Archive for the ‘Tutorials About Bullying’ Category
Catholic school fires teacher stalked by abusive ex
Thursday, June 13th, 2013
A story of double jeopardy — a victim of domestic violence is treated like a criminal by her employer. Carie Charlesworth, 2nd grade teacher at Holy Trinity school in San Diego, warned her principal that her ex-spouse was on the grounds despite a court restraining order. The school went into lockdown. The abusive man subsequently went to prison for other crimes. Carie was fired and prevented from working for any other school in the diocese (district). Read the termination letter. Sadly, her four children enrolled at the school were also tossed out.
Simply put, because the violent man broke his restraining order, teacher and mother Carie was punished.
Video from NBC-TV-7, San Diego
A 2011 study by Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center Project SURVIVE found that nearly 40% of survivors in California reported being fired or fearing termination due to domestic violence.
The full story at the TV station website.
Tags: Carie Charlesworth, domestic violence, Holy Trinity, teacher fired, workplace bullying
Posted in Broadcasts: Video, TV, radio, webinars, Media About Bullying, Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
WBI Study: Protecting workplace bullies
Tuesday, June 4th, 2013
PROTECTING WORKPLACE BULLIES
WBI 2013-F Instant Poll
At WBI, we have documented how bullies rarely face personal negative consequences for their misconduct. Too often, complaints about bullying are discounted, dismissed or completely ignored. This indifferent response by the organization implicitly rewards the bullying. The uncoupling of bullying from negative sanctions outrages bullied targets. It is the injustice that infuriates targets.
WBI national American studies show that the vast majority of perpetrators (72%) are bosses. Organizational support for managers trumps support for non-supervisory workers.
In this survey, we sought to clarify the sources of support, or protection, for bullies. Protective support prevents punishment for bullies and blocks accountability. Of course over time, protecting bullies sustains a workplace culture that is bullying-prone and unsafe for prospective targets. Protection ensures that bullying continues with impunity.
Tags: bullying with impunity, executive sponsor, Gary Namie, protecting bullies, WBI research, workplace bullying
Posted in Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education, WBI Surveys & Studies | 2 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Pima County Arizona takes a stand against workplace bullying
Thursday, May 30th, 2013
On April 16, 2013 the Pima County (AZ) Board of Supervisors approved a new policy to prevent, identify and address workplace bullying. Pima, which includes the city of Tuscon, joins the growing list of U.S. counties (see Fulton County, Georgia) to adopt such measures. You can read the entire policy here.
Bullying defined:
Workplace bullying is intentional behavior intended to create an abusive work environment for an employee or employees. Bullying behavior is behavior in the workplace that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, and not obviously related to an employer’s legitimate business interests.
Features of the Policy:
• It can come from any direction — manager, co-worker, subordinate, appointing authority, elected official, vendor, contractor or member of the public.
• Witnesses, not just direct targets of bullying, may complain
• The list of illustrative examples is long, but nicely categorized as follows, bullying: in general, by supervisor, by coworkers, by sabotage and by shunning.
Tags: Arizona, county employees, government anti-bullying policy, Pima County, policy, Tuscon, workplace bullying
Posted in Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education, Workplace Bullying Laws | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Minnesota Lawyer: Abuse of power: Dealing with a bully lawyer
Wednesday, May 29th, 2013
Abuse of power: Dealing with a bully lawyer. By Barbara L. Jones, Minnesota Lawyer, May 10, 2013.
CLE examined the cost of bullying in the legal profession
When Minneapolis attorney Bernice Fields organized a CLE on Bullying in the Legal Workplace, some legal secretaries told her they were afraid to ask for time off to attend.
At least one person in the audience cried at the description of being a bully’s target and what that can do to your health.
And the Minnesota Supreme Court last week confronted bullying in the profession when it suspended attorney Peter Nickitas for 30 days, followed by two years of supervised probation. There were several charges against Nickitas, but they included behavior that could readily be described as bullying. The petition said he made insulting remarks to opposing counsel during an arbitration, even screaming nose-to-nose with one attorney, the petition said. Nickitas could not be reached for comment.
