Archive for the ‘Tutorials About Bullying’ Category
Corporate defense attorneys who deny workplace bullying happens
Monday, May 20th, 2013
Here are the “lessons” about workplace bullying that a 24-yr. veteran corporate employment attorney (and self-described Machiavellian) chose to impart on lucky me during a recent flight between gigs.
I pass along his major teachings to you, the WBI reader, so you know the type of legal opponent, as plaintiff, you will face if you ever decide to sue your employer in court.
He believes:
1. HR has known about, and has dealt successfully with, workplace bullying for over 20 years.
2. The prevalence of harassment and bullying are exaggerated, overestimated.
3. Claims of bullying are made by workers who refuse to be assigned work or told to perform when management knows they are goofing off.
Tags: bully apologists, corporate attorney, defense counsel, Gary Namie, workplace bullying
Posted in Commentary by G. Namie, Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education, Workplace Bullying Laws | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
Workplace bullying: Power of the name
Wednesday, May 15th, 2013
It’s funny that the operative verb for discovering our website and the term “workplace bullying” is always “stumbled upon.” That accurately describes the weeks or months since the beginning of the misery instigated by the bully wasted by targets blaming themselves. That span of time is a dark bewildering time. The reality is that targets can be bullied without knowing it.
They believe the lies that they are suddenly incompetent. They have typically never had this happen to them before and do not recognize the evil nature that some people bring to the workplace. They doubt themselves.
Eventually, they find us and recognize that our description of their reality matches and voila, they have a name for what has been happening to them. They have been bullied at work!
Plenty of synonyms apply: psychological violence, abusive conduct, mobbing, psychological harassment.
When we started 16 years ago, I underestimated the power of this discovery. Since then, I’ve learned how powerful it is.
For the first time, targets can pinpoint the source of the treachery they’ve experienced. It is not them. They are not crazy. They know they didn’t invite the humiliation. But HR and the law (in the U.S. at least) did not allow them to legitimately, in a legal sense, hold abusers accountable.
Most important, they start to connect the dots. The sleepless nights now make sense. It’s stress. The loss of concentration and muddled thinking and sense of doom — it’s depression. Until they seem the causal sequence — bullying leads to stress-related health problems — they see no reason to visit their physician or to find a therapist. Now their doctor can tell them how dangerous their skyrocketing blood pressure is.
They were hurt, insulted and buried by an avalanche of injustice, but did not know to blame the bully. It is the bully (or bullies) who control who gets targeted, when assaults begin and end, and what particular version of cruelty is chosen. Externalizing the problem is the first step toward well being. Research reliably compares the mental health impact of sexual harassment to that of bullying. Bullying is always worse for its victims.
Until the target recognizes that it is bullying, a non-physical form of violence in the workplace, taking steps to get safe cannot begin.
That’s the power of naming it. The day targets discover those two soothing words — Workplace Bullying — is a happy, liberating day. Of course, the hard work has just begun, but it is the real beginning of working toward freedom with one’s eyes fully open.
Tags: Gary Namie, naming the phenomenon, workplace bullying
Posted in Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Research: Victim selection criteria by criminals
Tuesday, May 14th, 2013
Workplace bullying in the U.S. is not yet illegal by civil or criminal law. Mugging another person is criminal. In a new study, convicted criminals in prison (not your typical workplace bully by any measure) demonstrated their ability to recognize who in a group was a prior victim and who they would most likely pick to mug and steal from and why they selected that person. The analogy to bullying incidents would apply only to the most violent predator-type bullies (bordering on psychopaths who number 1 in 100 executives) who victimize their targets in ways that approach criminality. However, the general premise that perpetrators rely on physical nonverbal cues to select their targets/victims certainly must play a part, however slight, in workplace bullying incidents.
Tags: Angela Book, body language, gait, Gary Namie, nonverbal communication, prisoners, psychopaths, target selection, victim selection, vulnerability, walk, workplace bullying
Posted in Bullying-Related Research, Social/Mgmt/Epid Sciences, Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Whistleblowers and bullied workers speak up at S.F. City Hall
Wednesday, April 17th, 2013
On April 15, Steve Zeltzer organized a rally at which S.F. City workers spoke. Most were whistleblowers who have been retaliated against for their integrity. Hear Carrie Clark, State Coordinator for California Healthy Workplace Advocates [at the 29:00 min. mark] and Dr. Gary Namie, Director, Workplace Bullying Institute [at the 13:33 min. mark].
