A National Disgrace
By Joyce Mullins
The Daily Times - Salisbury, MD
December 20, 2007
Now that the schools are taking belated action to curb bullying in the classroom, isn't it time we look at the grown-up bully?
Bullying in the workplace is a national disgrace -- and an expensive one.
Psychologist Michael H. Harrison, Ph.D., cited a survey of 9,000 federal employees indicating that 42 percent of female and 15 percent of male employees reported being harassed during a two-year period resulting in a cost of more than $180 million in lost time and productivity.
If that's a fair estimate for one small segment of employees, it's reasonable to think that the workplace bully costs business a bundle.
The human cost is immeasurable.
Money usually gets the boss's attention, but there might be a reason the boss has his or her own reason to keep this ugly workplace reality under wraps.
Gary and Ruth Namie, two Ph.Ds, reveal in their book "The Bully at Work" that 89 percent of the bullies in the workplace are the bosses themselves! I don't use an exclamation point very often, but that statistic deserves one.
My interest in the workplace bully was ignited when a friend of mine confided in me that he was being harassed at work.
It was the third time in a few years that a friend had gone through incredible stress and emotional trauma at the hands of a bully at work.
One friend was bullied in a privately owned company. Another spent years building a career in a medium-sized corporation and another worked for one of the big chains.
What they all went through was remarkably similar, however.
Each had gone through the proper reporting channels as outlined by his or her respective company's Human Resources manual.
Each was stunned to learn that management seemed to have little or no interest in helping. Each was victimized again in the process.
As I read the book, I was amazed to learn my friends' experience was not unusual. Many employers don't really want to help. In some circumstances, companies don't even recognize the problem. What they really want is not to be held accountable.
Not all of the people I knew who were bullied at work were victimized by their bosses, but that 89 percent national average is just such a huge number it's hard to ignore what influence that's got to have over any rules.
An employee who has been punished for reporting abuse might think he works for maniacs.
"Business 2 Business" writer Ira S. Wolfe, reviewing the book "Snakes in Suits," pointed out that some of the same qualities companies look for in leadership -- ambition, resilience, charm, charisma -- are characteristics shared by bright psychopaths.
"All you have to do is remove a moral conscience and the incapability of empathy, guilt or loyalty to anyone but themselves and ... you have a psychopath," he said, perhaps with his tongue wedged in his teeth.
So, if there's no rescue at HR, where do you go for help?
According to www.workplacebullyinglaw.org, only 13 states have introduced a bill against workplace bullying since 2003. None have yet passed.
Four states -- New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Washington -- have worked on bills recently. Let's urge our legislators to make business-friendly Delaware workplaces safer for productive employees.
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Joyce Mullins has worked for newspapers in Delaware for more than 30 years. Send feedback to jmullins03@comcast.net.
