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Bullying in the Workplace - Case Study

December 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By Helene Richards and Sheila Freeman.

These stories come from real people in real pain. You may be shocked at what goes in in some workplaces, perhaps even in your own. Or if you have been a victim yourself you will acknowledge and identify with these stories.

Workplace Bullying Case Studies

“When I started there, I was told that someone had been acting in the position and had expected to get the job. This person continually undermined me and turned other staff against me. I endured twelve months of hell, and felt as if I was sinking in quicksand.” (Mavis)

“I went on stress leave but the thought of returning filled me with such dread that I never went back.” (Ian)

“You always find reasons, excuses for it. It’s the old clichéd question of why anyone puts up with violence: you always think you can change him, you always feel it’s your fault, if you don’t provoke him, everything’s fine…” (Sandra)

“The misery took over my whole life. I turned nasty and bitter, and treated my wife and kids like whipping posts. After many visits to a psychologist, I was able to think of all the positive things in my life, you know, the family, my age and experience in relation to future job prospects … lots of things that put the situation into perspective. Now I look back and think, well, I wouldn’t want to go through that experience again, but in the end it was just a job I lost.” (Michael)

“I had lost my identity and self-esteem, and there was a lot of unresolved anger that I had to let go of before I could channel my energies into the future.” (John)

“I practically turned myself inside out to gain his approval but went nowhere in the company. He ignored my input at meetings, sneered and talked through my presentations. Friends in the business passed on quite vicious rumours about me. I know he started them, but have no proof. At my annual appraisal, all he said was, ‘I suggest that you look for another job.’” (Simone)

“He was out to get her. He started a campaign of whispers and innuendo. At meetings he always made her seem inefficient or unreasonable, hinted that hormones made her behave irrationally, that she was hysterical, menopausal. Little things, all done so carefully that it wasn’t easy to say he was behind it. But he was.” (Robyn)

“I felt as if I was in a long, dark tunnel.” (Sue)

“I wanted to go to sleep and not wake up.” (Marita)

“I had a physical and mental breakdown – a persistent skin rash, absolutely no energy. Everything was grey. There was no colour or joy in my life. I could barely raise a smile. I lost hope for the future. My wife left me.” (Henry)

“I was most hurt by the malice and vindictiveness shown by my colleagues.” (Margaret)

“I am experiencing emotional abuse from my male manager. He is a control freak, must have everything his way and he is a very domineering personality. He likes to be in control of everything and I am nervous around him.” (Paula)

“When I reported her behaviour to our supervisor, I was told I was being over-sensitive. He also suggested I should just “stay in my office”. I began to believe it was my fault. I started having panic attacks and thought I was going crazy. Eventually I had to leave, and haven’t worked since. I will never be the same happy, confident person I was before she bullied me.” (Carla)

Tracy’s Story

“I am a 43-year-old primary school teacher in Australia and my life was turned upside down when I transferred to a remote country school some seven years ago. I have been teaching for over twelve years, worked for many private companies, and have always received glowing references. While at University, I received many letters from the Dean congratulating me on my performance and eventually topped my final year. I had never been bullied in the workplace so I had no idea what was going on until I became so ill that I could no longer face going to work.

Some of my experiences were:

  • Told by a colleague/superior that it wouldn’t matter if I was dead (done in private, of course)
  • Physically pushed three times (the pusher apologised, but can three times in ten minutes be an accident?)
  • Isolated – staff involved would never sit with me during morning tea, lunches, meetings, courses, etc. My name was omitted from birthday acknowledgements. All other staff names on whiteboard in staff room and on work trays were in black, only mine was in red. When we were asked to bring a plate for morning teas or special lunches, no one ate any of mine. I volunteered to help on many projects only to find later that the projects had been completed without my help.
  • Humiliated often: dunce hat put on my head during school performance; coerced to skip in front of whole school; yelled at during meetings; singled out for arriving late to a meeting (others arrived late but no comment made); at a staff night out and after dinner we went to a bar and the Principal said, ‘Come on, Trace, let’s find you a man.’ (Needless to say I am single); ridiculed or ignored about complaints/concerns about students; at school performances or meet-the-parent nights, one member of staff introduces staff with a bright, bubbly tone but the tone always changed significantly when I was introduced; office staff sending children with offensive messages; lunch thrown in the bin.
  • Psychological games to make me feel as though something was wrong with me: told by Principal, ‘We’re going to toughen you up, Trace - now we’re going to up the anti’ (things heated up for me after this); while I was questioned individually about child sex abuse, the remainder of staff were asked to do the same during a staff meeting; I was repeatedly talked over as though what I had to say was irrelevant; teachers constantly interrupted my dealing with playground matters and would take over the matters; told that nobody would want to work with me during a lunch time disco; jobs were taken from me without notification or justification.
  • Denied appropriate resources to do my job effectively: told 30 pieces of art paper was my quota for the year; denied key to store personal belongings; automatic financial assistance for an emotionally disturbed boy in my class withheld, etc.
  • I am a vegetarian and my love of animals was well known. During a lunch, twp bullies sat beside me (unusual, I thought, then I got it) and vividly described a frog dissection. During a dinner, one bully described the removal of a road-kill kangaroo’s testicles. My bullies knew of my pet house rabbit, a much-loved little friend – in one day, one bully described vividly three times how she had cut her finger whilst chopping up a rabbit, while another bully laughed hysterically.