Tags: Carrie Clark, Derek Kerr, Gary Namie, Steve Zeltzer, workplace bullying
Posted in Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign), Tutorials About Bullying, Unions, WBI Education, Workplace Bullying Laws | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
Are leaders willing to give up bullying as a crutch?
Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
Bullying in the workplace exists. It always has. We’ve provided the U.S. national prevalence statistics since 2007. But let’s say you just “stumbled upon” the term for status-blind harassment that is legal and unaddressed in American businesses.
Everyone knows it is wrong and immoral. It is costly in a million ways. But it is sustained.
Tags: gary namie, management skills, prevention, solution, work, workplace bullying, workplace violence
Posted in Tutorials About Bullying | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
San Francisco defends employee misconduct – $10.3 million
Monday, April 15th, 2013
The price paid by the City and County of San Francisco for defending indefensible discrimination and general bullying across 5 years was over $10 million. If City leaders were rational, they would see that BULLIES ARE TOO EXPENSIVE TO KEEP! … but it’s not a rational world and butt-kissing bullies are adored and hardly ever terminated.
Thanks to Steve Zeltzer for finding this set of facts.
Tags: costs of bullying, discrimination, fiscal impact, harassment, San Francisco, workplace bullying
Posted in Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
It’s Your Community Detroit radio with Vanessa Dehna-Garmo
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013
Host WDVD-FM Detroit radio host Vanessa Denha Garmo interviewed Dr. Gary Namie for her show on March 31, 2013. They talked about the history of WBI, the Healthy Workplace Bill, and solutions for individuals and employers.
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Here’s a link to the show’s page.
Tags: Gary Namie, it's your community, vanessa denha-garmo, workplace bullying
Posted in Broadcasts: Video, TV, radio, webinars, Media About Bullying, Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education, WBI in the News | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Comprehensive vs. Incremental Piecemeal Approaches to Stopping Workplace Bullying
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013
Let’s assume your organization (Executive Team, HR and Legal) WANT to stop bullying. One of the first questions the group must answer is whether or not you jump in with both feet or move more slowly. Here are the pros and cons of each approach.
Tags: gary namie, management skills, prevention, solution, work, workplace bullying, workplace violence
Posted in Tutorials About Bullying | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
WBI Study: Timing & Results of Targets Confronting Bullies at Work
Friday, March 29th, 2013
CONFRONTING BULLIES AT WORK
WBI 2013-D Instant Poll
Individuals unfamiliar with details of the workplace bullying phenomenon but who declare themselves workplace experts suggest or insist that workers targeted for bullying directly confront their assailants. In a large-sample 2012 survey [WBI-2012-Strategies Effectiveness], 70% of 1,600 individuals said they attempted to confront their bully. The torment ended in only 3.5% of situations. Confrontation was ineffective.
This 2013 Instant Poll survey investigated whether the timing of a confrontation would affect effectiveness. WBI Instant Polls are online single-question surveys that rely upon self-selected samples of individuals bullied at work (typically 98% of any sample). No demographic data are collected. Our non-scientific Instant Polls accurately depict the perceptions of workers targeted for bullying at work as contrasted with the views of all adult Americans in our scientific national surveys.
We asked 554 target-respondents to answer the following question.
For bullied targets only. When did you confront your bully, telling her or him that the abusive conduct was unacceptable to you?
Tags: bullied targets, Gary Namie, stopping bullying, targets confront, targets confront bullies, WBI research, workplace bullying, Workplace Bullying Institute
Posted in Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education, WBI Surveys & Studies | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Committed Suicide or Died by Suicide?
Friday, March 22nd, 2013
Guest blog by Linda Woods
When I hear the phrase committed suicide I cringe at those words. It always sounds to me like someone has committed a crime. Not so many years ago in Canada it was a criminal offence to take your own life. In some states in the U.S. it is still a crime. I have met parents who have been shattered by the death of their child by suicide and to add insult to injury their dead child was charged with a criminal offence after their death.
Our 13-year-old son Greg died by suicide on January 25, 1990, so I have had a lot of time to come to terms with and educate myself around the subject of suicide. When a person has depression or a mental illness and it is not treated they sometimes go on to died by suicide. They were in horrific indescribable pain and suffered beyond our comprehension and now we want to persecute them further by suggesting that they are committing a crime. Suicide is not about dying; it is about ending the pain.
Tags: death by suicide, Linda Woods, suicide
Posted in Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
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