I never cease to be amazed when I hear staff speak of working under managers who are tyrants and bullies. I’ve heard staff describe their manager as speaking the corporate speak in public (or in earshot of their own manager) and trot out the usual thing – valuing their staff, importance of good management and leadership etc – yet outside of the peer-watched forum, do the exact opposite. Staff have described being hounded with unreasonable demands; having evidence of their manager deliberately lying to make themselves look good; taking credit for other people’s ideas or playing favourites; micro managing the competent and rewarding the incompetent with increased salary or conditions. So who monitors the senior managers? What systems do organisations have in place to get feedback from their staff, about their senior staff? And what would they actually do about it if they found senior staff who outwardly presented as paragons of best practice, were instead, tyrants and bullies behind closed doors? I despair when I hear staff question who would ever believe them if they indeed step forward and really said what was going on. Who monitors the milk monitors, I wonder?