I’ve had great bosses and terrible bosses, smart bosses and dumb bosses. I’ve also had bosses who were thoughtful managers, bosses who were purposely forgetful, and bosses who were over-the-top political. There were ones I would run through a wall for, but also ones I would run away from if I saw them walking down the street. One was a model leader, a special guy I learned a lot from, while another was a thuggish bully who had no quantifiable skills except the ability to glower and intimidate. I learned a lot from him too.

But through it all, the good and the bad, the smart and the dumb, the special and the crazy, I’ve never seriously been tempted to take matters into my own hands and throttle my boss. I’ve been tempted many times, but never, ever, did I seriously think about strangling any of them—even though I had some pretty good motivation to do so.

That’s why I was  amused to see someone go over the edge and actually do it, as Houston Astros pitcher Shawn Chacon did last week when he tried to strangle Astros General Manager Ed Wade. I’m not in favor of violence to settle a dispute, but a Houston Chronicle story hit the issue square on the head when it asked, “Did Chacon just live out everybody’s favorite fantasy? Do worker bees everywhere secretly dream of whupping up on the boss?”

“ ‘People are laughing because it is a common fantasy,’ ” family therapist Tim Louis told the Chronicle. “ ‘They think, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to react in rage against an authority figure like a boss?” ’ … Louis said there’s nothing wrong with the occasional malevolent thought. But psychiatric treatment is called for when a person obsesses over a boss, makes a plan for how they might hurt him or fear they might actually do it.”

It’s unclear what Ed Wade said or did to set off Shawn Chacon, but Chacon was under a lot of stress because he had been pitching poorly, had just been demoted to the bullpen, and probably saw his major-league career slipping away. His attack on Wade, of course, only accelerated the process—he was released by the team after this incident.

But lest you think this is a one-sided situation, check out this blog post titled “Is Ed Wade a Saint in the Shawn Chacon Debacle? Signs Point to No.” Wade is known to have a temper, and he reportedly threw a chair against a wall, shattering it, when he was with the Philadelphia Phillies. There’s some thinking that Wade is not blameless in this encounter, given his temper and past behavior.

Here’s my take: Violence has no place in the workplace, and no matter what Ed Wade said or did, Shawn Chacon was wrong to take matters into his own hands, so to speak. That’s a sure way to lose your job in any universe. Thumping on the bad boss may be a workforce fantasy for many, but like most fantasies, it is one best left unfulfilled.