Author Archives: bullyinworkplace

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About bullyinworkplace

I am currently working on two documentaries. One involves both a traditional documentary about the devastating impact of Workplace Bullying and a transmedia project that turns it into an interactive web-documentary . The other more traditional project is about Maria Martin's groundbreaking work to train indigenous Mayan journalists in Guatemala who risk their lives to link their remote communities to the global dialogue. My documentaries have been broadcast internationally, and screened at major festivals including; HBO, PBS The Sundance Channel,The Sundance Film Festival, Human Rights Watch, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art,The Walker Art Center, The Warhol Museum, The Kitchen. 71 West Broadway: Ground Zero, New York, NY was selected as part of the memorial presentation at the Library of Congress, which has included it in the national 9/11 film archive. Portions of Invisible Revolution, were featured on ABC’s 20/20, Dateline, and HBO specials on domestic terrorism.

Suing A Bully Boss

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[This is Part I of an excerpt from Janice Harper’s new book, Mobbed! A Survival Guide to Adult Bullying and Mobbing. Harper advises against suing — but if you find yourself in that situation she offers advice that may well help you understand what’s happening to you. Part II will continue with how to prepare. These are just excerpts, her book goes into much greater detail on internal & external investigations, coping tactics, new ways to understand what’s happening to you and much much more. Let us know if it helped you… ] Continue reading →

15 Years Later: Harassment Laws Still Broken

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March 8, 1998 the Washington Post published an Op-Ed in response to a Supreme Court decision, Oncale v. Sundowner. Sadly, the essence of this Op-Ed still resonates today: “Predicating harassment suits on discrimination is also something of a mismatch; what bothers people about abusive workplace conduct, after all, is not the fact that it may be discriminatory but that it is abusive in the first place… Congress should decouple Continue reading →

SEIU Uses Workplace Violence Policy To Stop Bullying

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What’s the best way to address workplace bullying?  California’s largest union (SEIU 1000) decided to do it by simply expanding the workplace violence portion of their Dignity Clause (See documents below). Each state department is required to maintain and distribute a “workplace violence & bullying” policy to their employees.  Just north of us, Ontario Bill 168 does the same thing. Unions have played an historic role in America as the advocate for the voiceless worker and this of course begs the question – why haven’t union leaders made this case to legislators to follow Ontario’s lead in using workplace violence as the basis of legislative protection for millions of suffering workers? Continue reading →

Bullied or Mobbed at Work? Read The New Survival Guide

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 Mobbing isn’t the same thing as bullying. It’s bullying run amuck, sweeping good people into an atmosphere of fear, rumors and lies, where group psychology takes hold.  Bullying is an interpersonal conflict between two people, or one aggressive individual against a few.  But mobbing is the aggression of a group of people against an individual.  It’s not a fair fight.  It’s not even a fight.  It’s an execution. — Dr. Janice Harper, author MOBBED! A SURVIVAL GUIDE TO ADULT BULLYING & MOBBING Continue reading →

AOL CEO: “at a human level it was unfair”

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Imagine 1,000 people listening in as you get sacked. If you haven’t heard the audio tape of AOL’s Chairman, Tim Armstrong, sacking an employee during a teleconference call you can hear it for yourself [ UPI link]. Armstrong has since apologized not just to Abel, the employee he fired, but everyone in the company. CNN Money posted his memo: “…I am writing you to acknowledge the mistake I made last Friday during the Patch all-hands meeting when I publicly fired Abel Lenz. It was an emotional response at the start of a difficult discussion dealing with many people’s careers and livelihoods. I am the CEO and leader of the organization, and I take that responsibility seriously. We talk a lot about accountability and I am accountable for the way I handled the situation, and at a human level it was unfair to Abel. I’ve communicated to him directly and apologized for the way the matter was handled at the meeting…”   Continue reading →

Why me? How Gender Impacts Targets of Workplace Bullying

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definition-150x150I’ve been hosting discussion groups and interviewing targets of workplace bullying for over 7 years and most victims of abuse really want an answer to what is no doubt the hardest question of all: why me?  An excellent article by Salin & Hoel in the new Journal of Managerial Psychology argues that part of the answer may be linked to how differently men and women perceive the severity – and definition – of bullying: Continue reading →