This is only a sample of the behaviour I had to put up with on a daily basis for six years. A few years ago, a doctor asked me if I was depressed. I dismissed this though, looking back, if I had addressed the problem then, perhaps my symptoms would not be so bad today.

I have major depressive illness now, with anxiety attacks so bad that I lay and groan on the floor or bed. I have night-time enuresis that worsens when highly stressed. I have tried to commit suicide, have become a recluse, and am a shadow of my former confident self. I am still fighting for worker’s compensation – my confusion and bewilderment has now turned to fury and anger upon being enlightened about bullying.”

(Tracey, NSW)

 

Source: http://www.sheilafreemanconsulting.biz/case-studies.htm

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Bullying In The Workplace On The Rise

December 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By on Monday 4 January 2010 23.23 GMT

• Cases have doubled in last six months, survey shows
• Lawyers say economic downturn is to blame

The recession has seen a big increase in bullying at work, the Guardian has learned. One in 10 employees experience workplace bullying and harassment, according to the conciliation service Acas, while a survey by the union Unison reports that more than one-third of workers said they were bullied in the past six months, double the number a decade ago.

“The fact that bullying has doubled in the past decade is shocking,” said Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison.

Fraser Younson, head of employment at the law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner, said: “In the last year or so, as running businesses has become more difficult, the way managers interface with their staff has become more demanding. Managers are chasing things up, being more critical. If they are not trained to deal with increased levels of stress, then we are seeing them do this in a way that makes staff feel bullied.”

Samantha Mangwana, an employment solicitor at Russell Jones & Walker, said: “We are getting a very high level of cases. Most of the people who come to us with a problem at work talk about bullying. It frequently arises in people’s line-manager relationship.”

Employment lawyers say allegations of bullying have become a frequent feature of claims for unfair dismissal and discrimination.

Support groups are struggling to cope with the rise in cases, with one helpline recently forced to close.

“We have been overwhelmed by a huge rise in complaints over the last two years,” said Lyn Witheridge, who ran the Andrea Adams Trust bullying helpline until last year. “We had to close the charity and the helpline because we couldn’t cope with the number of calls – they more than doubled to 70 a day.

“The recession has become a playground for many bullies who know they can get away with it. Under pressure, budgets have got to be met. Managers are bullying people as a way of forcing them out and getting costs down.”

News of the increase comes amid a number of high-profile employment tribunal cases, including a News of the World sports reporter, Matt Driscoll, who was awarded almost £800,000 by an east London tribunal after he suffered “a consistent pattern of bullying behaviour” from staff, including Andy Coulson, now David Cameron’s head of communications.

Last month two yeomen were sacked from the Tower of London after an inquiry revealed a campaign of bullying against Moira Cameron, the first female yeoman warder in the tower’s 1,000-year history.

“We see some cases of bullying in discrimination where the employer invokes what we colloquially call the ‘bastard defence’,” said Mangwana. “Their defence is that they were a bastard to everyone, so it’s not discriminatory.”

Academics have long warned of the link between economic conditions and bullying, with studies in the 1980s and 1990s predicting that workplace competition and the threat of redundancy were most likely to cause an increase. The decline of trade unions and of collective action has also been cited as a factor.

Experts also believe that press coverage of bullying cases has raised awareness, encouraging more employees to take advantage of what has been described as an “explosion” of individual employment rights over recent years.

Although “bullying” is not a legal term, cases of bullying at work have arisen through employment law, health and safety and protection from harassment legislation. But news of the rise in bullying cases across different jurisdictions, which research suggests contributes to the 13.7m working days lost every year as a result of stress and depression, has prompted criticism that the government has failed to adequately address the problem.

“The increase in tribunal claims this year is part of a lurch towards the American culture of litigation, but that is not necessarily the answer,” said Witheridge. “More should be done to resolve bullying disputes without litigation, and for people to be treated with the dignity they deserve at work, while also being strongly managed.”

The government said it was working to tackle the problem. Lord Young, the employment relations minister, said: “Workplace harassment and violence is unacceptable and the government is committed to addressing these problems.”

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/jan/04/bullying-workplace-recession

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Workplaces Feel The Impact of Obesity

December 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By

From cubicle farms to auto factories, accommodating larger and heavier employees has become a fact of life. One in three U.S. adults is obese, and researchers say the impact on business can be boiled down to a number: $1,000 to $6,000 in added cost per year for each obese employee, the figure rising along with a worker’s body mass index.

Studies estimate the total cost of obesity to U.S. employers — including lost productivity — at $73 billion a year. But that figure doesn’t include some of the smaller ways the workplace is adapting.

