'Hit The Target, Keep Your Job. Hit The Target, Keep Your Job'

The boss who brought his hunting rifle to work and pretended to fire at staff to make them work harder ?

Or the 'leader' who forced staff to scrub the toilets after she sacked the cleaners to save money ?

Or the clown who chanted to staff: 'Hit the target, keep your job. Hit the target, keep your job' ?

Or the bloke who cut staff hours and pay, and then boasted to employees about how he was using his bonus to do up his house ?

According to a survey of 1,600 people published Monday by the Keep Britain Working campaign, these are just some of the 'motivational' tricks UK bosses are using these days to get 'more' out of their staff. And unfortunately, UK financial services bosses appear to be getting worse in the motivational stakes as the recession deepens. The survey suggests that 39% of bosses have increased their propensity of blaming others for their problems, 36% appear indifferent, 26% have gone to ground and are pretending that nothing is happening, and 17% are 'motivating' their staff by raising their voices and screaming at employees. Overall, 56% of financial services bosses are said to have got worse at motivating their staff since the recession began.

James Reed, founder of the campaign, said: 'Bosses need to realise that they have a huge effect on those around them, and that no matter how they feel, their first responsibility is to do more to motivate staff'.