Despite recent suggestions that targets of workplace bullying should simply grow up, there is ample evidence that dysfunctional workplaces overwhelm even the most mature and well-adjusted amongst us. This idea of blaming the victim is extremely outdated and ignorant.
Furthermore, we’ve argued that not only does this type of organisational dysfunction impact people in the workplace it is also an integral part of how workers compensation systems work. Injured workers (bullied or not prior to injury) become the target of overzealous employers and insurers obsessed with protecting their bottom-line costs and profits. And yes, the stress associated with management failures to address or even acknowledge the existence of this very real phenomena is dangerous to health.
In fact, British researchers McAvoy and Murtagh, (2003), aptly described this growing phenomenon by stating:
A deadly combination of economic rationalism, increasing competition, “downsizing,” and the current fashion for tough, dynamic, “macho” management styles have created a culture in which bullying can thrive, producing “toxic” workplaces. Such workplaces perpetuate dysfunction, fear, shame, and embarrassment, intimidating those who dare to speak out and nurturing a silent epidemic (p.776)
Date: 12 January 2012
Employees with abusive bosses often deal with the situation in ways that inadvertently make them feel worse, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Stress Management. That’s bad news, as research suggests that workplace abuse is linked to stress — and stress is linked to a laundry list of mental and physical ailments, including higher body weight and heart disease.
In at least one extreme case, workplace bullying has even been linked to suicide, much as schoolyard bullying has been linked to a rash of suicides among young people.
Bullying is “a form of abuse which carries tremendous health harm,” said Gary Namie, a social psychologist who directs the Workplace Bullying Institute. “That’s how you distinguish it from tough management or any of the other cutesy ways people use to diminish it.”
Struggle to cope
Namie was not involved in the new study, which surveyed nearly 500 employees about how they dealt with abusive supervision. Abusive supervisors are bosses who humiliate and insult their employees, never let them forget their mistakes, break promises and isolate employees from other co-workers, study author Dana Yagil of the University of Haifa in Israel told LiveScience.
About 13 to 14 percent of Americans work under an abusive supervisor, Yagil said. Her study on Israeli workers found that abused employees tend to cope by avoiding their bosses, seeking support from co-workers and trying to reassure themselves. As useful as those strategies might sound, however, they actually made employees feel worse. [7 Thoughts That Are Bad For You]
“It is understandable that employees wish to reduce the amount of their contact with an abusive boss to the minimum, but the strategies they use actually further increase their stress instead of reducing it,” Yagil said. “This may happen because these strategies are associated with a sense of weakness and perpetuate the employee’s fear of the supervisor.”
Tragic consequences
Avoiding a workplace bully might seem easier than avoiding a school bully, given that employees can quit their jobs. But workers get caught in a cycle of stress, Namie said. An online survey of targeted workers by the WBI found that they put up with the abuse for an average of 22 months.
The stress of the bullying may itself lead to bad decision-making, Namie said. A 2009 study in the journal Science found that stressed-out rats fail to adapt to changes in their environment. A portion of the stressed rats’ brains, the dorsomedial striatum, actually shrunk compared with that region in relaxed rats. The findings suggest that stress may actually re-wire the brain, creating a decision-making rut. The same may occur in bullied workers, Namie said.
“This is why a person can’t make quality decisions,” he said. “They can’t even consider alternatives. Just like a battered spouse, they don’t even perceive alternatives to their situations when they’re stressed and depressed and under attack.”
Sometimes this cycle ends with tragedy. Namie works as an expert legal witness on bullying. In one upcoming case, he said, a woman put up with daily barrages of screaming abuse from her boss for a year. By the end, she was working 18-hour days, trying to shield the employees under her from her boss’ tyranny, Namie said. Finally, she and several of her co-workers put together a 25-page complaint to human resources. Nothing happened, until she was called in for a meeting with senior management. The woman knew she would be fired for making the complaint, Namie said.
“Rather than allowing herself to be terminated, she bought a pistol, went to work, left three suicide notes, and she took her own life at work,” he said.
“She was like that rat stuck in a rut,” he added. “She didn’t see any alternative at that point.”
Why bullying happens
While all workplace-bullying cases are not so extreme, it does seem to be a common problem, said Sandy Herschcovis, a professor of business administration at the University of Manitoba who studies workplace aggression. Between 70 and 80 percent of Americans report rudeness and incivility at work, Herschcovis told LiveScience. Fewer are systematically bullied, she said, but the best estimate puts the number at about 41 percent of American workers having been psychologically harassed at work at some point.
Hierarchical organizations such as the military tend to have higher rates of bullying, Herschcovis said, as do places where the environment is highly competitive.
“Definitely the organizational context contributes,” Herschcovis said.
The personality of the bully is often key, with some research suggesting that childhood bullies become bullies as adults, she said. Targets of bullying are often socially anxious, have low self-esteem, or have personality traits such as narcissism, Herschcovis said. “We don’t want to blame the victim, but we recognize this more and more as a relationship” between the bully and the target, she said.
