By Mary Helen Gillespie, Globe Correspondent, 9/1/02

Second of two parts.

Audit deadlines and certification signatures are the new benchmarks of managerial performance in this post-Enron environment. Executives, especially middle managers, are forced to focus on monitors and controls, with little time or energy to spare for strategic visions or executing change. It has become much harder to have fun at work. Result: There are a heck of a lot of folks who hate their jobs. You may be one.

Yet, despite the unstable working conditions, the psychotic boss, the loony customers, and a sickening sense of overwhelming despair, you don't move. You are too afraid to save your own life.

Cheryl Richardson knows this fear. And she also knows how to conquer it.

''Employees need to stop tolerating intolerable conditions. We need individual employees to force leadership to pay attention. And if it doesn't work, get out,'' said Richardson, a personal lifestyle coach and best-selling author whose latest book is ''Stand Up For Your Life'' (The Free Press).

A perfect example: Highly paid CEOs and other senior executives who mouth the value-rich words of the corporate mission statement but expect their subordinates to fudge financial statements, fire and hire illegally, or otherwise act inappropriately despite the organization's stated core values.

''One little act generally leads to another one. You can't see anymore that that's not OK,'' Richardson said.

This blindness allows others to condone the irresponsibility. Fear -- not only of the potential loss of income but also of the vast unknowns of the current job market -- makes it impossible for many people to quit in protest. Thus human behaviors that should be scorned are allowed to not only be accepted but embraced as ''normal'' within this morally flawed corporate culture.

''These fears are very real. But you do have the power to change. Don't confuse tough choices with no choices at all,'' Richardson said.

Let's look at the notion of choices. No one has the right to vent anger on another individual or publicly humiliate another individual. That's fairly standard behavior in most of society. Yet it is constantly and chronically violated in the workplace. Screaming tantrums, cruel taunts, venom-laced obscenities abound in certain employment circles. And to speak up against it invites a potential job risk.

Richardson said that if you can't afford to tell the truth and prevent others from treating you inappropriately, you need to improve your financial standing. How are you really living? A full life filled with love and laughter? Or a stressed existence driven by debts, credit cards, and other expensive lifestyle choices that provide little real value? If your family relies on your income, what choices are they making? Why should you be subjected to emotional and verbal abuse at work to pay for status symbols and other costly entrapments?

''When you allow people to treat you that way, you've given up your integrity. You're killing your spirit,'' she says. ''If you do not stand up for yourself, you continually commit acts of self-betrayal and you'll always look outside yourself. It's a vicious cycle. The lower your self-esteem, the more reliant you are on material things.''

It's this self-betrayal that keeps people stuck in unhealthy jobs at dysfunctional workplaces surrounded by a posse of jerks and losers. And the cost of the compromised self is much greater than any paycheck can cover.

''Little by little, it chips away at your innovation and creativity, which we need more than ever in corporate America,'' Richardson said.

Employees often think they have valid reasons to suffer in silence. They don't.

''You need to do something different,'' Richardson says. Get help and get moving. ''When you combine community with resources and action, miracles happen.''

Want more to hear more? Cheryl Richardson will speak at 7 p.m. on Sept. 10 at Arlington Street Church in Boston. Tickets and information: 617-536-7050, ext. 23.

Mary Helen Gillespie is president of Gillespie Interactive, a strategic management consultancy. E-mail her at mhg@gillespieinteractive.com.