In the middle of a sprawling tech trade show in Washington, D.C., tucked down an aisle, is a display of Big and Tall office chairs.

“You can see the large seat pan,” says Pete Gaffney of Ergogenesis, known for its line of Bodybilt chairs.

Gaffney says the chair supports up to 500 pounds, but “if someone were to weigh 430 pounds, they’d be too large for that seat pan. So we had to move to a Bariatric seat, a very wide seat.”

That chair came on the market two years ago. It’s priced at $1,300 or more and is able to hold up to 600 pounds. To even Gaffney’s surprise, it’s selling; in his region alone he gets two to three requests a month.

“A certain government agency in town actually purchased 645 of these chairs, for [use] nationwide,” he says. “Tremendous amount of demand.”

Chairs are only the most obvious change. Managers tell NPR about having to buy company pickup trucks, even though compact cars would suit the job; about installing sturdier toilets when wall-mounted ones collapse; and even remodeling to expand the space between a front desk and the wall.

All of this costs extra, although it’s nothing compared with obesity’s impact on health care.

“High blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol issues,” says Steve Morgenstern, who manages health and welfare plans for the Dow Chemical Co., based in Michigan. “Arthritis, knee replacements, hip replacements. Many things can come from obesity, so absolutely that impacts our trend.”

Making Adjustments

Studies estimate that nearly 10 percent of U.S. corporate health care costs are due to obesity and its complications. For a large company like Dow, that means tens of millions of dollars a year. On top of that is lost productivity, not just from doctor’s appointments and sick days but also, research suggests, because obese workers are simply less efficient on the job.

“What are you going to do, cut them out of the workforce? Of course not,” says Michael Berman, a lobbyist and longtime political player in Washington, D.C., who has chronicled his own struggles with obesity.

What are you going to do, cut them out of the workforce? Of course not.

- Michael Berman, lobbyist and author

Berman admits his weight — close to 335 pounds at its peak — has taken a toll on his body. He has two replaced knees, figures he’ll soon have to replace a hip, and is facing end-stage renal failure. No doubt, he could not have been a policeman or fireman, he says. But “for most jobs, it would make no difference in the work that I do whether I weighed 100 pounds or 250, as I weigh today.”

With so many Americans now obese, Berman believes employers “will make adjustments to the extent that they have a skill which is necessary, useful and in demand.”

In many ways, employers are already doing that. But “we will all benefit from solving this problem,” says Avi Dor, of George Washington University, who has researched the cost of obesity not just for business but also for obese employees.

Even as they’ve slashed other benefits in the recession, large companies, at least, have kept their gym subsidies and wellness programs, and others are adding them. Dor says companies see promoting wellness as a financial imperative.

“They recognize that there’s so many potentially highly productive workers who happen to be obese — highly skilled workers in some cases — that they really want to tackle this problem head-on,” he says.

Still, it’s a delicate issue, one many managers say they try not to bring up.

At the Big and Tall chair display, Gaffney says managers do no favors by ignoring the issue. When obese people squeeze into regular chairs, he says, it can lead to impaired circulation, sciatica and hip displacement. He knows it’s awkward, but Gaffney has perfected the sensitive sales pitch.

“I’ll kid around with the ladies sometimes,” he says. “They’ll say, ‘Well, that’s too big for me! It’s too wide!’ I’ll say ‘Look, when you go home everybody likes to get into a nice pair of comfortable jeans. Just consider the few extra inches as a nice comfortable pair of jeans. You’ll thank me.’ ”

And, he says, they do.

 

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/27/141760591/workplaces-feel-the-impact-of-obesity

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Walker Appointee: It Should Be Legal To Harass Gays In the Workplace

December 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If organizers manage to get the 560,000 plus registered voters to sign the petitions, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will be up for recall and could possibly be replaced with a new governor sometime next year. But that doesn’t stop the damage already done to the state by Walker’s appointees, conservatives who have made it a mission to dismantle union rights, roll back reproductive health, sex education and birth control access, and even fight against basic civil rights.

One such appointee? Commissioner Laurie McCallum, who believes that gays cannot be harassed in the workplace, because sexual orientation is not a protected category in the workplace. According to the Wisconsin Gazette, “…McCallum, the politically connected wife of former GOP Gov. Scott McCallum, defied nearly 30 years of precedent in state law by asserting that sexual ‘preference,’ as she put it, is not a protected category in workplace discrimination cases.

McCallum’s stance alarmed civil rights advocates as well as her fellow commissioners, who warned that her view could upend legal tradition and ‘make it permissible to harass an employee based upon race, national origin, religion, age or disability,’ as well as sexual orientation.”

McCallum was outvoted, but as opponents noted, Walker can continue to appoint commissioners with the same anti-homosexual views for as long as he is in office.

Source: http://www.care2.com/causes/walker-appointee-it-should-be-legal-to-harass-gays-in-the-workplace.html

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