Bully Free/ Healthy Workplace Advocates

Healthy Workplace Bill to STOP Workplace Bullying in New York

2011-10-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

Which state is going to lead the way and pass the Healthy Workplace Bill to correct and prevent WORKPLACE BULLYING...NEW YORK? Illinois? CALIFORNIA?? See this important press conference to learn more...
Workplace Bullying Press Conference May 2, 2011 ( Albany , New York) The Healthy Workplace Bill has passed the Senate in New York and now awaits 2012 to pass the Assembly. The time has come...the time is NOW. SUPPORT THE HEALTHY WORKPLACE BILL so our workplaces remain safe, sane, and productive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MxumPs9VcI

www.youtube.com

Workplace Bullying vs Job Creation & Human Rights

2011-10-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

Job creation may be based in creating a positive work environment so to attract talented employees who will contribute eagerly to a company’s profit making process. If this is the case, would anyone wish to work in an environment where their competence was being reacted to as a threat? Would anyone wish to be subjected to repeated, health harming treatment that interferes with the companies legitimate business interests? Let’s get on the same page with this.

The Healthy Workplace Bill is intended to “correct and prevent” workplace bullying by compelling businesses to put policies and procedures in place that, when enforced, would hold that business harmless if the egregious behavior in the workplace continued. Most people will STOP the bullying behaviors when told to STOP by someone with higher authority. Those people who won’t STOP the bullying behaviors would become personally liable in a civil court if the person targeted used this law to support their allegations.

For those of you who have been fortunate enough NOT to have experienced workplace bullying, I say, lucky you! I hope your professional experience continues to remain bully free. However, just because it has not happened to you, please do NOT assume it is not going on around you. If we all lived and behaved by the Golden Rule, we would not need any laws at all.

Work shouldn't hurt anyone. How can anyone be productive at work if they are under siege by a bully. Where do you think those schoolyard bullies go when they grow up with no intervention. This is a non-partisan issue; this is a human issue. For all the states that have an active Healthy Workplace Bill in current legislation, I say, Support the Healthy Workplace Bill and you'll be supporting human rights.

Memo to Executives: Let the Bully Go, Boost the Bottom Line

2011-10-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.workplacebullying.org/2011/10/19/sponsors/

To Stop Workplace Bullying — Sponsors Must Cut Bullies Loose

Memo to Executives: Let the Bully Go, Boost the Bottom Line

Bob is the proverbial bully (Bobette when a woman). He operates freely without risk of being punished or terminated. So, every week is Freedom Week for bullies. Since Bob is free 52 weeks a year, dear executive, please use this one week, Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week, to end your relationship with Bob that makes life miserable for everyone else except you and Bob. It will take courage, of course. Here’s why and how to do it.

How it's done so that you are the only one who does not know!

Bullies torment and abuse others with impunity. They do so because they have spent months, even years, groveling at the feet of a higher-ranking sponsor. That is, they torment down the org chart, but ingratiate (brown nose, ass kiss) up the ladder. All of their time is spent managing their sponsor’s impression of them. While targets keep their noses to the grindstone doing the work they love, the nose of bullies hover near the rear ends of their chosen sponsors. That’s how Bob makes himself indispensable.

On balance, several people have tried to tell you about Bob before. You didn’t believe them. They brought you news about Bob you couldn’t stand to hear. It hurt you to hear, but they were reporting the emotional abuse Bob foisted on them. You had several fired for daring bring this information to you. Others quit out of desperation. Bob convinced you that they all were faulty and he alone is competent.

If you ask anyone other than Bob about the talent lost to your organization, you will find that Bob has been lying to you. Good people were driven out or were demoralized and dehumanized, then left. All of this was kept from you by Bob. In his narcissistic world, only he mattered.

Truth is, Bob has been too expensive to keep. You’ve paid dearly to retain him — lawsuits settled, turnover and replacement of key players, and lots of lost productivity. Just ask your Risk Manager or legal counsel.

