May 27th, 2009
Workplace bullying can wreak havoc on the job
Sapping productivity, devastating morale and increasing absenteeism
BY DAVID P. WILLIS
Asbury Park (NJ) Press
May 26, 2009
You should know it when you see it. Verbal harassment at work, practical jokes, threats, intimidation, and even sabotage, are all the hallmarks of a workplace bully.
As opposed to tough management, “bullying is a level of misery that falls disproportionally on the few,” said Gary Namie, director of the Workplace Bullying Institute in Bellingham, Wash.
A 2007 survey by the Institute and Zogby International found that 37 percent of American workers have been bullied at work. Nearly three-quarters, 72 percent, of the bullies are bosses, the survey said.
And as companies struggle, experts say workplace bullying has grown as people fear job loss.
“It is just really out of fear. Where there is fear there is a need to control,” said Terri Dawe, employee assistance coordinator at CPC Behavioral Healthcare, which has centers around Monmouth County. “It is escalating in these economic times and jobs being tenuous.”
The tight job market has compounded the problem, Namie said. “It’s a buyer’s market. Now the attitude is, ‘I can treat you however I want and you can leave and I can find more like you.’”
Like the school yard, bullies cause problems at work.
“In terms of overall morale, it is horrible,” said Alan Cavaiola, an associate professor at Monmouth University and co-author of “Toxic Co-Workers: How to Deal With Dysfunctional People on the Job.” “Everyone kind of tiptoes around this person. It is very much like walking on egg shells.”
In one case, Cavaiola said a female worker was harassed by two male supervisors, who made sexually demeaning remarks. Her boss didn’t take her complaints seriously, she quit her job and sued.
“They are very narcissistic. They are very self-centered,” Cavaiola said of workplace bullies. “They lack empathy. They lack compassion.”
But unlike schoolyard bullies, bullies at work tend to target people who are a threat to them, said Namie. Their victims may be stronger performers or better liked. “The bully is a political animal and knows how organizations run and knows that aggression pays off and is rewarded,” Namie said. “You have a player against a person who is basically a do-gooder, someone with a social orientation who (keeps) their nose to the grindstone.”
A bully is different from a hard-charging boss, said Red Bank workplace coach Donna Coulson, owner of Donna Coulson & Associates. A hard boss may not smile and give a lot of work to people, but they tend to challenge employees, she said. “A bully will bully you whether things are good or bad or indifferent,” she said.
So what’s a worker to do?
If possible, talk to the person later in private, Coulson said. “If you stand up to the bully, they will eventually stop,” she said.
Oops, Coulson. If targets could have confronted their bullies, they would have – WBI
Dawe said a worker has to recognize bullying which can be hard to define. But once they do, they should make a diary of what they experience, including dates and times, so they can bring it to human resources, she said.
Hey, Coulson. Wrong again. HR won’t do anything – WBI
Namie recommends that workers take a three-prong approach. “You have to recognize that it’s happening to you,” Namie said. “In a way, that takes a long time. They can’t believe it is happening to them, so they are in denial themselves.”
They should take time off from work to check their physical and mental health, and look for violations of company policy, he said. Consult a lawyer, he said. “You need to start to build a business case, the unemotional case, that the bully is too expensive to keep,” Namie said. Take the case to the highest level position who is not pledged or not related to the bully, he added.
Namie said he supports a bill in the state Assembly, called the “Healthy Workplace Act.” It would make abusive conduct in a workplace — repeated use of derogatory remarks, insults and epithets that are intimidating and humiliating — illegal. The bill is currently before the Assembly Labor Committee.
“Workplace bullying is an underappreciated problem,” said Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, D-Middlesex. “Studies have shown that workplace bullying occurs much more frequently than sexual harassment, yet has not received nearly as much attention.”
Kathleen M. Connelly, a lawyer at Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper in Rumson, said employers have to recognize the need to address the problem.”Employers have dropped the ball in not recognizing that an essential element of being a supervisor is managing people, and that means being able to do that in a respectful manner.”
