To deal with a boss that ridicules or intimidates you at times, the best strategy for employees is to retaliate against their bosses. As a result, employees experience less psychological distress, more job satisfaction, and increased commitment to their company, says a new study.

“Before we did this study, I thought there would be no upside to employees who retaliated against their bosses, but that’s not what we found,” said Bennett Tepper, professor of management and human resources at the Ohio State University in the US.

To a hostile boss, a reciprocating attitude appears effective. Employees feel better about themselves because they simply did not take the abuse, Tepper added.

An effective way to act is to return hostility by ignoring the boss or acting like they did not know their boss was talking, or giving only half of the expected effort.

The findings were published in the journal Personnel Psychology.

The research looked at data from two related studies the researchers conducted previously.

The first study asked participants to rate how often their supervisors did things like ridiculing them or telling them that their “thoughts and feelings are stupid.”

According to the results, when bosses were hostile but employees did not retaliate, workers experienced higher levels of psychological distress, less satisfaction with their jobs, and less commitment to their employer.

In the second study, researchers surveyed 371 people and the results showed that when employees returned hostility back to their bosses they were less likely to identify themselves as victims. Furthermore, they reported less psychological distress and more likely to be happy and committed to their jobs.

Fighting against your boos is a risky career move.

“But in our survey, employees did not believe their actions hurt their career,” said Tepper.