So, there is no rational reason to keep Bob any longer. You may worry about a lawsuit from him if you begin to suddenly hold him accountable. Worry less. Take advantage of the “employment at will” principle. He’s gone when you say he’s gone. Will he survive? Yes, he will land on his feet. With that instant stroke of moral courage, you will send a message to all others who work with you that you care more about them than you care about the single person whose lips have been firmly planted on your behind.

And while you are motivated to change the work climate for the better, besides removing Bob, consider drawing a line in the sand, defining the boundaries of unacceptable conduct. With that commitment, you will have a behavioral standard to which all the future Bobs (and there will be many emerging in the future — think whack-a-mole) can be compared. When they fail to act in an acceptable manner, cut them before the losses mount.

Finally, in the future, long after Freedom Week ends, believe the employees who report to you that they have been subjected to abusive conduct. They are not the likely liars. Bullies are the liars. Grow a thicker skin and stop showing your neediness to the cruel people willing to exploit you as they subordinate others.

Good employers purge bullies; bad ones promote ‘em.

Freedom Week: The Time to Break Silence About Workplace Bullying

2011-10-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.workplacebullying.org/2011/10/17/freedom-week/

Bullying at work is a dirty little secret. Though it occurs with epidemic frequency (experienced by 35% of all adult Americans), it is a silent epidemic because it is too rarely discussed. Why the silence?

- personal shame by targets (who would brag about being humiliated?)
- coworkers frozen by bullies into not helping their bullied colleagues
- executives covering up for bullies they sponsor/support
- bullying is the American style of managing

Over time, fear paralyzes us all. Overcoming the inertia of inaction is difficult. We know.

But the most successful personal change plans are the ones triggered by events that suggest karma is working — a sign from above, a coincidental omen. That event becomes the excuse, the rationale, for doing something out of the ordinary.

WBI’s Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week is the reason to change how you are dealing with your bullying situation.

- City and County executives can formally recognize Freedom Week by proclamation. At the start of Freedom Week 2011, over 30 municipalities have issued such proclamations. Visit the gallery of proclamations.

- Bullied individuals and their families can take stock of the extent of the psychological injuries sustained from bullying. It sneaks up on everyone. High blood pressure goes undetected until the family physician asks what is stressful in your life. Use Freedom Week as the excuse to schedule an appointment to have your blood checked and to look for the onset of stress-related diseases. Ignoring your personal health is not a good idea. Bullying can kill. Please give your health as high a priority as keeping the salary to keep a roof over your head. If you die, no salary will have been worth it. Family members: please give your bullied partner or spouse the support she or he requires. They can build up credits that can be repaid when the bullying situation ends. Read the book The Bully At Work.

- Managers and executives need to calculate the financial losses attributable to preventable bullying. Bullies are actually too expensive to retain. However, the truth is that you are too loyal to bullies who have conned you over the years. When you acknowledge that “Bob” is a jerk, you are admitting the problem. But when you consider Bob indispensable, regardless of costs to the organization or his effect on others, you are condemning everyone to a living hell. Balance the needs of the business (profit making or budget balancing) with the narcissistic needs of Bob. Do the math. Talk to your Risk Manager. Bob is a liability. Stay friends if you must, but cut Bob loose for the sake of many. Honor your fiduciary responsibility to the organization. Bob will live on (elsewhere). Read the book The Bully-Free Workplace.

- Insurers and attorneys should warn your employer clients to prevent and correct costly bullying for their own self-interest and cost savings. Whether or not the employer has employment practices liability insurance (EPLI), bullying is costly. Premiums rise when liability increases. Bullies pose increasingly costly risks. Attorneys: you have been writing in recent years how your clients need to squelch bullying even though no specific laws exist. Continue this advice. Use Freedom Week to bolster that message. Visit The Work Doctor website to assure clients that something can be done about bullying.

