Posts Tagged ‘occupational health’
Workplace bullying without consequences is not bullying
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
WBI introduced the British term “Workplace Bullying” to the U.S. back in 1997. We sometimes cringe when we see the bullying or bully terms tossed around glibly when people really mean to say “mean.” Bullying is so much more.
WBI defines workplace bullying as repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators that takes one or more of the following forms:
- Verbal abuse
- Offensive conduct/behaviors (including nonverbal) which are threatening, humiliating, or intimidating
- Work interference — sabotage — which prevents work from getting done
The public may focus on the acts themselves, for example, verbal abuse. The most popular measure of bullying used by academic researchers is called the Negative Acts Questionnaire. Most consider verbal abuse unilaterally delivered to be sufficient to call the act bullying and the actor a bully. But we have a contrarian view.
We believe acts alone do not constitute bullying. Some recipients of what we all would agree was verbal abuse are not negatively affected. They genuinely are not offended, hurt or damaged in any way. Individual differences in sensitivity and socialization can account for the very real result.
Bullying requires both a committed act (actually acts done on a chronic basis) AND a negative effect on the recipient, the target. Neither act nor harm alone defines bullying. Without tangible impact, when there is no harm, there is no foul. Caveat: The onset of harm may be delayed as is PTSD. The absence of immediate harm followed by a latent effect is still harm. If no harm ever manifests itself, then we can say the person was not harmed and, therefore, not bullied.
Tangible harm comes in at least four varieties.
Tags: economic harm, Gary Namie, health harm, occupational health, workplace bullying, workplace bullying definition
Posted in Bullying & Health, Tutorials About Bullying, WBI Education, WBI Surveys & Studies | 1 Archived Comment | Post A Comment (
Paid Sick Leave : Healthy Families Act (Federal)
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
On June 11 in the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and Labor, a hearing will be held for House version of the paid sick leave bill called the Healthy Families Act [In the House, it is HR 2460 (Rep. Rosa DeLauro, CT) and in the Senate it is S 1152 (Sen. Edward Kennedy (MA)]. The modest bill would guarantee 7 paid sick days per year for workers at businesses with 15 or more employees, to be used to recover from routine illness, care for a sick family member, or seek services to recover from domestic violence.
The folks at MomsRising.org want you to sign their petition alerting your U.S. Rep and Senators to support the respective bills. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will certainly fight this pro-employee health bill. They will claim it interferes with employers’ ability to “compete.”
Read the related report exposing America’s dismal denial of paid sick leave.
Stay tuned.
Tags: Chamber of Commerce, DeLauro, Healthy Families Act, HR2460, Kennedy, MomsRising, occupational health, S1152, sick leave
Posted in Bullying & Health, Fairness & Social Justice Denied, Healthy Workplace Bill (U.S. campaign) | 2 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
Shiftwork Destroys Employee Health
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
A marvelous article by Andrew Watterson in the summer 2009 UK Hazards Magazine reviews some of the newest occupational health research regarding the impact of working night and graveyard shifts (and rotating with dayturn) on employee health. There are increased risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, accidents, pregnancy problems, clinical depression and divorce. The article describes some of the biology involved.
This British article criticizes their government agency HSE. Know that the U.S. OSHA is even less protective of workers.
How realistic are limits when employers want to offer 24/7 operating hours? Nurses are especially vulnerable because patient care requires 24/7 coverage.
No summary can do justice to this detailed article. Read it in its entirety @ Hazards Magazine..
Tags: Add new tag, Hazards Magazine, NIOSH, occupational health, UK
Posted in Bullying & Health, Bullying-Related Research | 2 Archived Comments | Post A Comment (
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