July 26th, 2009
Bullying At Work Made Her Sick but Legal Remedies Are Few
by Rebecca Catalanello St. Petersburg (Florida) Times
Article features the brave and bullied target Julie Soderstrom. As well as ridiculous notions from employer attorney Karen Buesing that corporations facing cutbacks are less likely to tolerate the antics of an employee who is perceived to be a bully and “There are too many great people out there who are not abusive.”
And the comment “Could you be a whinier baby? Blame a bully for everything. Perhaps you are just mentally weak…” from Keith. Yeh, right! The pro-corporate mindset has blinded workers to their ability to feel compassion for other workers.
Tags: St. Petersburg Times, WBI-Zogby
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 26th, 2009 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Bullying in the News, Health Care. 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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http://www.workplacebullying.org was the first source I have ever found to finally admit that not only are workers intimidated into not discussing or confronting bullies, but the HR plays a crucial role in reinforcing the behavior.
I found that HR is totally worthless and only there to protect the company. Going to HR seems to leave you with a label as the problem maker. I do not see them removing the bullies; they perceive the targets as the ones that need to go.
Bullies come in two types. The first type is a person with a personality disorder. The second type is a person with a strategy for controlling people.
In management, a key method to improve control is through observation, analysis and modification. This usually applies to processes and systems but it sometimes applies to people as in Behavior Modification.
The bully who is an amateur psychologist can use the techniques of behavior modification to destroy every last smidgen of initiative in his targets.
This misuse of psychological discipline is very, very dangerous to the target.
The tactical bully apparently doesn’t care.
I read your articles on bulling at work an it was great,I’m not a worker, a patient and the person at the place has done this to me and made me feel out of place there after going to it for almost 20yrs, they are dangerous, because they put me back into being more depressed then I was an I didn’t trust my dotor, even getting the perscription that I needed I didn’t call for and not doing that made me really sick. They knew it after I went to hospital.
I really like your blog and i respect your work. I’ll be a frequent visitor.
Bullies suffer from low self-esteem and in reality are only a shell of person. They care about one person in the world; themselves.
Interestingly, when the term bully comes up in interviews or conversation, people freeze and shut down; the proverbial denial stage just like with addictions. Victims are afraid to confront the bully. I suspect violence on T.V. and the media contribute to the fear. Sometimes you have to call it what it is but many are not ready to see ‘bad behavior’ for what it truly is… bullying. When dealing with the victims of bullies, don’t use the term bully. UInitially, you may want to use something softer like “strong personality” or aggressive behavior when trying to get someone to open up. If people are not willing to bring it out in to the open, it’s that much more difficult to address; just like drug addiction or alcoholism.
my2cents.