- State lawmakers should enact legislation to curb bullying in the workplace. The Healthy Workplace Legislative Campaign has been around since 2003. It exists to help sympathetic lawmakers of all political parties to address health-harming abusive conduct at work (no need to call it workplace bullying). The Healthy Workplace Bill (HWB) has been introduced in 21 states. In 2011, the HWB is alive in 11 states, including Massachusetts and New York. During Freedom Week, Wisconsin state Rep. Kelda Roys and Sen. Spencer Coggs are introducing the HWB in both legislative chambers.

Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week 2011: October 16th to 22nd

2011-10-15T21:46:00.000-07:00

http://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/freedom-from-workplace-bullies-week-2011-october-16-22/

Oct16 by David Yamada

“Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week,” an annual observance sponsored by the Workplace Bullying Institute, runs from October 16 through 22. It is an important opportunity for supporters of the workplace anti-bullying movement to educate the public and rally others to the cause.

In the U.S., this movement is reaching the point where workplace bullying is a recognized phenomenon. Although there always are new audiences who haven’t named or labeled this hurtful and destructive behavior, these days we’re having to explain ourselves a little less than before. Within wider circles, the term “workplace bullying” is used and understood. Our educational work is far from over — the need will endure — but we’re seeing progress in terms of public comprehension.

For today, I want to center our attention on action. Toward that end, I’m re-posting my article “Ten ways to stop workplace bullying,” from December 2010:

Ten ways to stop workplace bullying

When people talk to me about workplace bullying, they often ask, what can I do to help? The following list is hardly exhaustive, but it’s a starting place:

1. Don’t — Don’t be a workplace bully. It starts with each of us.

2. Stand up — Stand up for someone who is being bullied. Silence equals permission.

3. Support — Similarly, support friends, colleagues, and family members who are experiencing bullying at work. Validate their concerns and, where appropriate, guide them to coaching, counseling, and legal assistance. (For some resources, go here.)

4. Ask — Ask your employer to educate employees about workplace bullying and to include an anti-bullying policy in the employee handbook.

5. Post — If you read an article on workplace bullying, post a comment to it online, voicing your support for taking this problem seriously. Help to generate momentum for the anti-bullying movement.

6. Talk — Yes, just talk about it with others. Without making a pest of yourself to your friends, family, and associates, discuss bullying as part of the workplace experience for many employees.

7. Law reform — Support anti-bullying legislation. For readers in the U.S., get active in the grassroots campaign to enact the Healthy Workplace Bill in states around the nation (link here). (Full disclosure: I’m the author of the Healthy Workplace Bill, so I do have an interest in seeing it enacted!)

8. Unions — If you are a member of a union, lobby your union leaders to educate members about workplace bullying and to negotiate an abusive supervision clause in the collective bargaining agreement, as discussed here.

9. Faith — If you are a member of a church, synagogue, or mosque, encourage your congregational leaders and fellow members to include workplace bullying among their social action concerns.

10. Connect — We must connect workplace bullying to other forms of interpersonal abuse, such as school bullying, cyber bullying, and domestic abuse. There are many unfortunate similarities between them, and helping others to understand this will serve as a powerful consciousness raising mechanism.

Words of caution

Some of these actions carry personal risks. There is something very threatening about this topic to certain individuals and organizations. Furthermore, when someone is suffering due to workplace bullying, they may be in a difficult place psychologically. Thus, please consider:

1. Those who stand up for bullying targets may find themselves next on the firing line. This is a very real possibility.

2. A bad employer may consider you a troublemaker simply for asking that the organization oppose these behaviors.

3. Posting a comment online about workplace bullying may lead to some people to ridicule your concerns.

4. Providing homebrewed psychological counseling or legal advice is not only unwise, but also illegal if you are not licensed to provide such assistance.

