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Companies Wake Up To the Problem of Bullies At Work (wsj.com)
Reader cdreimer writes: According to a report in The Wall Street Journal (possibly paywalled), two-thirds of Americans have reported being bullied in the workplace in the last year (up from half in 1989) and boorish behavior by bosses and coworkers are causing companies in lost productivity. The report reads: One of the first things visitors notice when they enter the Irvine, Calif., offices of Bryan Cave LLP is the granite plaque etched with the law firm's 10-point code of civility. The gray slab, displayed in the law firm's reception area, proclaims that employees always say please and thank you, welcome feedback and acknowledge the contributions of others. Such rules may seem more at home in a kindergarten than a law firm, but Stuart Price, a longtime partner, says they serve as a daily reminder to keep things civil at work. Incivility -- and its more extreme cousin, bullying -- is becoming a bigger problem in workplaces. Nearly two-thirds of Americans reported that they were bullied at work last year, up from roughly half of workers in 1998, according to research conducted by Christine Porath, a management professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. These people reported they were "treated rudely at least once a month" by bosses or co-workers in the past year -- which Prof. Porath defined as being bullied.Bullying costs companies in ways large and small, cutting into productivity and turning off customers, management experts say. Workplace behavior is under the microscope after recent allegations of sexual harassment in Hollywood, technology and media. Some companies have found, as a result of investigations into harassment claims, that bullying and boorish behavior are more common than suspected.
"treated rudely at least once a month" by bosses or co-workers in the past year -- which Prof. Porath defined as being bullied.
That explains the ridiculous result right there. In other words, a load of garbage.
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(This is a repost of a comment from a previous bullying discussion.)
If you've experienced workplace bullying first hand then you know what a destructive force it is. Your workplace becomes a place of dread and fear. The stress becomes not just a part of your daily life, but a part of who you are as a person. It changes you.
My own experience of being bullied began when I took a job with a company that had just promoted a long-standing employee in to a management position. He had no experience of managing people, he received no training, and he openly said that he didn't want the job. He was visibly stressed almost constantly, and resented that he was still expected to work and not just manage other people's work.
Very early in the job I was shouted at in the middle of a busy office for completing a task that should have been cancelled. It was a foul-mouthed and very personal tirade of abuse, accusing me of being untrustworthy, and came totally out of the blue. Then my manager realised that he had forgotten to mark the task as cancelled, and quietly in a private room away from other staff, he apologised and promised never to speak to me like that in front of people again.
The details of bullying incidents are generally repetitive and boring, so suffice to say, this was just the beginning of what became regular abuse: Shouted at in the middle of the office for things I had allegedly done wrong, and then apologised to in private.
I put up with the abuse for way too long. I'd spoken to my union rep and kept a bullying diary as advised, but I never started a grievance procedure. Colleagues said I should, and one day I ended up talking to the company secretary about it, but I backed off, determined to resolve the issue myself. Ultimately, I told myself, this is a case of two grown men having a clash of personalities, and I should be able to resolve it. But of course I couldn't.
After about a year I had to take time off work for an unconnected health reason, which seemed to go on a lot longer than one might expect. After a week back at work, I was off again with flu, which seemed to go on forever. My doctor was puzzled and I was sent to the hospital for tests. But in conversation with my doctor one time I mentioned about how it was actually quite nice to be off work because it was an escape from the bullying, and it was as if I'd said the magic word. My doctor was certain that the stress of being bullied was the root cause of my poor health. It explained everything. It turns out that a year of sleepless nights and constant anxiety isn't very good for you.
When I finally had to take formal action against my manager, the company was combative, and handled it on the basis that I was making it all up. I opted for the least "official" form of grievance, third-party arbitration, and my manager held his hands up to what he'd been doing and promised to change. Whether he could or not, I don't know, as I've not been well enough to return to work yet.
(Iâ(TM)ve since left that job and my career has gone from strength to strength ever since.)
Two thirds of American's are little bitches.
...Spain, where they have clearly defined legal definitions of what constitutes work place bullying. They also have industrial tribunals with the power to fine companies and award substantial compensation to victims (tens of thousands of euros) for letting work place bullying going unaddressed. For an employee to pursue a tribunal for bullying against their employer is also free, recognising the fact that things have to get really bad before the vast majority of employees will consider legal action.
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
But, "being treated rudely at least once a month" is NOT the same as being bullied.
Define "toxic". I have worked in numerous environments where superiors were blunt, curt, and insistent. That could easily be interpreted as rude behavior by some, but in many environments that increases productivity by "encouraging" people to be more efficient and more productive. Steve Jobs was famous for being someone unfun to work with.
If you're getting legit bullied by an entrenched malicious psychopath or sadist, don't go to HR. They're in management's pocket and probably know the person is a SOB anyway. Get a body cam. Record that motherfucker. Create a montage of his or her patterned behavior. When you've had enough, make it understood that social media is a very powerful tool.
People that are prone to be sensitive and have increased leverage for political correctness reasons are themselves frequently bullies. Anyone that has been 6 years old will remember the child that cried to get another child in trouble. Anyone that watches sports will be aware that on occasion someone will pretend to be injured to encourage a referee to punish the opposing team.
We all know this because I assume we've all been 6 before and are aware of professional sports to some extent.
This plays out in the work place in much the same manner in that some people will pretend offense or emotional injury for personal gain or to spite someone they don't like.
