May 26th, 2010
WSJ: For businesses, bully lawsuits may pose new threat
by Sarah Needleman, Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2010
Who’s afraid of the big, bad boss?
A significant number of U.S. workers say they are— and soon those in New York may be able to sue their employers, including small businesses, for any suffering they experience at the hands of a toxic boss or other workplace bully.
Earlier this month, the Empire State’s Senate passed a bipartisan measure that would allow workers who’ve been physically, psychologically or economically abused while on the job to file charges against their employers in civil court. The bill applies to organizations of all sizes, unlike other employee-friendly laws that exempt small businesses, such as the federal government’s Family and Medical Leave Act. It also holds employers responsible for the bullying of workers by colleagues and not just supervisors.
In addition to New York, 16 other states have introduced legislation in recent years aimed at curbing workplace bullying, but none have become law. New York’s passage by the state’s Senate is considered significant because the issue is generally deemed a liberal cause; the state’s Senate is made up of a slight Democratic majority and one of the bill’s two leading sponsors is Republican. The bill next moves to a vote by the labor committee of the state’s Democratic-majority Assembly at a to-be-determined date.
Business owners nationwide should take note, as a chain reaction is likely to ensue if the measure becomes law, says Jennifer Rubin, a partner in the employment-law practice at New York law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C. “It’s only a matter of time before this trends to other states,” she says. “It’s politically popular.”
New York’s anti-bullying bill defines bullying broadly and includes the repeated use of derogatory remarks, insults and epithets, as well as conduct that a “reasonable person” would find threatening, intimidating or humiliating.
Mathew Tully, founding partner of Tully Rinckey PLLC in Albany, N.Y., says he’s concerned that his 77-employee law firm could get sued as a result of the bill because it operates within a high-pressure environment. “Generally, our employees are acting in a professional manner, but every so often there may be a burst of anger,” he says.
On the flip side, Mr. Tully figures that his firm would likely see an increase in demand for its legal services if the bill were to become law, as he’s already heard from more than a dozen clients seeking advice on how to avoid litigation. “It’s going to drum up a lot of business for us,” he says. “This is almost guaranteed to flood the courts.”
Road Science LLC, a Tulsa, Okla., technology company with 110 workers, pledges in its employee handbook to maintain a “jerk-free” culture. Anti-bullying bills were proposed—but never passed—in Oklahoma in 2004, 2007 and 2009. Frank Panzer, Road Science’s chief executive, says he opposes such legislation because it could prompt false claims from workers. “The danger is you create a victim mentality,” he says. “Just because you’re being disciplined doesn’t mean someone’s bullying you. A lot of (managers) are just very forthright. If they feel it, they say it. They don’t have much tact.”
According to New York lawmakers, between 16% and 21% of employees have experienced health-endangering workplace bullying, abuse and harassment, and such behavior is four times more prevalent than sexual harassment.
The problem is just as common in small businesses as large ones, says Wayne A. Hochwarter, a management professor at Florida State University’s College of Business, who surveyed 980 workers in March and April on the topic. One third of respondents said they work for companies with about 100 employees or less, and of those, 23.5% reported experiencing supervisor bullying on a weekly basis, compared with 21.3% of the other two-thirds of respondents who said they work for larger organizations.
To be sure, New York’s anti-bullying legislation says that employers may not be held liable if they take steps to prevent or promptly correct abusive behavior. Small-business owners should therefore be sure to have a policy that prohibits bullying by both supervisors and colleagues, says Rick Gibbs, a senior human-resources specialist for Administaff Inc., a Kingwood, Texas, human-resources-outsourcing firm. Owners should also create ways for employees to notify them about instances of abuse, such as by installing an anonymous hotline.
Suzanne Miller once worked for a toxic boss.
Of course, it can also be helpful to try and avoid hiring workers who might be perceived as bullies in the first place. Suzanne Miller, owner of SPM Communications LP, a public-relations company in Dallas with 18 employees, says she asks candidates about their experiences working with others to get a sense of whether they might have abusive tendencies. “If you take the time to get to know a person and what motivates them in business and in life, you’re going to find that you choose the right people,” she says.
Ms. Miller says she’s glad the New York legislation recognizes bullying as unhealthy. Part of what motivated her to become an entrepreneur in 1999 was a prior three-year stint working for a toxic boss. “She would scream at me before she would check the facts,” says Ms. Miller of her former employer. “I felt belittled for no apparent reason.”
