Posts Tagged ‘WBI-Zogby’
Bullying At Work Made Her Sick but Legal Remedies Are Few
Sunday, July 26th, 2009
by Rebecca Catalanello St. Petersburg (Florida) Times
Article features the brave and bullied target Julie Soderstrom. As well as ridiculous notions from employer attorney Karen Buesing that corporations facing cutbacks are less likely to tolerate the antics of an employee who is perceived to be a bully and “There are too many great people out there who are not abusive.”
And the comment “Could you be a whinier baby? Blame a bully for everything. Perhaps you are just mentally weak…” from Keith. Yeh, right! The pro-corporate mindset has blinded workers to their ability to feel compassion for other workers.
Tags: St. Petersburg Times, WBI-Zogby
Posted in Bullying in the News, Health Care | 5 Comments »
Bullying Is Epidemic
Monday, July 13th, 2009
Two accepted Public Health thresholds are 200 cases per 100,000 (p=0.002) and the 1996 UK Dept of Health estimate of 400 cases per 100,000 (p=0.004). Relying on our WBI-Zogby US prevalence statistics, 18.5 million workers are currently being bullied. The 200 case threshold is only 294,000 cases and the 400 case threshold is 588,000. Using either epidemiological standard, bullying is an epidemic. Because it spans the continents, it is also pandemic! Finally, a non-technical definition of an epidemic is a disease that spreads more quickly and more extensively among a group of people than would “normally” be expected. Help us all if abusive interpersonal misconduct at work has become the norm and routinely expected.
Tags: epidemic, pandemic, WBI-Zogby
Posted in Bullying Tutorials, Health Care, Science | 1 Comment »
Bullying at Work Worsens for 5 Million Americans
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Thanks if you were one of the 456 June WBI Survey respondents, 99% of whom were individuals who had been bullied or witnessed it. We asked if bullying began after Sept 2008, the time when the economic global crisis suddenly was recognized. Our intuitive guess was that tough times escalate bullying.
27.5% did say that the bullying worsened (it was more abusive, severe or frequent) after Sept. and 37% of respondents said that employers blamed financial troubles on the economic downturn. You can read the results of the brief survey here.
(more…)
Tags: bullying prevalence, economic crisis, recession, recession and bullying, research, survey, WBI-Zogby
Posted in Bullying Tutorials, Science | 2 Comments »
How a woman becomes a bully
Sunday, June 7th, 2009
Yet another story with the woman-on-woman bullying angle. However, UK Andrea Adams Trust director Lyn Wetheridge makes the more important point that the recession has increased bullying. Andrea Adams coined the phrase “workplace bullying” in Britain and led the movement until her death. The AA Trust is the forerunner to the American WBI.
How A Woman Becomes a Bully
More employees are suffering at their colleagues’ hands
By Carly Chynoweth and Tariq Tahi
The Sunday Times (London)
June 7, 2009
Tags: Andrea Adams, NY Times, Sunday Times, UK, WBI-Zogby, woman-on-woman
Posted in Bullying in the News | 1 Comment »
Why U.S. Employers Do So Little
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Many of the facts below have been confirmed by the 2007 WBI-Zogby Survey.
- Targets under report it (40% of targets never tell). Employers simply may not know about it.
- Most (80%) bullying is legal, rendering laws and law-compliant policies inapplicable
- Thus, 62% of employers either do nothing or worsen the situation (retaliation) because they can do so with legal impunity.
- The majority of bullies (73%) are managers; senior managers and HR reflexively side with management when disputes arise.
- Bullies derive 73% of their support from executives, peer managers and HR
- Bullies (an unknown percentage) are following orders from above
- Executives have been bullied by the bullies. They are afraid to act. They have a disproportionate fear of lawsuits brought by the bully if they dare investigate or sanction the bully.
- Bullies invented their reputation as indispensable high-performers in case they were ever exposed. Target complainants are then not believed.
- Employers don’t actually know how to stop it. They forgot the lessons learned from having to correct and prevent illegal discrimination.
- Employers don’t recognize bullying as violence in the workplace. The problem is erroneously defined as “conflict,” and the wrong solutions are applied.
- Our society is highly aggressive and competitive. Bullies embody these two popular tactics. Hostility is more normative than the exception. So, bullying/abuse/psychological violence at work is positively embraced more often than despised.
WBI
Tags: conflict, employers, WBI-Zogby
Posted in Bullying Tutorials, Employer Action/Inaction | 1 Comment »
Backlash: Women Bullying Women at Work
Sunday, May 10th, 2009
By MICKEY MEECE
New York Times
May 10, 2009
YELLING, scheming and sabotaging: all are tell-tale signs that a bully is at work, laying traps for employees at every pass.
During this downturn, as stress levels rise, workplace researchers say, bullies are likely to sharpen their elbows and ratchet up their attacks.
It’s probably no surprise that most of these bullies are men, as a survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group, makes clear. But a good 40 percent of bullies are women. And at least the male bullies take an egalitarian approach, mowing down men and women pretty much in equal measure. The women appear to prefer their own kind, choosing other women as targets more than 70 percent of the time.
In the name of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, what is going on here?
Tags: NY Times, WBI-Zogby, woman-on-, women bullies, women targets
Posted in Bullying in the News | 25 Comments »
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WBI is the only United States organization dedicated to the eradication of workplace bullying that combines help for individuals, research, public education, consulting for employers, and legislative advocacy.