Wayne Hochwarter, a Florida State University management professor, wanted to test the theory that employees don’t leave their job or company, but their boss.

"How many people have switched companies and switched vocations because of a supervisor?" said Hochwarter, who with two doctoral students surveyed 700 people in a variety of jobs. "I think it's pretty common,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle.

The survey found that:
• 39 percent said their supervisor failed to keep promises.
• 37 percent said their supervisor failed to give proper credit, and 23 percent said their supervisor blamed others to cover up mistakes or embarrassment.
• 31 percent said their supervisor gave them the “silent treatment” in the last year.
• 27 percent said their supervisor made negative comments about them to other employees or managers.

Extraordinary hours and immovable deadlines — think April 15 — do not help.

"People are so focused on doing things now and beating deadlines that they're unwilling to think about empathy and what the other person needs," Hochwarter said.

Amy Joyce, columnist for the Washington Post, has written about the spillover effect of these so-called bully bosses, citing Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg, the ex-chief executive of American International Group Inc. who was ousted in 2005 after an accounting scandal. His fierce control, she wrote, caused everyone to cow in his presence. One D.C. area consultant with knowledge of Greenberg and those under him said he "was an extremely arrogant person. If you didn't go along with Hank, you knew about it. It was either Hank's way or the highway, and what Hank wanted, Hank got."

Bosses can go too far the other way by being overly chummy. “Tries too hard to be everyone’s friend,” is one of the top 10 “boss sins” identified in a survey of 900-plus employees by HR consulting firm Development Dimensions International and Badbossology.com. Bosses who micromanage, ignore conflict, are arrogant, wishy-washy, impulsive, impatient and stubborn are also top offenders, CNNMoney.com reported.

It’s no surprise that employees stuck in an abusive relationship were less satisfied with their job, but these workers also experienced more exhaustion, job tension, nervousness, depressed mood and mistrust, the FSU study said.

Hochwarter has also studied guilt in the workplace, and almost half of the 700 workers he surveyed said they felt guilty about the time they cannot spend with their families due to work obligations.

The harm of a bad boss is significant, but there are ways to cope, Hochwarter says. Stay visible at work, he advises, and try to look on the bright side: Few subordinate-supervisor relationships last forever.

Looking for a good boss? David Sirota, author of "The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want," told Fortune magazine that most workers have three goals. “First is fairness. They want to feel that they're being recognized and rewarded fairly for what they contribute. Second is achievement. People want to be proud of the organization and of their place in it. And third, camaraderie, meaning good working relationships and a sense of belonging to a team. If these three goals are met, you have enthusiastic employees.”