Hey boss, have you been working out?

I used to work in a university library for two years. We used to rotate duties, like working front desk, taking new books and shelving books. When we shelved books, there was one section in particular we hated shelving, because it was always a total mess. No matter how many times we fixed it, within hours it was MESS again. Total mess. Books on the floor, books strewn everywhere, just left there, cos muggins will clean it up.

That section was Dewey Decimal System 658.8. Management. Despite leaving that job 7 years ago, and having later worked in a medical library with no management books, and that used Library of Congress classification (the one with a mix of letters and numbers) that 658.8 is seared into memory.

I always wondered what sort of dickheads studied business & management. Apparently the kind of dickheads who'll throw books on the floor when it'd be easier to put them on the shelf. I theorised that this was them in training for being ballbusters. Making a mess and getting a skivvy to clean it. That was my pop-social-theory anyway. I like to think there's a kernal of truth to it.

In addition to wondering what kind of wanker studied management, I wondered what these books contained. They looked mind-numbingly dull. I knew the content HAD to be reactionary shite. Aimed at making it easier to fuck over workers, as management does.

I could never quite bring myself to read more than a few sentences. Today I came across a recent study that may end up in these books. According to this new study in Journal of Business and Psychology, bosses who exercise tend to be less mean to their employees. How gracious.

The study, "Supervisor Workplace Stress and Abusive Supervision: The Buffering Effect of Exercise", surveyed 98 MBA students who also have full time jobs, a representative sample if ever I seen one, don't we all do MBAs!? That's unfair though, since I'm not even interested in critiquing the methodology, it may even be sound, within their parameters.

The MBA students had to rate how their bosses or supervisors treated them, by responding to statements like "[my boss] puts me down in front of others." Their respective bosses had to report their stress levels and their own exercise patterns. When compared, the bosses who exercised were percieved of as less abusive than those that didn't exercise, and just one or two days was sufficient. The bosses that exercised reported similar stress levels as those that didn't. The authors summarise - “Our study supports a link between supervisor stress and employee perceptions of abusive supervision, but this is a link that can be loosened if supervisors engage in moderate levels of physical exercise.”

I'm not interested, because I don't care about 'nice bosses'. It may even be true that bosses who pump iron, jog or do yoga are 'nicer' to workers. I don’t know about you, but I have hated pretty much every boss I’ve ever had. The problem is not the type of boss. It is the fact they exist at all.

Sure, I’ve definitely had some that were worse than others, but there is no ‘cool boss’, there is no ‘alright boss’. I don’t even like ‘joking’ with my current boss, or, for example. discussing ‘the sport that all men must like’ with him.

The problem is all bosses. Young, old, tall, short, male, female, fat, thin, black, white, straight, gay – I hate all bosses. Studies like this I imagine fill those books that I so despised shelving. When we take over the libraries, these will be the first books for the shredder.

Scientific American’s take on the study is quite positive: 'So next time you feel like telling your boss to take a hike... it might actually be sound advice!'

And how about if I tell them to go fuck themslves?