Posts Tagged ‘Gary Namie’
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 (
WBI Podcast 33: Workplace Bullying is more than incivility and disrespect
Thursday, May 16th, 2013
More Than Incivility and Disrespect
Workplace bullying is a form of violence more severe and harmful than either incivility or disrespect.
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Tags: disrespect, Gary Namie, incivility, Podcasts, workplace bullying, Workplace Bullying Institute
Posted in Podcasts, WBI Education | No 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 (
New WBI Instant Poll — Uses of social media for workplace bullying
Tuesday, May 14th, 2013
Loading ...Tags: Gary Namie, research, social media, WBI Instant Poll, workplace bullying
Posted in WBI Education, WBI Surveys & Studies | 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 (
The Courage to Face Workplace Bullying Demons
Thursday, May 2nd, 2013
Are bullies demons? Bully apologists abhor “demonizing” abusers in the workplace. What’s the alternative? Revere them. Thank them for showing us how loathsome and dark can be the human condition? Ignore their cruelty foisted on the best and brightest workers whose principal goal of every day is to be “left alone” to do their jobs? Of course, that’s exactly what bully apologists do. We think they stand on the wrong side of the moral fence.
We at WBI are target-centric. We’ve chosen the other side. We didn’t start the U.S. Workplace Bullying movement to treat it as an academic exercise in neutrality. Targets deserve and need support. Institutions do a fine job of defending perpetrators.
Tags: bullies, courage, coworkers, demons, EFT, EMDR, evil, Gary Namie, Ruth Namie, witnesses, workplace bullying
Posted in Target Tale, WBI Education | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
The Free Lance-Star: They Stand Up to Workplace Bullies
Monday, April 22nd, 2013
By Cathy Jett, (Fredericksburg, VA) The Free Lance-Star, April 20, 2013
Dr. Ruth Namie thought she’d be helping families solve their problems when she began working in a private clinic in 1995.
Instead, the clinical psychiatrist ran into one of her own. Her name was Sheila, and she proved to be the proverbial “boss from hell.”
Sheila was nice for the first three weeks, then began complaining that Namie was “worthless,” said Namie’s husband, social psychologist Gary Namie.
The bullying ratcheted up when Sheila overheard clients say that they drove an hour just to see Namie, and were urging others to go to her instead of Sheila. Sheila stripped Namie of her clinical work and gave her clerical work instead.
The Namies hired a lawyer, but discovered to their dismay that there was nothing illegal about one woman bullying another. They figured there must be some organization that could help, but there wasn’t one. So the couple started the Campaign Against Workplace Bullying.
Tags: Gary Namie, Healthy Workplace Bill, Ruth Namie, The Free Lance-Star, workplace bullying, Workplace Bullying Institute
Posted in WBI in the News | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
WBI Director coming to Baltimore, New York City, Minneapolis, Minnetonka
Saturday, April 20th, 2013
Upcoming Appearances by Dr. Gary Namie
AFT-Healthcare Conference/Baltimore April 25
New York State Psychological Association/New York City April 28
Hennepin County Bar Association/Minneapolis April 30
Free public event/Ridgeway Library/Minnetonka, MN April 30
Workplace Bullying University, Bellingham, WA May 10-12
Work, Stress & Health Conference (APA/NIOSH)/Los Angeles May 17 & 18
Tags: Gary Namie, workplace bullying, Workplace Bullying Institute
Posted in Events & Appearances | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Top 25 workplace bullying tactics
Friday, April 19th, 2013
From the WBI 2003 Abusive Workplaces Survey:
Top 25 tactics adopted by workplace bullies (as reported by bullied targets)
1. falsely accused someone of “errors” not actually made (71%)
2. stared, glared, was nonverbally intimidating and was clearly showing hostility (68%)
3. discounted the person’s thoughts or feelings (“oh, that’s silly”) in meetings (64%)
4. used the “silent treatment” to “ice out” & separate from others (64%)
5. exhibited presumably uncontrollable mood swings in front of the group (61%)
6. made up own rules on the fly that even she/he did not follow (61%)
7. disregarded satisfactory or exemplary quality of completed work despite evidence (58%)
8. harshly and constantly criticized having a different ‘standard’ for the Target (57%)
9. started, or failed to stop, destructive rumors or gossip about the person (56%)
10. encouraged people to turn against the person being tormented (55%)
11. singled out and isolated one person from co-workers, either socially or physically (54%) 12. publicly displayed “gross,” undignified, but not illegal, behavior (53%)
13. yelled, screamed, threw tantrums in front of others to humiliate a person (53%)
14. stole credit for work done by others (47%)
15. abused the evaluation process by lying about the person’s performance (46%)
16. “insubordinate” for failing to follow arbitrary commands (46%)
17. used confidential information about a person to humiliate privately or publicly (45%)
18. retaliated against the person after a complaint was filed (45%)
19. made verbal put-downs/insults based on gender, race, accent or language, disability (44%)
20. assigned undesirable work as punishment (44%)
21. made undoable demands– workload, deadlines, duties — for person singled out (44%)
22. launched a baseless campaign to oust the person and not stopped by the employer (43%)
23. encouraged the person to quit or transfer rather than to face more mistreatment (43%)
24. sabotaged the person’s contribution to a team goal and reward (41%)
25. ensured failure of person’s project by not performing required tasks: signoffs, taking calls, working with collaborators (40%)
You can download the entire study here.
© 2003, Workplace Bullying Institute.
Tags: Gary Namie, things bullies do, Workplace Bullying Institute, workplace bullying tactics
Posted in WBI Education, WBI Surveys & Studies | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Rare, clear, condemning opinion from a politician — Gabby Giffords on cowardly senators
Thursday, April 18th, 2013
Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords wrote in a New York Times guest editorial forcefully about her feelings toward (46) U.S. Senators who voted against the gun control package of bills on April 17. Excerpts from her Op-Ed article are below.
We advocates for anti-bullying legislation are told to tiptoe around lawmakers lest we offend them. Meanwhile the business lobbyists lie about bullying and the specifics of our bill. We get crushed by remaining civil and polite. It’s time for a change.
But Giffords reminds us that elected officials work for us and can be fired when they make wrong decisions. When their self-interest in re-election funds overwhelm doing the right thing for public safety and they coddle the NRA and Gun Owners of America and do their bidding instead. Her remarks are not delicate. Candor from this former politician is welcome.
We take her words as inspiration for all who help the campaign to enact the Healthy Workplace Bill. Giffords is a one-issue advocate now, like us. She spares no wrath when telling the truth. We should be so bold.
Here is some of what she wrote:
Tags: cowardly senators, Gabrielle Giffords, Gary Namie, gun control, Healthy Workplace Bill
Posted in Commentary by G. Namie, Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign), The New America, Workplace Bullying Laws | No Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
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