October 16-22 Proclaimed Freedom From Workplace Bullies in City of South Lake Tahoe, CA

2011-09-29T21:19:00.001-07:00

PROCLAMATION OF THE CITY OF

South Lake Tahoe

DECLARING OCTOBER 16 – 22, 2011

“FREEDOM FROM WORKPLACE BULLIES WEEK”

WHEREAS, the City of South Lake Tahoe has an interest in promoting the social and economic well-being of its employees and citizens; and

WHEREAS, that well-being depends upon the existence of healthy and productive employees working in safe and abuse-free environments; and

WHEREAS, surveys and studies have documented the stress-related health consequences for individuals caused by exposure to abusive work environments; and

WHEREAS, abusive work environments can create costly consequences for employers, including reduced productivity, absenteeism, turnover, and employee health-related expenses; and

WHEREAS, protection from abusive work environments should apply to every worker, and not limited to legally protected class status based only on race, color, gender, national origin, age, or disability;

NOW, THEREFORE, the Mayor, Hal Cole, and Council of the City of South Lake Tahoe hereby proclaim October 16 – 22 “Freedom From Workplace Bullies Week”.

California Healthy Workplace Advocates Agenda for September 24, 2011

2011-09-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

Mission - The mission of the California Healthy Workplace Advocates is to raise public awareness and to compel our State to correct and prevent abusive work environments through legislation.

Overview of meeting: Introductions – Updates on progress - Activities - Sharing – Closing

INTRODUCTIONS * UPDATES ON PROGRESS:

Successful Citizen Lobby Day on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011

Attendees: Sarah, Michelle, Roberta, Kathy, Monica, Carrie, Janet, & Paula

Reports on experiences and follow ups to and from and to legislative assistants

Report on Labor Day Celebration at Land Park in Sacramento: Sarah and Roberta

Report on CELA Conference : Sarah and Roberta

ACTIVITIES:

Anyone who wishes to approach their Mayor to proclaim Oct. 16-22 Freedom from Workplace Bullying Week can provide the city a copy of the Proclamation being used in Texas, Oregon, and Connecticut

Plan to schedule another Citizen Lobby Day in January for follow-up on 2012 Healthy Workplace Resolution and Healthy Workplace Bill

Handouts:

FREEDOM FROM WORKPLACE BULLIES WEEK, Oct. 16 to 22^nd

California Healthy Workplace Resolution 2011 and 2012

Proclamation for City – 2010 Zogby Survey/Research Results Flier

OPEN SHARING

CLOSING

NEXT MEETING: October 22, 2011 3pm – 6pm

www.bullyfreeworkplace.org - www.workplacebullying.org

Stop Workplace Bullying Before it Starts

2011-09-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.workplacebullying.org/2011/09/21/stop-workplace-bullying-before-it-starts/

Jane Applegate President & CEO, The Applegate Group Inc.,
September 20,2011

Everyone has experienced a bad day at the office when people are yelling and screaming at each other in frustration. But, if one person is the target of constant verbal and emotional abuse, it can escalate into a troubling case of ‘workplace bullying.’

Many small business owners refuse to acknowledge workplace bullying, preferring to hope the antagonist will eventually stop picking on a targeted co-worker. But, if you do nothing, the situation usually worsens, creating serious health and emotional problems for the bullied worker—and financial stress for employers, according to experts in the field.

If business owners don’t deal with bullying at work, it could result in a violent act. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, about two million violent crimes occur at American workplaces every year.

“There’s a real bottom line reason for business owners to take this problem seriously,” said David Yamada, professor of law and director of the New Workplace Institute at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. “If you are working in close quarters and things are tense and combative, it’s likely to affect everyone’s morale.”

An expert on workplace issues, Yamada authored the ‘Healthy Workplace’ bill, which has been introduced by legislators in 21 states. Currently, 16 versions of the bill—which aims to protect bullied workers from abusers, extending legal protections currently not available to them—are under review in 11 states. Most people think federal employment and discrimination laws protect workers from bullying, but they don’t, according to Yamada.

Being bullied at work makes life miserable. Experts say bullied workers suffer from anxiety, hypertension, depression and other stress-related illnesses. A 2010 Zogby study revealed that about 35 percent of all adult Americans have been bullied and 15 percent of the population has witnessed workplace bullying. The survey was authored by Dr. Gary Namie, Ph.D., and his wife Ruth.

