Yesterday’s New York Times article, The Bullying Culture of Medical School, should shake up everyone involved in the struggle to curb bullying. 13 years ago UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine incorporated policies and prevention techniques to curb bullying. Surveys in the 90s showed that 85% of third year medical students believed they were being mistreated. UCLA’s effort to stop and prevent bullying was broad and encompassing. Continue reading
Other industrialized countries have enacted workplace anti-bullying protections – some decades ago. Australia now takes the lead as it conducts an impressive inquiry into workplace bullying. Early testimony released by Australia says national legislation requiring employers to implement strong, clear policies is needed.
The following text is from the organization lobbying State by State for passage of their anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill:
…it doesn’t mandate the state to do anything and it has no fiscal impact, nor does it make employers do anything. If they want to be abusive then they operate under the threat of litigation. Which should scare them but truth be told it doesn’t scare them too much… Continue reading
I would give anything to have the U.S. replicate the broad national investigation of abuse in our work cultures that Australia is currently undergoing. [sign our petition] At least we can watch from halfway around the world and learn from information being presented. Because, one of the issues being discussed is that policies in the workplace need certain components if they are going to be effective. Unfortunately, here in America the most popular template for legislation, the Healthy Workplace Bill, doesn’t even require employers to put policies in place much less dictate that the point person for employees to complain to should be separate from HR. Hopefully that will change and the bill will be amended by some smart legislator before it passes. Continue reading
Browsing through the digital libray I found this great NY Times Career Couch column from way back in 2007 and it deserves another read especially if you’re starting to wonder if that boss of yours is a bully:
Q. Your boss regularly berates you in department meetings, and the behavior is starting to become offensive to you. What should you do?
A. Think before you act. John McKee, president of Four Windows No Walls Consulting, a consulting firm in Sedalia, Colo., says that although it is never acceptable for a boss to belittle employees, reacting emotionally can prompt you to do something you will regret. Continue reading
Four years ago workplace bullying was a phrase that few used or understood. Fast forward to today and a simple google search filtered for a 24 hour period brings up dozens of pages of results. Much of the time the term is inaccurately used and the information is outdated or without any real grounding. Unfortunately, when this information is repeated over and over it carries the weight of “truth.”
This site has always been dedicated to bringing forward alternative scientific and academically reviewed information needed to create the type of dialog that helps educate employees, employers, legislators, practitioners, union reps etc etc etc move toward solid solutions. We’ve joined forces with others to create a petition for national legislation (7500 signatures!), Wikis, videos, an International Facebook coalition and more. Our most popular blog posts are those that question proposed legislation and the way that workplace bullying is framed by advocates in the media. Surprisingly, most of that support comes from people involved in the movement. We also focus heavily on bringing forward the voices of targets in video and print. Continue reading
Recently a woman, I’ll call her Sue, contacted me to share her story of being physically harassed by an office thug. The public humiliation included a stinging verbal assault of lies that culminated in: “…and it’s not just me. I emailed everyone in the office and they all agree with me!” The power of that sentence was not lost on Sue. She knew that anything she now said about the incident to any of her co-workers would be perceived as coming from that far from equal framing: “defensive.” Continue reading
OUR BULLY PULPIT 