Little research has been done on how to deal with abusive bosses or bullying co-workers. In mild cases, where a boss may not realize how their behavior is coming across, direct confrontation might work, Yagil said. One research-based program that seems to have potential is called the Civility, Respect and Engagement at Work project, Herschcovis said. That program has been shown to improve workplace civility, reduce cynicism and improve job satisfaction and trust among employees, she said. The program has employees discuss rudeness and incivility in their workplace and make plans to improve. [8 Tactics to Bust the Office Bully]
For workers experiencing bullying, Herschcovis recommended reporting specific behavior to higher-ups, as well as examining one’s own behavior. Sometimes victims inadvertently contribute to the bullying relationship, she said. Namie cautioned that victims should proceed with care, however, as there are no anti-bullying workplace laws on the books in the U.S.
“HR [human resources] has no power or clout to make senior management stop,” Namie said. “Without the laws, they’re not mandated to make policies, and without the mandate, they don’t know what to do.”
Since 2003, 21 states have introduced some version of anti-bullying bills, but none have yet passed. Twelve states have legislation pending in 2012, according to healthyworkplacebill.org.
In the meantime, Herschcovis and her colleagues have found that bystanders in the workplace are usually sympathetic to the victim rather than the bully.
“Outside parties are most likely to want to intervene, and to be in a position to intervene,” Herschcovis said. The trick, she added, will be to find ways to encourage co-workers to stand up for one another.
http://wp.me/p1MA9G-2Yb
Talking about bullying…
Greens accuse Libs of bullying women during hospital hearings
[10 July 2012]
The ACT Greens have joined the political stoush over the data-doctoring scandal at the Canberra Hospital, accusing the Canberra Liberals of ”bullying” women at a committee hearing this month.
The Health Care Consumers’ Association has also described as ”overly brutal” the behaviour of Liberals MLAs at the July 5 hearing.
But Liberal frontbencher Jeremy Hanson defended his conduct and said that the Canberra Liberals were asking hard questions to get to the bottom of the falsification of patient records.
Greens MLA Amanda Bresnan said about 40 pages of a 70-page transcript from the July 5 hearing showed Opposition Leader Zed Seselja and health spokesman Mr Hanson asking questions, while a further five showed them berating MLAs and officials.
Advertisement
Ms Bresnan, who chaired the heated session of the Select Committee on Estimates, said: ”I’ve got to the point where it has to be called – they are bullying.”
The data scandal will be examined again today by the Public Accounts Committee, and Mr Hanson wrote to its chairwoman this week, claiming that Labor and Greens MLAs ”filibustered”, or wasted the committee’s time on July 5 to ”protect Katy Gallagher”.
Ms Bresnan said the opposition health spokesman’s claims were not supported by the Hansard transcript of the hearing.
”The manner in which Zed Seselja and Jeremy Hanson conducted themselves is very clear from reading the Hansard. They are extremely disrespectful of the committee.”
Ms Bresnan said she had been ridiculed by the Canberra Liberals during the hearing for asking a question about a key recommendation in the Auditor-General’s report.
”The Liberal Party should really consider if he [Mr Hanson] is the best person to be their health spokesman, because it’s quite clear he doesn’t understand the portfolio and he’s doing a disservice to their party,” she said. Mr Hanson and Mr Seselja were particularly aggressive towards female MLAs and hers was the only job she had worked in ”where bullying is not only expected, it’s encouraged”.
But Mr Hanson ”absolutely” rejected accusations he was a bully, saying it was ”simply untrue” he was harsher with female MLAs.
”To suggest that questions be posed differently based on gender is very derogatory and in itself sexist,” he said.
Mr Hanson said he and his Liberal colleagues simply wanted to get to the bottom of the data scandal.
”It’s quite clear it has got heated because you have one party that wants answers and who wants to ask questions and two that don’t and who are essentially in alliance and want this swept under the carpet,” he said.
Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/greens-accuse-libs-of-bullying-women-during-hospital-hearings-20120718-22avb.html#ixzz21E273FYo
Tertiary bullying needs action, says academic
[20 Jyly 2012]
BULLYING in Australian universities is widespread and should be investigated across the tertiary sector, says the academic responsible for a damning report into one of Sydney’s top universities.
Sarah Gregson’s Report into Workplace Bullying at UNSW, first reported in the Herald in March, uncovered a culture of bullying and intimidation at the university, and has now been submitted to a federal inquiry into workplace bullying. Dr Gregson, an academic at the university and the local branch representative of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), said she would be lobbying the union to extend her survey to other institutions.
”I’ve sent that report to a range of activists around the union and they say there’s nothing in there that they’re not very familiar with, so we just need to keep continue to keep campaigning … We’d like the parliamentary inquiry to recommend improved legislation in the area.”
In an email to staff yesterday the vice-president, university services at UNSW, Neil Morris, rejected Dr Gregson’s report, saying there was no pattern of bullying and the research methods were not sound.