Considered experts on workplace bullying, they have written extensively on the topic and consult with companies dealing with bullying issues. Their newest book, The Bully-free Workplace: Stop Jerks, Weasels and Snakes from Killing Your Organization, provides readers with an in-depth look at the problem and several strategies for dealing with workplace bullying.

“Bullying runs rampant in small businesses,” said Namie. “The owner wants to avoid conflict and doesn’t know what to do. They prefer to tell the abuser and the target, ‘you guys work this out.’”

Namie said he became interested in workplace bullying issues after his wife, Ruth, who is a psychologist, was bullied at work. “Our research shows 66 percent of women who are bullied at work lose their jobs,” said Gary Namie. “Forty-one percent quit, and 25 percent are fired.”

People bullied at work feel trapped—similar to someone suffering from domestic violence. It’s often worse for a bullied worker who feels he or she has to take the abuse because they really need the job, especially during this lingering economic slump.

How do you know if you have a bully in your midst?

“Bullying is a hostile, repeated behavior meant to make people feel badly,” said Carolyn Fedigan, a Boston-area human resources consultant who helps clients deal with bullying problems.

“I’ve dealt with a CEO who would regularly say to his secretary, ‘What, are you stupid?’”

Fedigan said some bullies take a more subtle approach. “They leave people out of communication loops, they spread gossip or single people out for the silent treatment,” she said.

No matter how distasteful it is, business owners can’t turn their backs on the problem. “There is a real financial cost to companies that let this toxic behavior continue, “ said Fedigan. “Bullied people take sick leaves, go out on disability and lose productivity.”

She said many business owners tolerate a bully if the person is a great salesperson or clients love them. “Sometimes the boss is scared of the bully,” she said. “They worry about the cost of turnover, of recruiting and training a new person.”

Business owners have to put their foot down and say, ‘We don’t accept this kind of behavior.” She said it’s important to have a written policy prohibiting workplace bullying. It’s also important to encourage your employees to report any inappropriate or bad behavior. “You have to have the kind of environment where employees can tell the boss what’s happening to them.”

Companies often hire Fedigan to counsel bullies. She works one on one with them, delving into why they are acting inappropriately towards a colleague. “Often, they have no idea they are a bully,” she said. “They think it’s an okay way to behave.”

Consider drafting an anti-bullying policy for your business that defines the problem and then:

Provides a procedure to report incidents.
Includes a ‘no retaliation’ provision.
Encourages employees to report incidents.
Informs employees that violations may result in discipline.

Workplace Bullying Is No Bull

2011-09-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.harveymackay.com/column/?p=83

September 15, 2011 By Harvey Mackay

The playground isn’t the only place where you’ll run into bullies. Internet bullying has led to suicides. Office bullying is on the rise, and it’s a deal-killer no matter what business you’re in.

If you think people outgrow bullying behavior just because they get older, think again. Bullies come in all ages, shapes and sizes – and on all rungs of the corporate ladder.

Remarkably, bullying in the workplace is among the leading reasons for employees to seek other employment. Even more remarkably, most don’t list bullying as the reason they quit.

Instead, they suffer in silence and take their talents elsewhere.

And “suffer” they do. Scholars at The Project for Wellness and Work-Life at Arizona State University found “workplace bullying is linked to a host of physical, psychological, organizational, and social costs.” Their research indicated that stress is the most predominant health effect associated with bullying in the workplace: “Stress has significant negative effects that are correlated to poor mental health and poor physical health, resulting in an increase in the use of ‘sick days’ or time off from work.”

Can any company afford that?