Business owners should also consider the possibility that they might actually be bullies. One telltale sign: A high turnover rate, says Gary Namie, co-founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute, an employee-rights group in Bellingham, Wash. “You’re creating a place that reasonable people don’t want to stay in,” he says. “You’ve probably focused on whatever it is you make or sell and don’t have an incentive to get management skills.”
Another indicator of a bully business owner is if he or she takes all the credit for their company’s success, says Vicky Oliver, author of “Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers & Other Office Idiots.” “If everything is your idea,” she says, “it’s probably because you’re bullying the people who work for you into submission.”
See original article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704717004575268701579722946.html
Tags: Namie, Needleman, Wall Street Journal, Workplace Bullying Institute
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Bullying in the News. 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.
Loading ...
It would be great to see Pennsylvania get on-board with this type of legislative movement.
If you would like to get involved with the legislative movement in PA please fill out the form on this page:
http://www.healthyworkplacebill.org/states/pa/pennsylvania.php
Where can we find list of states mentioned above for “anti-bullying”?
All of the information regarding the WBI Healthy Workplace Bill Legislative Campaign can be found here. GN
I am praying the bill in WI turns into a law. It’s time the non-unionized worker has protection from these corporate bullies. And, with the economy as it is, I can only perceive the problem worsening. Employers know there is not an easy escape route for their targets.
Thank you, Dr. Namie and associates for all the work you do.
If you would like to get involved with the legislative movement in PA please fill out the form on this page:
http://www.healthyworkplacebill.org/states/pa/pennsylvania.php
[...] WSJ: For businesses, bully lawsuits may pose new threat [...]
when I was driven out of my NY State job with psychological abuse…I was forced to resign…I had to sign a paper stating that I would not sue NY State. It is so unfair. I am still dealing with the traumatic effects of the whole ordeal.
Psychological bullies (psychobullies) are masters at manipulating institutions, policies, and rules to their own ends. I worry about what they might be able to do with a narrowly drawn statute aimed at their (always) plausibly deniable behaviors in the workplace.
When it come to psychobullies on the job, a target is always better off with the civil court judgment rule of “preponderance of the evidence” than they are with the standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt” in the criminal law courts, IF a target should ever resort to institutional solutions, which I have never found to work. Psychobullying is something you have to practically rub the noses of the authorities in before the institutional authorities will act. This is true for both the institutions within the workplace (management, unions, HR, “tribunals,” etc.) and outside the workplace (police, courts, lawyers, bureaucracies).
My experience is there is nowhere for a target to turn but to God and the target’s own intellect and powers of observation. A target has to be as resourceful, flexible, knowledgeable, and decisive as Jason Bourne. A target is as on his/her own as the Bourne character. Just like Bourne can size up all the people in restaurant and determine just who can handle himself in a fight, and which parked vehicle might contain a weapon, the target has to be able to process the target’s work environment in the exact same manner, and work up contingency plans on the fly.
You can’t think “in the box” as “I must go to HR.” or “I must go to the union, tribunal, boss, etc.” A target must think, and LIVE, outside the box throughout each and every workday.
I know its a drag. I know its a pain. I know it isn’t fair. No one wanted to hear this at the other bully forum, and no one wants to hear it here. There is no magic bullet. There is only one day at a time, trusting in God and your own resources to survive. You have to look for your opportunities to strike at the psychobully in ways not unsimilar to the psychobully’s, but aimed at stopping violence the only way the authorities permit–with stealth, craft, and always NEVER putting the powers that be on the spot to have to “do something” or “make a decision” or FACE REALITY.
Reality is such a downer to authorities. People who bring reality to their attention are not appreciated.
My Timberland story is simple, I was bullied, betrayed and kicked out without cause. I worked for a Timberland manager that had been there for the last 20 years. That manager had a documented history of bullying other employees. Timberlands HR department and Jeffery Schwartz understood that this manager is sick and needed serious medical help yet did nothing but sweep the issue under the rug. Bullying is simply another word for harassment, we as a nation are finally learning that bullying has NO place in our children’s learning environment, yet somehow this same type of harassment is fine in the workplace again America is behind the times as the rest of the world.
Timberlands ethics program that they openly communicate to the world is nothing more but a marketing ploy to sell you more boots (http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=105954&p=irol-govConduct) Walmart is notorious for their ill treatment of employees; but unlike Timberland does not pretend or hide behind an publically readable ethics program touting corporate reasonability proper treatment of employees.