations - which results in less money going to the cause.

On the co-op side - an increase in the operating costs of the organization means an increase in the price passed down to the customers, which means more people likely to abandon the co-op, which results in more increases in the price passed on.

There are also tax implications for non-profits that don't meet budgets, but I'm less familiar with those consequences. The reason budgets for non-profits matter much more than private companies is that non-profits are required by law to publish both their yearly budgets and quarterly financials - so any mistakes that are made are required to be published.

Your business failed in it's goal to make budget. You may have brought in more revenue, but if you didn't cover your costs then your loosing money.

You may be doing 100%, but others may not be.

It's just part of working for a business that measures success in revenue.

When I worked in IT, we got chewed out if our customer comments were not above 4.5/5. That's how we measured success.

I don't think your boss did anything wrong.

A person in authority has to be strict and disciplinary.
Otherwise people dont take them seriously.

Just ignore their comments and dont lament so much

I was totally degraded during my appraisal but i took it with a pinch of salt.
Hell with their narcissistic behaviour

I've been having some severe problems with my boss, resulting in panic attacks on my part, and having to drag in her supervisor (head of our division) to moderate.

My issues were EEO/discrimination-esque.

This issue with not making budget is an issue because when the boss doesn't meet his goals, it looks like/means he didn't do enough to motivate employees to make those goals happen. It's not a failure on your part, personally, but a failure on the part of the whole, of which you are a part.

It's one of those "grain of salt" situations, as I'm realizing with the mountains my boss has made of her own mole-hills. It seems to be an ingrained qualification of all bosses to approach reasonably fixable situations as though they are irreparable errors of catastrophic magnitude. I think it's part of their Micromanagement 101 textbook, which, much like modular arithmetic, has nothing to do with practical and successful management.

If I were you, I'd keep a personal accomplishment folder, so you can take that out, come review time, to show that you are on your game, meeting company goals, keeping within budget. Auties are lucky to see beyond the problem to the solution much more easily, when they understand all the variables. Take some time to learn the variables, just a bit each day. At worst, it will help you understand your business better. At best, it recommends you as a go-getter.

It depends on what "chewing out" means. To me, those words mean more than just reprimanding employees for not meeting expectations It means using words that were uncalled for, yelling, and humiliation. But that phrase could have been used in a different way here.