A Survival Guide to Managing Employees from Hell: Handling Idiots, Whiners, Slackers, and Other Workplace Demons

Chapter 24. Over a Barrel

What happens when an employee who has been given increased responsibility uses the new position of power to demand even more? What if that employee thinks this position can be used as a negotiation ploy to seek increased compensation because of feeling that he or she has been underpaid or undervalued? Are such tactics fair, or are they taking advantage of the situation? While some employees may see tactics as part of the game to get ahead, employers may be much less receptive, feeling they are placed in a squeeze by an unscrupulous employee. They feel such tactics are akin to extortion or blackmail; they feel that they are being put “over a barrel.”

That’s the situation Chad, the owner of a game and toy manufacturing company, ...