Social media and flexible work can save careers, new research shows

By Andrew Edelblum, University of Dayton; Ashish Kalra, University of Dayton; Na Young Lee, University of Dayton; Riley Dugan, University of Dayton, and Sangsuk Yoon, University of Dayton In today’s high-pressure business world, demands like meeting sales targets and managing customer relationships are challenging enough. But for some workers, the real battle is surviving the toll of an abusive manager. Toxic behavior from supervisors — including public ridicule, unfair blame and angry outbursts — can push talented employees to the brink, increasing the likelihood of disengagement and turnover. Just consider the quiet quitting phenomenon of recent years. As business researchers interested in workplace dynamics, we set out to look into these troubling trends. Our goal was to explore strategies for mitigating the harmful impact of so-called “jerk boss” behaviors, such as insulting employees as “soft” for declining to work weekends. Drawing from a survey of 237 business-to-business salespeople across multiple industries, our newly published work found two low-cost, high-impact remedies. The first is to encourage productive workplace social media use. The second is to offer flexible work arrangements. Social media as a support system In some workplaces, managers view workplace-based apps and larger platforms — like Instagram, LinkedIn and Microsoft...