Not only can a toxic boss affect your wellbeing, it can also affect the wellbeing of families. A recent study from Baylor University published in the journal Personnel Psychology found that the stress and tension caused by an abusive boss at work filters through to an employee's personal relationships at home.

Author of the study, Professor of Management, Dr Dawn Carlson says,

"Our study showed how the job incumbent carries that over to the family through greater work-family conflict and by experiencing more relationship tension with the spouse. As a result this harms the family as the job incumbent is more tense and less able to engage fully in the family life."

Jo Lamble says the findings come as no surprise.

"We spend so much time at work, so if work is unpleasant, then it will affect our mood and can make us irritable and intolerant when we get home," she says.

"Many people who work for a bad boss will feel the need to vent about it when they come home, which can become very tiring for the family who start wishing you would talk about anything else."

Annabel* was working as an Executive Assistant for what she says was the 'boss from hell'.

"It severely affected my ability to go to work and I ended up taking two weeks stress leave, I had also started a new relationship with my current partner and it put a great strain on things," she says.

All studies put the onus for fixing the problem on the organisation. Dr Dawn Carlson says,

"The implications are for individuals and organisations to realise that abusive supervision has far reaching effects beyond just the job incumbent. This compels organisations to do something to put a stop to this kind of abusive behavior from occurring."

But these are the same organisations that hired and promoted the abusive boss. Some advocate trying to speak directly to the abusive boss or taking the problem to higher management.

Robert Sutton, professor of management at Stanford University, and author Good Boss, Bad Boss, thinks bad bosses are immune to their own weaknesses. He believes that there is even stronger evidence now that if you wield authority over others, it dulls your ability to be in tune with their needs, feelings, and actions and what it's like to work for you.