The topic of bullying has taken center stage lately. The Anoka-Hennepin School District entered into a consent decree in 2012 governing discrimination and bullying after seven students there committed suicide. The Minnesota House of Representatives has passed the Safe and Supportive Schools bill requiring schools to have tougher antibullying policies. Hennepin and Ramsey County have “respectful workplace” policies that encompass bullying.
Tags: attorneys, Barbara L. Jones, Bernice Fields, Gary Namie, Hennepin County Bar Association, lawyers, legal secretaries, workplace bullying, Workplace Bullying Institute
Posted in Target Tale, Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education, WBI in the News | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
WBI Study: Mental health professionals & Workplace Bullying
Tuesday, May 28th, 2013
MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS’
GRASP OF WORKPLACE BULLYING
WBI 2013-E Instant Poll
Individuals targeted for bullying have trouble being believed. At work, many of the disbelievers have the incentive to blame the victim, either to bolster their own sense of power or to distance themselves from the pain associated with an empathic response. Prior WBI research (WBI-2011-IP-L) confirms that family and friends are the primary sources of emotional support.
Prior WBI research (WBI-2012-IP-D) also found that over 70% of bullied targets reported seeking treatment from a mental health professional. An understanding therapist is essential for effective treatment. Misunderstanding, or ignorance about, the impact of abusive mistreatment at work can lead to an improper diagnosis and ineffective treatment. At worst, a therapist who does not understand the effects a toxic work environment can have on individual clients, may overestimate the target-client’s ability to reverse her or his fate. An effective therapist will be familiar with trauma and can best characterize the bullied target’s experience as a response to violence.
Tags: bullied targets as clients, clinicians, counselors, Gary Namie, mental health professionals, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, WBI Instant Poll, WBI research, workplace bullying
Posted in Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education, WBI Surveys & Studies | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
New WBI Training DVD: Teach your psychotherapist
Friday, May 24th, 2013
An Introduction to Workplace Bullying: For Mental Health Practitioners
We designed this brand new DVD with two goals in mind: To help Targets of workplace bullying and to train mental health professionals about this challenging topic. It is the perfect introductory training for mental health practitioners.
It gives Targets the power to teach their counselors about workplace bullying. As a bullied target, you can watch this video alongside your therapist and learn about the phenomenon together, during a single session. Don’t blame your therapist for not understanding workplace bullying. There are not many professionals out there that have experience with the phenomenon. In a 2013 WBI Instant Poll only 29.7% of Mental Health Professionals had a complete understanding of workplace bullying.
Teach Your Psychotherapist How to Help You
Bullied targets are a challenging clinical population, in part due to the recurring trauma and marked isolation they endure. And, while a significant body of research links workplace bullying to physical, mental, social, and economic health harm for the bullied target, there is a paucity of mental health professionals specially trained to work with this phenomenon.
What to do: Use one 50 min. session with your psychotherapist to play this DVD while you are in the room. Stop the disc whenever questions arise, or if you want to make a point to your therapist about your experience. Use the DVD to start a dialogue.
In this video, Jessi Eden Brown, MS, LMHC, LPC, NCC an experienced, licensed mental health therapist and the WBI Professional Coach, shows clinicians the pitfalls many therapists fall into when helping Targets of workplace bullying. She offers practical advice about how best to support those hurting. Viewers will learn how to recognize the signs, and address the symptoms, of workplace bullying in their clients. Ms. Brown skillfully imparts the unique treatment considerations associated with counseling bullied targets and offers practitioners an assortment of resources for supporting clients and their families.
Targets and counselors, click here to purchase a DVD for your next session!
Tags: bullied targets, counseling, counselors, DVD, eden therapy, help for bullied targets, Jessi Brown, Jessi Eden Brown, targets, therapy, WBI coaching, workplace bullying
Posted in Products & Services, Tutorials About Bullying | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
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 | 4 Archived Comments | 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 (
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