May 23rd, 2011

New Norfolk, VA Bullying Policy?


Local TV station WVEC reports on a new workplace bullying policy being developed for nearly 4,000 city employees.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 23rd, 2011 at 9:41 am and is filed under Fairness & Social Justice Denied, WBI 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.



Related posts:


  1. WPR: At Issue with Ben Merens
  2. New Bill Targets Workplace Bullying
  3. Gary and Ruth Namie: An Interview by Bob Morris
  4. Work Bully Victims Struggle with Dangerous Stress
  5. Jane Bethel, NAGE, supports WBI and Healthy Workplace Bill, 6 of 9


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  • J.

    This is refreshing. I like that they have stopped disciplinary actions against employees pending review. I would like to see this move to other cities. If nothing else, it would make the problem known. It would also point out bullying in government jobs, where it receives even less attention than in general employment. Bullying is common in state and local governments.

    I also hope it works. About 2 years ago, my state employer enacted a sweeping and impressive ethics policy and made it part of the contract, allowing serious violators to be terminated. It looked promising and there seemed to be a real reason for optimism. The policy is very good and covers most ethics issues. If used, it would also require that employees be treated with respect and fairness – it could be used to prevent bullying. A big issue was made of giving everyone in the system “ethics training.” The training was a joke, laughably simplistic, and did not relate to the policy. The impressive ethics policy has since been entirely ignored and has become irrelevant. It is never followed.

    I hope Norfolk is successful. It sounds reassuring on the surface.

    • http://www.mgmt-in-a-nutshell.com Jay Jacobus

      Disciplinary action can be used as a tactic to demonstrate the bully’s power in his organization. The vicitm, if he is innocent, will soon learn that power overrides innocence.

      Every venue has a bias and bias can trump fairness.

      An unfavorable ruling can mark the target and create a precedent for future discipline.

      Some day we might worry that the pendulum will swing the other way, but that is in the distant future and the alleged bully should expect favorable biases in current situations.

      Anti-bullying policies at least show that some organizations are trying to be fair.

      • J.

        My concern is that policies can be just for show. As was the case with my state employer. However, if Norfolk develops city ordinances to protect city employees from bullying supervisors, there would be real hope for enforcement.

  • kay

    Good for her!!!! Finally someone reasonable in charge. Someone not concerned with FIRST denying and silencing and burying the target/victim.

    Just do the right thing. Make folks comfortable at work. Don’t let the harassers get away with it, it only increases the victims hunger for justice in any form and I’m sure, thoughts of justice by all means necessary. By turning a blind eye, and even in some cases (mine) launching a full out attempt at a cover up and retaliation of anyone who attempt to support.

    God bless those ladies and men who are also assisting. If you are in a position to do something about it then DO.

  • Bruno Santos

    Jane,

    Congratulations. Its a great victory for for the workforce of Norfolk. I hope that Virginia Beach and VA in general are paying attention and introduce similar measures.

    Great job Jane!

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