Leading by Example May Turn Into Breaking the Law Yourself: The Workplace Bullying Risks of “Workaholic” Managers

“Is it wrong for me to lead by example and be the first to charge forward? Why is the Chief HR Officer warning me that this may create a risk of workplace bullying?”

A senior alumnus of mine, a sales vice president at a listed electronics company known for his outstanding performance and strict leadership style, asked me this question in confusion.

In fact, the most dangerous managers in the workplace are not necessarily those who are lazy or irresponsible. Sometimes, they are precisely the most serious, most hardworking, and most convinced that “if I can do it, you should be able to do it too.”

Last week, I already reminded everyone: “Stop using a Showa-era mindset to manage Reiwa-era employees!”

Many Showa-style male and female managers firmly believe in the management principles of leading by example and taking the lead themselves. They think that if they can challenge their own work limits, their subordinates should be able to do the same. If they cannot, then it must be the subordinates’ problem. With iron-fisted discipline and strict command, even unreasonable demands can, in their view, serve as a form of training that helps employees unlock their potential.

Workplace bullying tragedies often arise precisely from this kind of misplaced sense of era.

Keywords: Workplace Bullying Prevention, Boundary Between Management and Bullying, Awareness of Risk, Reasonable Direction and Supervision, Principle of Proportionality, Interference with Duties, Abuse of Power, Labor Law Compliance

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1. Leading by Example Does Not Mean Asking Subordinates to Follow Your Limits

Companies certainly need managers with strong work capabilities and leadership. However, from a legal perspective, the key issue is whether reasonable management conduct has exceeded the necessary and reasonable scope of business operations.

A manager may set high standards for themselves, but they cannot indiscriminately impose their own physical endurance, working hours, or emotional tolerance on all subordinates.

Management is not about reproducing another version of the manager. It is about enabling the team to complete tasks under reasonable conditions and within reasonable time limits.

2. Sending LINE Messages After Work Is Not Just Messaging; It May Become Digital Mental Pressure

Many managers may say, “I’m only assigning the task at night first. The employee can read it tomorrow.”

But in HR investigations, employees usually do not understand it that way. As long as the message comes from a superior, especially if it is frequent, urgent, or carries a blaming tone, LINE messages or emails may create long-term psychological pressure.

The manager’s convenience must not become the subordinate’s obligation to remain on standby.

Right to Disconnect

3. Reasonable Direction and Supervision Must Take the Person, the Matter, and Proportionality Into Account

Under the new legal environment, one of the most important things companies must retrain managers to understand is the need to reset the standard of “reasonableness.” It is not something the manager alone gets to decide.

For new employees, junior employees, newly transferred employees, or employees with special physical or mental conditions, work objectives, deadlines, and coaching resources must all comply with the principle of proportionality.

If there is no learning period, no explanation, and insufficient resources, yet the employee is required to meet the target immediately, such conduct can easily be legally evaluated as unreasonable management, or even as crossing the red line into bullying.

4. “I Was Trained This Way Back Then” Is Not a Valid Legal Defense

Many managers turn their past hardship into a management philosophy. They believe that refusing to give correct answers, repeatedly rejecting work, or deliberately withholding clear work objectives so that employees must figure things out themselves is a necessary path for cultivating the ability to work independently.

However, if a manager deliberately conceals key information, refuses to provide necessary guidance, or uses their position to obstruct an employee’s work, thereby placing extreme pressure on the employee’s physical and mental state, this is no longer merely strict performance management. It may fall within the risk category of workplace bullying through interference with duties.

5. Public Humiliation Is Not Motivation; It Is a High-Risk Legal Event

Words such as “brainless,” “poor stress tolerance,” “how dare you come to work with this level of ability,” or “so this is the standard of a National Taiwan University graduate?” may be, in the manager’s mind, nothing more than an emotionally uncontrolled remark caused by poor EQ.

But from a legal perspective, such words may constitute a form of workplace bullying involving personal degradation.

This is especially true when a specific employee is reprimanded for a prolonged period during a morning meeting, in a group chat, or in front of multiple people. The effect of humiliation is amplified.

In the future, when HR handles such cases, it cannot only ask whether the conduct occurred repeatedly. Even if there is only one incident, HR must still investigate whether the circumstances are serious.

6. HR Should Manage Evidence and Systems, Not Merely Emotions

When dealing with workaholic managers, HR should not merely advise them to “speak more gently.”

The truly effective approach is to establish auditable management rules: non-urgent matters should not require immediate responses after work; work objectives must have objective standards; rejected work should include clear reasons; performance coaching should be documented; and personal attacks must not be made in public settings.

The clearer the boundaries, the clearer the manager’s awareness of risk and sense of the times, and the safer the workplace will be.

7. The Best Management Does Not Make Employees Fear You; It Makes Them Trust the Rules

A manager’s authority should not be built on employees’ fear.

Truly mature leadership means focusing on issues, not people; using data, not humiliation; giving requirements while also providing resources; setting deadlines while also giving reasonable explanations.

Companies must pursue performance, but performance cannot be obtained through oppression. Managers may lead from the front, but they must not put themselves at legal risk.

In this new legal era, the most important task for HR managers is to separate “high performance standards” from “bullying risks,” so that strict management can stand firm both legally and morally.

A Reminder from Attorney Chen Yeh-Hsin

Managers who lead by example deserve recognition. But please remember: the law protects “reasonable management,” not the “duplication of a manager’s personal limits.”

After-work messages, excessive targets, public reprimands, and deliberate refusal to teach may all cause strict management to slide into workplace bullying.

HR should help managers build their requirements on objective standards, the principle of proportionality, and necessary coaching.

Leading people to complete tasks is management. Causing people to live in long-term fear and suffer harm may become a legal risk.