Joe Henry hated his boss so much, he would’ve preferred his old Army drill sergeant. “A drill sergeant is consistently one way,” he says. “You know you’re going to get yelled at no matter what.”
Henry, a barrel-chested man with military posture, joined the Army at age 18 and deployed with one of the first battalions to enter Iraq in March 2003. He served a seven-month tour locating weapons caches and maintaining communications lines. A fellow vet remembers Henry as a reliable soldier — steady under the sound of constant gunfire.
For Henry, it turned out wartime was easier to handle than a job in satellite TV installation.
We retired the WBI Forum and replaced it with a chance to tell your story via the new Let’s Talk service for targets of workplace bullying. If selected to illustrate a key aspect of bullying in the workplace, your story will be published on the WBI blog along with comments by Kalola. Try it today.
Kalola has an M.A. in Counseling (specialty: job, career counseling) and is a member of the American Counseling Association. Kalola’s firsthand experience with bullying and her public service work in government and higher education give her a learned perspective on the practical solutions to workplace bullying.
At the April 30, 2012 New York State Capitol press conference coordinated by the NY Healthy Workplace Advocates, an affiliate of the national Healthy Workplace Bill Campaign, lawmakers and endorsing unions and organizations were joined by four eloquent bullied targets. NY State Coordinators Tom Witt and Mike Schlicht hosted and concluded the event.
Part 3 -Target Support (42:53)
WBI has broken the 70 min. press conference into 3 parts for easier viewing.
At the April 30, 2012 New York State Capitol press conference coordinated by the NY Healthy Workplace Advocates, an affiliate of the national Healthy Workplace Bill Campaign, lawmakers and endorsing unions and organizations were joined by four eloquent bullied targets. NY State Coordinators Tom Witt and Mike Schlicht hosted and concluded the event.
Part 2 – Unions & Orgs (17:37)
Speakers: Michael Gary, Healthcare Coordinating Council, CWA; Iris Delutro, Professional Staff Congress, AFT; Tom Comanzo, Public Employees Federation (PEF); John Richter, Mental Health Association for NY State
WBI has broken the 70 min. press conference into 3 parts for easier viewing.
At the April 30, 2012 New York State Capitol press conference coordinated by the NY Healthy Workplace Advocates, an affiliate of the national Healthy Workplace Bill Campaign, lawmakers and endorsing unions and organizations were joined by four eloquent bullied targets. NY State Coordinators Tom Witt and Mike Schlicht hosted and concluded the event.
NYHWA had the first versions of our anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill introduced in 2006. More bills were introduced during each 2-year legislative season since. In 2010 the HWB passed the NY Senate.
In 2012, according to prime sponsor Assemblyman Steve Englebright, the chair of the Assembly Labor Committee joined the bill as co-sponsor and agreed to move the bill, making it a priority bill to reach the Governor’s desk. This highlight of the press conference is found at the 4:51 time mark of the NY Lawmakers video portion of the press conference.
WBI has broken the 70 min. press conference into 3 parts for easier viewing.
Part 1 (9:52): NY Lawmakers voice their support for bills A 4258 and S 4289, featuring Assemblymembers Steve Englebright, Aileen Gunther, Dennis Gabrysza, & Mark Johns.
“Pranks,” “jocularity,” “no harm, no foul,”did stupid things,” and “if I hurt anyone … I would be very sorry for it and apologize.” Tired old canards and rationalizations by and about school bullies to escape responsibility for their actions. A disingenuous conditional “apology.”
All of this was acceptable in the pre-Columbine era when bullying was considered a harmless rite of passage. But now is now; school bullying is a regular installment in the mainstream media. Hardly a day passes without a story. The documentary by WBI colleague Lee Hirsch, “Bully” is playing in theaters right now. Society frowns on school bullying.
Now comes the story of Republican party leader and presidential candidate Mitt Romney with an image problem — a wooden style. A May 10 Washington Post account of his years at an exclusive Michigan all-boys boarding school, Cranbrook, recounts stories from classmates. The Romney campaign wants to use evidence of his youthful pranks to prove he was (and therefore implying that he is now) capable of looseness and fun.
However, the WP reporter Jason Horowitz, uncovered a serious 1965 incident in which Romney’s disdain for a classmate drove him to assault and battery. Romney was incensed by fellow student John Lauber’s new bleached blonde hairstyle. Romney told then dorm roommate Matthew Friedmann that Lauber “can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” Four witnessing students went on record with independent accounts of Romney carrying scissors leading a posse (“pack of dogs” according to one participant) down the hall to Lauber’s room where they tackled him, pinned him down while he screamed and teared up, and Romney cut off clumps of the hair he hated. “It was a hack job,” recalled Phillip Maxwell, who was in the room when the incident occurred. “It was vicious.” To ABC News, Maxwell claimed it was “supreme bullying.”
It’s worth repeating that the 1870 impetus for the American Mother’s Day holiday was remorse by Julia Ward Howe, composer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic. To her, the Civil War was futile. Mothers on both sides lost their sons to other mothers’ sons. She called for an international Mother’s Day to celebrate peace and motherhood and funded the early celebrations in 18 cities. Read her full proclamation here.
West Virginian Anna Jarvis modified Howe’s day to become Mothers’ Friendship Day to celebrate the reunion of families divided by the Civil War. Her daughter, Anna M. Jarvis, kept the flame alive by staging the first official Mother’s Day celebrations on May 10, 1908 in a Methodist church in Grafton, WV and another in Philadelphia. White carnations were given to attending mothers. In 1914 Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day a national observance.
Jarvis unsuccessfully fought the florist industry’s exploitation of the holiday until her death in 1948. For a fuller history, go here.
The popular, simplistic term suggests an acceptance of current situations as inevitable and unchangeable. It is a form of resignation. If we accept bullying as “the way it is,” we give away too much personal integrity. Instead, try “Question Authority” as the alternative.
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WBI Coach, Jessi Eden Brown, teaches her fellow counselors about workplace bullying and clears up misconceptions held by therapists in their work with bullied clients. Her letter to the editor of “Counseling Today,” the monthly publication for the American Counseling Association, was published in the May 2012 issue. With a readership of more than 46,000 mental health professionals, Counseling Today is a great way for us to raise awareness about workplace bullying!
Bad Bosses Beware: Minnesota whistleblower takes on issue of workplace bullying
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