But legislation is not the answer, she said.
“This statute would basically give every employee in the workplace a vehicle to commence litigation,” she said. “Do we want to be in a situation where our court systems become overwhelmed with burdens with every employee grievance?”
David P. Willis: 732-643-4039; dwillis@app.com
Tags: A1551, Greenstein, NJ
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 12:40 pm and is filed under Bullying in the News, Employer Action/Inaction, Legislative Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Most of what I’ve read about bullying seems aimed at office environs, and the bully is defined as a supervisor or co-worker. Our shop is a government agency, with union blue-collar labor right up to second tier supervisors. One of my co-workers has been bullying his supervisor for years. Until I ran across this website, I thought of it as a typical abuser/enabler relationship. He is not just insubordinate, he is rude and verbally abusive.
The abuse includes derogatory sexual comments (not talking about her, but other women) often within her earshot. I’ve witnessed him continue making nasty comments even after she asked him to “wait until I’m out of here.” She is a bit high strung, so the dynamic results in her being unfairly blamed for escalating the problem. However, this guy was also written up repeatedly by both of his previous supervisors, without any improvement.
A couple of years ago, I passed a test that he failed and he offered me $50 to take it for him. I refused. Since then he has been very disdainful toward me, although he intermittently offers me items he brings from home. The past year his behavior has turned increasingly contemptuous and aggressive. I filed a complaint after a particularly egregious attack a couple of weeks ago. I have been documenting his and another guy’s actions (yes, we have two bullies) the past few weeks. I feel some trepidation given that he has managed to undermine his supervisors. Not sure how to proceed if my boss ignores the issue.
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I agree we should have a bullying law in this country. For seven months I was bullied by two co-workers, supervisor, the head of the department, and HR, to top it all off, I was then fired for something that everyone else was doing in the whole company. I tried to fight it, and for eight months I struggled to support my two girls. I am a single mother I had a good job, but because the woman that I worked with didn’t like me they made sure that I wouldn’t have a job. I went into a severe depression when this happened, this has taken a toll not only on my life, but my kids as well. I guess I never realized how serious this would be for anyone let alone for myself. There needs to be some kind of boundary for work place bullying to protect people in my situation.
cpc behaviorial is the biggest workplace bully we know
There are nothing but problems dealing with HR about bullies. The main problem being, you’re dealing with HR.
I have been bullied by my boss for several years, his hide or mine, (he says) our unit has the best numbers in California and my numbers are above the average in my unit, he does not send out our individual numbers but says to me that he has, and makes me feel like a fool for not knowing, then I emailed 5 other unit members for the numbers and their response was “numbers haven’t gotten them in ages” I sent their response to my boss and he sent the numbers out in minutes, with a response, “ages?’ I’m really tired of the games he is a very mans man and the minute I show weakness he is in for the kill. I work for a very large company and need help. I am 55 and want to enjoy life!
I work for sports union and have been subjected to bullying dealing with verbal personal statement toward me, work ethics which arent true, and having to deal with having to go give up my lunch to please the ego. It is sad because although their are witnesses nothing is done to stop the abuse. The under link myself suffers and have to pretend it doesn’t bother me. It does but the economy is bad so it all in a days work to put food on the table and roof over my family’s head.
I work for a sports union and I am a victim of direct abuse daily, with the economy being so bad and not have a college degree the odds are stacked up against me. Bullying isn’t easy but you can manage to make it through the day. Do expect it or like it no. I am attending college and my assignment is this topic, I felt compelled to write w/o worrying. although my co-workers and other upper management see the bullying of my boss nothing is done. It is expectable. I give up my lunch, play up to her ego and deal with her negative comments, and listen to her gossip about others on the job. What can I do nothing, it would about in my work place as weakling if cant handle a bully. but the issue is if you stand up will the company support your position.