There is a movement to discourage awareness of this element of the work place. And while some feel this creates a more welcoming environment for people to express problems... it also encourages abuse by those that don't mind pretending to manipulate their coworkers and employers.
One must be skeptical and reasonable either way. If you get a report... use your best judgement and try to appreciate what is possible and what you know. Naturally you don't want a hostile work environment. But you also don't want a hair trigger whine fest environment because that is also quite hostile.
In the one case you have some bully beating people up for their lunch money... in the other case you have your little sister Susie pretending some imaginary offense to get your mom to punish you... yes... I am intentionally using childish analogies here to get the point across.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
The definition of "bullying" apparently meaning "being treated rudely at least once a month", with "rudely" apparently meaning "not saying thank you".
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
I mean REALLY Evil.
The most EVIL of all the Pizza toppings including the dreaded Anchovy.
Just because abusing people has benefits for the company doesn't make it right. The kind of environment you describe treats employees as disposable tools.
If also point out that it didn't prevent major gaffes at Apple anyway. It makes you wonder if engineers knew about things like the iPhone 4 antenna but didn't want to tell Jobs for fear of his reaction.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
There was one person in my company who I didn't report directly to, but who would publicly and loudly berate his staff whenever they did anything wrong. Messed up in any way? He'd loudly yell at you so that everyone could hear. I always dreaded when I had to deal with him out of fear of getting the treatment despite not reporting to him. I'd define that as a toxic work environment. Screw ups happen and sometimes an employee needs to be taken to task for it. But doing it as loudly and publicly as you can shows either a lack of basic empathy or a lack of caring about your employees.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Bullying, at least the schoolyard kind, has also spiked because of social media. When I was in high school, I was bullied mercilessly. A group of kids would follow me around taunting me and blocking my entrance to class. Individually, they would leave me alone, but in groups they got brave. This might not seem like much, but repeat this after every class. Every day. For three and a half years. I was getting paranoid to the point that I thought anyone who laughed was laughing at me. I never contemplated suicide or lashing out with mass violence, but had things tipped one way or another I can, in hindsight, see how it could have led there. (A friend of mine finally talked to them and they claimed they didn't realize what they were doing was hurting me because they were "just having fun.") The one solace I had during this time was that I would be left alone once I stepped off the bus and entered my house. The bullies couldn't reach me there. I was safe.
Fast forward to today. My son is entering high school. If he were to encounter a similar bullying group, the bullies could "follow him home" via social media. They could taunt him online or, if he's not on social media (which he isn't yet), they could set up fake pages purporting to be him and posting messages intended to embarrass him. Bullies today can wipe away any safe space that a bullying victim has and make their torment 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This means the bullying victim can reach the "lash out violently" or "kill themselves" point much quicker - especially if the taunting includes the bullies "having fun" by telling their victim to kill themselves.
Then there's the higher prevalence of reporting bullying. When I was in high school, my options to respond to my bullying were "shut up and take it" or "punch the bullies." They outnumbered me so I figured that fighting them would only wind up, at worst, with me beaten up and taunted for it or, at best, sent to the principals office (and taunted for that). So I kept quiet and took the abuse. Today, bullying is recognized much more as an issue and more outreach is done to let victims know they have a third option of telling an adult who can handle the situation.
I'll agree that the idea of "microaggressions" is garbage, but that isn't the only source for the spike in the rate of bullying.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Blaming such a large cultural shift on our presidents seems unfounded. Rather, you should probably blame our presidents on a cultural shift.
Very aggressive statement you made there. I'm frankly feeling a little bullied by you right now... this is not feeling like a safe environment.
Please watch your tone. You words scare me.
And if you don't find that credible... consider that you're arguing against yourself.
Its heads I'm right or tales you've contradicted yourself.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
You think a group of kids following someone around and taunting them is a "microaggression"? A microaggression is "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color."
These kids weren't just shouting one insult as they passed by me one or two times in the halls. They would follow me no matter where I went. If I tried to lose them in the crowd, they'd stick with me and taunt me for trying to get away. When they didn't follow me, they would go to my next class (which meant they needed to know my schedule) and would block my entry (letting other kids through). While I tried to push past them, they'd verbally abuse me more. They would do this EVERY day between EVERY class for three and a half years. That's classic bullying behavior, not saying something that was insulting to me without realizing it. For all their "we were just having fun" claims after the fact, they KNEW they were targeting me for abuse and actively engaged in this behavior.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Implying I don't understand it?
Not sure I have the time to write it alldown: But here's a taste.
I was an effeminate boy child. Silky hair, delicate features. Cried easily. Got to live pretty much from as early as I can remember until late high school being mistaken for a girl accidentally ("and what will your daughter have to order?") to constant, pervasive bullying.
How about getting on the bus as a FIRST grader, proud of the new hat I got for Christmas, only to have a senior high schooler tear it from my head? When the bus driver finally got it sent back up front, someone had scrawled FAGGOT indelibly inside it.
How about having high schoolers cruising town routinely scream "FAGGOT" and "BUTTFUCKER" as they drove by?
How about my first year in a new school, when the local bully targeted me (the kid who just moved to town) as his victim du jour? Constant, routine humiliation that school officials either couldn't or wouldn't stop? Ending in a set-up fight (I tried to run away, but of course that wasn't allowed by the onlookers there for a show!) after school one day that led to him publicly kicking the shit out of me?
Maybe understand that I'm not speaking from the position of an arrogant dick who's never been there. I'm speaking from EXPERIENCE about the only way that I escaped that cycle of victimization.
-Styopa