Ducks In A Row: More on Bullying
by Miki Saxon
Last fall I wrote that the prevalence of bullying, especially in the workplace, was giving rise to an anti bullying industry and I’ve seen nothing to change my mind about that.
I recently learned that my post was taken by at lease one person to mean that I didn’t believe workplace bullying was real and I want to state categorically that it is very real and way too prevalent.
I’ve seen abusive managers and cultures in action up close all my working life, especially since I returned to headhunting in the late Seventies.
Whether you call it abuse or bullying, it’s out of the closet and getting more and more media attention, which is good.
I learned about the misinterpretation last week when I received a call from a senior manager I’ll call “Lisa.”
Lisa was looking for expert witnesses because an employee has gone to HR with claims that he is being bullied.
I immediately told her that I don’t believe I would qualify as an expert, but offered to listen to the story. (I was very curious.)
Long story short, Lisa explained that her job was very difficult because the department she had recently taken over had a number of very stupid people who insisted on doing things differently from the way she knew they should be done.
She had found the only way to make them listen was to scream and constantly point out what they were doing wrong.
However, one of them was so wimpy he had filed a complaint with HR and the investigation was impeding her work, hence her desire to find experts on her side.
I asked what made her think I would side with her and she mentioned the article.
I then explained in words of one syllable that she had completely misunderstood what I wrote, that her she was bullying her people and that actions such as screaming and public belittling were not only abusive, but created a toxic culture for everybody.
As you might guess, her reaction to what I said was less than positive.
Fickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/
February 13th, 2013 at 3:10 pm
[…] Bullying in the work world is not only a corporate hot topic, but also fast becoming a business.. (I corrected misunderstanding of that post here.) […]