Category Archives: Harassment_news_Info

When Bosses Are Bullied

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We all know it exists.  The co-worker that just makes their boss’ life miserable and meetings are power struggles that hinge on games meant to humiliate the manager and make them look foolish.  Or the employee refuses to provide important information or perform a task on time in order to sabotage their Boss and make them look inept to their superiors.   Maybe the employee’s ideas weren’t implemented or they don’t like the performance review they received.  Maybe they don’t like authority.   Groundbreaking research in this area shows that the impact is the same.  The study below found that: “Over half of the interviewees (including most of the managers who experienced an experience of upwards bullying) reported an increase in stress, along with anxiety symptoms such as shaking and sleeplessness. Interviewees also reported experiencing anxiety attacks and clinical depression.” Continue reading →

How Should We Protect Offices From Workplace Shootings?

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News reports reveal that weeks before the “Dark Knight Killer” murdered 12 innocent victims, his psychiatrist told the “the Threat Assesment” committee at the University of Colorado that Holmes was a possible danger to the campus community.  But, since Holmes dropped out of school at about that same time, the alerts to the danger he posed fell through the cracks.  The debate now begins about what the University should or could have done to prevent the tragic deaths we morn as a nation.  Shortly after Holmes’ senseless masacre a Maryland man was arrested for making general threats that he too was “the Joker” and, with a substantial arsenal sitting in his home, that he would shoot up his workplace.  He will soon be freed on a misdemeanor.  Here is a reprint of a CNN news report that raises serious issues and concerns about how workplace violence can be assessed and prevented: Continue reading →

“Arrogance” in the Workplace

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“We are living in the age of arrogance”

Stanley B. Silverman says he was intrigued with the idea of measuring the level of arrogance in the workplace.  Silverman, Russell E. Johnson and several Colleagues came up with the 22 item WARS scale to define these behaviors and the result is both fascinating and confirmation of what many of us have always suspected. The higher the level of arrogance the lower the level of performance, self-esteem and humility. At the core of the arrogant boss is the idea that they need to make sure that “their candle burns brighter” than anyone else by making “everyone else’s look smaller.” In a real life replay of the emperor’s new clothes, messengers are destroyed if they don’t tell these bosses what they want to hear – even if it actually destroys the business. Continue reading →

University Workers Complain Workplace Bullying Policies Fall Short

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When Policies Don’t Work

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 →

What Resources Best Prevent Workplace Bullying?

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Coming Soon!

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 →

Does HR Respond To Workplace Bullying Complaints?

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A recent survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) polled HR personnel about workplace bullying and how they respond to complaints. It’s clear that HR is aware of the problem. In fact, the vast majority of those polled believe it is the responsibility of HR to deal with it (only 1% feel there should be a special workplace bullying/workplace violence committee) and please keep in mind that about 27% of those taking part have been the targets of bullying themselves.   Here are the results of the SHRM survey —  note: respondents were allowed to choose more than one option:  Continue reading →