Advertisement
”We have expressed our concern to the NTEU that the survey methodology is flawed,” he said. ”For example, the survey identified bullying as broadly as ‘staff being treated differently from another colleague’, ‘arbitrary decision making with negative impacts on someone’, and ‘imposition of unreasonable deadlines’. The extraordinary disconnect between the survey’s findings – including that more than two-thirds of staff said they had been bullied – and the total number of complaints received at the institutional level, and statistics from other sources, highlights the study’s questionable methodology.”
Among the report’s findings, the majority of 552 respondents had experienced or witnessed bullying behaviours including 68 per cent who said they had been bullied, and 83 per cent who had been a witness.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/tertiary-education/tertiary-bullying-needs-action-says-academic-20120719-22d52.html#ixzz21E2j0R6Z
You can’t read a paper without some massive bullying story…
Walkerville Council a ‘toxic’ workplace, says union
[17 July 2012]
THE Australian Service Union is calling on Walkerville Council’s elected members to help stamp out bullying at the council, which a union report has described as a “textbook example of a toxic workplace”.
But all but one Walkerville councillor declined to comment on the allegations that 23 council staff had been bullied or seen others bullied in the three years to November 2011.
The claims contained in the survey have not been independently tested or been the subject of any findings.
Mayor Heather Wright said late last week the council would submit to an external investigation into the union’s allegations.
ASU branch secretary Katrine Hildyard said the union launched its probe on the back of allegations from staff that they felt “unsafe” at work.
“Basically what people have been experiencing is verbal abuse, excessive criticism, feeling they don’t feel like they can’t do anything right (and) having their jobs threatened,” Ms Hildyard told the City North Messenger last week.
She wants to meet with elected members “so people don’t have to feel this unsafe again”.
“I want them to talk with us and hear about what is happening and engage with us so we can get a resolution, so that the workplace is a healthy and safe one,” she said.
“We are saying that right now this isn’t a safe workplace and is not acting in accordance with their enterprise agreement and health and safety legislation.”
Cr Tony Reade was the only councillor to comment when contacted by the City North Messenger last week.
“I’m convinced that there is no case (for the council) to answer,” Cr Reade said.
The City North Messenger reported online last week that, of the 20 survey participants who were employed at the council at the time of the survey, 16 alleged the bullying was “ongoing or current”.
The ASU had lodged a claim in the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) in February on behalf of its members, asking for action to be taken to make the workplace safe.
A staff member or former staff member last month also lodged a claim in the IRC in relation to bullying.
Ms Hildyard said she understood the council had close to a 100 per cent staff turnover in the past three years.
Messenger understands 30-35 people are employed by the council.
In the survey, some staff said they had felt humiliated and threatened. “Excessive criticism” and “withholding information” were listed as major concerns.
“The results demonstrate what probably can be seen as a textbook example of a toxic workplace,” the report said.
In a statement issued last week in response to questions submitted by the City North Messenger, Ms Wright said the council planned to “engage” an investigator “as recommended through the Commission process”.
The investigator’s findings would be shared with all staff, Ms Wright promised.
“Elected members . . . have been kept fully informed of the progress of matters in the Industrial Relations Commission regarding allegations of bullying and harassment in the council,” Ms Wright said.
“I can assure the community that (the) council takes these allegations seriously. I would be concerned if the union views the right of the employer to make organisational changes and managing staff through the process as ‘bullying and harassment’.
“I am assured by our industrial advisors that the practices in place to address these matters have been sound.”
Ms Wright said council and staff were working to “ensure that we can quickly regain the positive image of (the) council that we have enjoyed for some considerable time.”
It is interesting reading all the article on here about bullying.
Bullying in “any” workplace is a deliberate form of harassment and “is still ” encouraged by senior management .
As there are laws put in place against harassment one would expect that these laws apply to the workplace.
In hospitals around the country the police force are reticent to intervene even when a matter of harassment is reported.
The most used excuse from hospital management is that it is an internal issue.
When this “internal issue” sees its way into local courts or the supreme court what occurs is interesting. Local courts and sometimes the federal magistrates courts the matter is usually “resolved” with a no guilt liability payout to the victim before the court convenes.
There does appear a large trend for the matter to be in front of the supreme court or magistrates court when an insurance company and employer refuse to believe that they are responsible or accountable for workplace bullying and harassment.
It is evident from notes of proceedings that these companies above are hell bent on denying anything and go to great lengths when there is clear evidence to the contrary.
Hospitals in particular have faceless people behind the scenes, when subpoenaed, are questioned at length in court and will deny any responsibility that a poisonous and toxic workplace culture exists when clear evidence to the contrary, exists.
When there is and has been clear and irrefutable evidence of a workplace manager bullying, harassing,intimidating and defaming other staff for her own gain one does get very concerned at to the lack of proper disciplinary procedures that her superiors haven’t proceeded with .
One would expect that as a former director general of health NSW was ” removed ” or was asked to leave, one would expect that this lovely manager be shown the same.
Or wouldn’t it be the norm for the area health service to pay her out or a redundancy package.
It’s very odd isn’t it as NSW Health, the Area Health Services and of course her superiors know this managers history of bullying and harassment.