Why do you think your boss is disallowing office chit-chat? Has there been reason in the past for him to take such a strong stance, or is he simply over-controlling and distrustful? I ask because his behavior does seem a bit extreme and I’m wondering if something caused this?

In regards to the legal question, there’s a big difference between what is illegal and what is just plain unfair. The fact that your boss treats ALL employees similarly, equally good or equally bad, usually does not give rise to a discrimination case. It just means you have a bad, and perhaps paranoid, boss. I do have one consideration for you, where your boss may be overstepping the bounds of lawful behavior: The National Labor Relations Act, a federal law that covers unionized and non-unionized private workplaces, and many states’ laws, make it unlawful to curb employees’ right to engage in “protected concerted activity.” While a boss may keep employees from discussions that distract from work being done, a boss generally cannot limit an employee’s ability to discuss the terms and conditions of work, e.g., salary, benefits, safety issues, in non-working time. In other words, employees have the right to gripe on their own time (during breaks, at lunch, and after work). What this means for you and your fellow employees is that your boss cannot disallow socialization and discussions regarding the conditions of work during your breaks and at lunch, but he can do it while you are working, as sad as that may be.

With that said, such demands on the part of your boss can create an unfavorable work environment for everyone and eventually lead to low morale, a lack of motivation, and bad attitudes amongst the workforce; all factors that will end up hurting your boss in the long run. Hopefully he will come to this conclusion on his own, but don’t count on it.

My first suggestion would be for the group to raise this concern to your boss at the next staff meeting. I mention this because he needs to have the opportunity to hear the concerns and reply to them before you do anything else. Who knows, you might even get lucky and be able to convince him to lighten up on the chit-chat restriction.

If he is not open to changing his ways and/or negotiating with you and your coworkers (i.e., in return for lightening up on the chit-chat restrictions, each of you will promise to be productive, efficient, and get all of your work done in a timely manner, etc.), then let him know that you intend to escalate this issue to his supervisor and/or HR. By telling him your intentions, you show him that you mean business. Of course, before you do this, you’d want to decide as a group if this issue is truly disturbing enough that you’d be willing to take it to his boss and/or HR? If it is, then you know what to do. But, if it is more of an annoyance than anything else, you may want to still bring it up as a group to him but not push it if he is resistant to the feedback. To me, you have to choose your battles and this may not be one of them. Your call. Beginning December 4th, you can call the Ask Dr. Mac talk radio show with any other concerns by going to www.latalkradio.com.