Would you shout at your subordinate in public for her/his mistakes?

You appear a reasonable person and it is a positive trait. PS - check yr PM.

Me too. I would take a bit of time to cool down so other people won't be affected by my anger.

That's an interesting observation. The comments I would hear from others is that she couldn't understand instructions, yet when she was transferred to another department under a different manager, she didn't seem to have any problem at all with her new manager. So I really found that weird. I know that sometimes it was kinda hard to make her understand sometimes but she probably just needed to be coached a little about what she was supposed to do instead of expecting her to quickly understand everything in a short period of time. Plus, what's adding to that is she has never been liked by the supervisor outside of work, so this kinda gives her more reason to easily pick on her subordinate's mistakes.

Yes, spot on. The supervisor did tell us before that she was bullied by other kids in school before but said that she has learned to fight them and not get intimidated by them. She basically thrived on her own in high school, her mother didn't know how to read so she had to learn to read on her own. She had to work part time also and in college got a scholarship to the US. Somehow a part of me wasn't surprised when I heard that story from her. She kinda grew up in an environment where she felt like she needed to defend herself and struggle to become a better person. I see nothing wrong with that, it's just that I find a bit of arrogance in her sometimes.

Yes, I'm sure she has some arrogance to her, like she is better than other people because she is a survivor, she is probably one of those types of people that feels like she is the only person in the universe who has ever overcome difficult times. She feels that most other people are weak compared to her. What she needs to realize is just because someone does not openly broadcast all the trials and tribulations that they have personally been through does not mean that they themselves have not overcome great odds and obstacles, it's just that they have chosen to be quiet about it. This sup is probably more than a little bit jealous too, of people that she thinks did not have to struggle as hard as she did. She might feel jealous because she thinks others have had an easy life compared to her, while hers was so hard. She probably wonders why was she born into an environment where she had to struggle so much. But, even though she probably feels jealous of a lot of people, she feels superior to them. Superior (arrogant) because she thinks that she is stronger than they could ever be. She probably constantly thinks to herself, "They could never do what I have done!"

You're right. I remember this saying that people never forget how you make them feel, so it's best to settle and talk things over with a clear head.

That's good to hear. I admire people who can take things objectively professional-wise.

I agree with you. I do notice that trend often with myself and with other coworkers as well not only in this job but in previous jobs as well. I do notice that some of those supervisors who were promoted from the lower rank tend to be more understanding with what their subordinates are going through compared to those who were just assigned the job out of vacancy.

Definitely. In the army I can understand why shouting is allowed.

Yeah, some of them are shouted at and some aren't, even if both groups did errors too. Some employers have already resigned because of that kind of behaviour from that person, though they would never openly admit it of course. And to think that supervisor did study Psychology in college. So weird. I understand that one could lose patience with people they don't initially like and still don't like presently. Still it's no excuse.

I have actually been shouted once over the phone by my boss too. I felt really bad that day, like the whole day, to the point that I never wanted to wear the same blouse I wore that day. I just gave it away to my sister.

Ya pointing fingers should be avoided. There was this one ex coworker who had worked for the company for 16 years, some erroneous story about the location of the spare parts was told by one department head and he told the general manager about it. Apparently the general manager believed his story and the ex coworker was made to choose between being demoted to another department or resigning. He chose to resign.