Dr. Ruth and I have had the good fortune in our journey deep into the workplace bullying world
to encounter some of the most courageous, fearless and noble people who walk the earth.
Michelle Smith was not only one of those, she was among the most exceptional.
To us, she was colleague, fierce advocate, but, above all, a friend to us and the campaign against workplace bullying.

Here is Michelle attending the WBI Workplace Bullying University training course, June 2009 in Bellingham, Washington

Michelle introduced herself to us in the early years of the movement. She had been bullied while working for the University of Phoenix. We surmise that she was genetically predisposed to side with the less powerful when confronted with abusive powerful others. She lived in Placerville, California in a mobile home park. As resident, she was intimately familiar with that industry’s exploitation of mobile home dwellers. She was a staunch advocate for homeowners’ rights.

The connection with us allowed us to tap her limitless passion for fighting on behalf of blameless victims. She had been bullied at work and threw herself into the cause knowing that she could alleviate the suffering of similarly bullied people.

Jessi Eden Brown, the WBI Coach, recalls that Michelle had an enormous heart, soothing presence, and profound knowledge of all things workplace bullying in addition to being encouraging and supportive to her. We all were so fortunate!

Her personal years-long commitment was spread over three related anti-bullying pursuits.

Each endeavor continues to this day, testament to her legacy.

Michelle’s LEGACY #1

The start of the first group of citizen lobbyists working to enact anti-bullying legislation in the states was concurrent with the California Assembly’s introduction of the WBI Healthy Workplace Bill in 2003, the first introduction in the nation. Michelle and her friend Carrie Clark founded that group – the California Healthy Workplace Advocates (CHWA). They originally held in-person meetings.

CHWA first met monthly at Coco’s (a now defunct restaurant chain) on Arden Way. In the beginning, CHWA seemed to serve a dual purpose. Emotionally distraught bullied targets wanted social-emotional help. But CHWA’s charter was to train volunteers to lobby legislators at the state Capitol to introduce, then pass the HWB. Michelle and Carrie artfully prioritized legislative advocacy over amateur counseling and support while still offering validation and the chance to have experiences shared at meetings. In fact, they brilliantly helped targets in attendance prepare to give testimony at committee hearings for the bill by teaching them to reduce personal stories to their briefest versions. This activity coupled the reduction of harmful emotions with the pragmatic need to tell one’s story in 3 minutes or less to impatient politicians.

Ruth and I attended meetings at Coco’s and later at Denny’s on Howe Ave, the second home for the in-person CHWA group. Michelle and Carrie evolved CHWA meetings into a combination of (a) updates about HWB activity in other states (30 other states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands followed California by introducing the HWB, some states have had multiple bills), (b) recap of workplace bullying in the news (several CHWA members became media spokespersons for the movement), (c) education about some aspect of the workplace bullying phenomenon (Carrie was a bullied high school teacher), and (d) a forum for members to share personal experiences and to seek answers to questions that arise from targethood.

CHWA members, primarily Michelle and Carrie, spoke frequently to groups interested in combatting bullying. They always sought collaborations with like-minded souls. They frequently delivered seminars and workshops for regional unions, especially the state employees union, SEIU Local 1000.

CHWA was, and remains, a proud extension of WBI’s mission to educate targets of bullying, unions, organizations, and the general public. CHWA’s educators — Michelle, Carrie and others — completed training with us at the WBI Workplace Bullying University. Michelle and Carrie attended separate sessions when it was offered in Bellingham, Washington. Pictures of Michelle attending in June 2009 appear in the above photo carousel.

Michelle stepped away from CHWA three years ago for health reasons.

Meetings in this post-COVID era are now virtual and their mission continues. For Michelle being the pioneer of this target-empowering group, we are thankful.

Michelle’s LEGACY #2

Ruth, Carrie Clark and Gary lobbied the California legislature and found a sponsor for the WBI anti-bullying bill written by Suffolk University Law School Professor David Yamada. The bill, dubbed the Healthy Workplace Bill, was introduced in 2003.

The only way to get the HWB introduced in states without funding was for us at WBI to train a cadre of volunteer State Coordinators across the country. The Coordinators, in turn, called for more volunteers to make the calls to lawmakers, establish relationships with them as constituents and to participate in organized lobbying days in their respective State Capitol buildings.

Michelle and CHWA lived near California’s state capital city, Sacramento, with ready access to the Capitol. A slogan CHWA adopted was that “Bullying Breaks Hearts,” referring to the social, emotional, and health harm inflicted on bullied targets by the bullying experience. See the poster that incorporated the slogan.

For several years, on Valentine’s Day, Michelle led CHWA members to distribute the flyer with the slogan affixed to every lawmaker’s office in the Capitol. By making pests of themselves, staff became familiar with the HWB and CHWA.

What WBI and CHWA lacked in money, Michelle overcompensated through her persistence with lawmakers to repeat the 2003 introduction of the HWB. She did not succeed. A partial victory was won when a mandate for California employers to add employee education about abusive conduct to requisite sexual harassment training became law in 2014. That bill (AB 2053) was codified into state Code. It used the HWB definition of abusive conduct from the 2003 bill.

At every CHWA event that we attended, there was Michelle in her Bullying Breaks Hearts T-shirt that she had printed for folks. The bright red ink faded from regular use. I always thought that was testament to her relentless messaging to anyone who would listen — workplace bullying has to stop and a new law will help push employers to do the right thing.

Michelle demonstrated a remarkable proficiency in legislative advocacy through mobilization, and inspiration, of an enlightened corps of citizen lobbyists.

For her efforts, we are eternally grateful.

Michelle’s LEGACY #3

Freedom from
Workplace Bullies Week

Several years ago, we at WBI began Freedom Week to mark a time when targets and those who love them take positive action to heal from, as well as to call attention to, workplace bullying. It has since gone international, thanks to our Canadian counterpart, Linda Crockett.

From the very beginning, Michelle was the most active proponent in the nation of Freedom Week. She was WBI’s ambassador extraordinaire!

Year after year, she was able to coerce, persuade, cajole, beg, and/or threaten California city councils and county commissioners to acknowledge that workplace bullying was a profound problem responsible for injuring its citizens. The government entities did so through proclamations naming the third week of October (when it always occurs) Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week.

Michelle started early in the year and had the proclamations delivered to her well in advance of Freedom Week in October. She scanned the documents and sent the scans to me for posting in the Freedom Week section of the WBI website. Several were ornate documents. See the Beverly Hills Proclamation from 2011.

Michelle justified all the time spent procuring proclamations as part of HWB lobbying activity. She reasoned that if government officials in a city or county admitted that workplace bullying existed, it would be easier to convince the elected state representatives — Assembly members and Senators — to sponsor the HWB. It didn’t work, given lawmakers’ allegiance to the business lobby. But it was not Michelle’s fault.

No one worked as hard at promoting Freedom Week than Michelle. For that we will always be grateful.

Finally … on a very personal note …

Michelle was a good friend. On more than one occasion, she was our defender when wounded advocate-targets directed their wrath against us and strove to deny the historical record of our work.

We miss her friendship, but were grateful to have been warmly embraced by it even when she was so busy making the world a kinder, gentler place for others.

We hate cancer. It claimed the life of a remarkable woman too early. Be at peace, dear lady.

Love,

Gary & Ruth Namie