In a CareerBuilder survey of over 5,600 full-time employees, 27 percent of workers said they have felt bullied in the workplace. Most of them didn’t confront the offender nor report the abusive behavior. What form did the bullying take? Workers gave these examples:

Comments were dismissed or not acknowledged: 43 percent.
Falsely accused of a mistake: 40 percent.
Needlessly harsh criticism: 38 percent.
Forced into doing work that wasn’t really part of the job: 38 percent.
Held to different standards and policies from those of other workers: 37 percent.
Made the focus of gossip: 27 percent.
Boss yelled at me in front of co-workers: 24 percent.
Belittling comments during meetings: 23 percent.
Others taking credit for work: 21 percent.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Management is responsible for keeping the workplace free of sexual, racial or other forms of harassment and inappropriate behavior. If an issue is reported, reasonable action should

follow. Unfortunately, sometimes the manager is the bully. If that manager has a manager, the victim needs to go to that level. They might be doing the company a huge favor by exposing the reason why so many good people in that department are heading for the hills.

The victims of bullying have to take responsibility – it’s not safe to assume anyone else is aware of the bullying if they don’t report the problem. Bullies are notoriously sneaky. They pick and choose their targets carefully. But that doesn’t mean you’re helpless to do anything if you’re a victim.

Take charge by following these guidelines:

Recognize bullying when it occurs. Mild teasing or isolated comments, even if they’re inappropriate, don’t necessarily constitute harassment under the law. Stand up for your rights by all means, but remember that harassment is more than just behavior that’s unwelcome. Technically, it’s behavior that discriminates against gender, race, national origin, or some other legally protected characteristic.
Study your policy. Most organizations have written policies that don’t just prohibit harassment but spell out the steps to take if an employee feels uncomfortable. Check out the procedures for reporting unwelcome incidents to be sure you don’t miss any options.
Speak up to the harasser. Your first step should be to tell the person that his or her behavior, comments or requests aren’t welcome. In some cases the matter may end there. But don’t hesitate to inform management if you can’t comfortably confront the other person on your own.
Document the behavior. Most important of all: Take notes describing each incident to keep details fresh in your memory. This will add credibility to your claim. And keep a record of your conversations with management concerning the problem.
Inform management. Follow the procedure for reporting harassment to the proper person. Your own manager is usually the person to start the process with, but if your manager is the one harassing you, you’ll have to go up the ladder to reach the right authority. Document your efforts to report the behavior – dates, times, what was said, and so forth.

Mackay’s Moral: If you’re being bullied, take the bull by the horns before there’s a stampede.

The Workplace Bully: Bringing a Company Down

2011-09-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.safety.com/articles/workplace-bully-bringing-company-down

As surprising as it sounds, bullying has become a major problem in the workplace. Bullying can take the form of threats, sexual and racial harassment, intimidations, and even physical violence. Bullying is not only harmful to the targeted employee. It also brings down a company's overall morale and profitability. Employers should be aware of the problem and then make it clear that bullying has no place in their business.

For the most part, bullying is a form of psychological violence. However, if left
unchecked, workplace bullying can ultimately result in extreme physical violence. In Canada, in 1999, a man went on a shooting spree at his workplace, killing four employees before taking his own life. Investigators later learned he was a victim of workplace harassment. The incident raised awareness about the effects of psychological violence such as bullying.

Profiling the Bully
Typically, workplace bullies are insecure people with few social skills and little empathy. Their insecurity compels them to try and control others by attacking and belittling them. Bullies tend to target the capable, hard-working employees who they perceive as threats. The more capable the employee, the more determined the bully is to cut them down. Bullies also like to target employees who are cooperative, non-confrontational and well liked.

The bullied employees endure unjustified criticism. They're often humiliated in front of co-workers. Eventually, they may find themselves ignored and isolated.

When the Bully is a Boss. While a bully can be a man or woman, studies show that most bullies are bosses (80 percent). The others are co-workers. On rare occasions, workers bully their superiors. If a boss is a bully, he or she may:

* Set the target up for failure by setting unrealistic goals or deadlines.
* Deny the necessary information and resources the victimized employee needs to perform his or her job.
* Either overload the victim with work or take all the work away
* Force the victim to do demeaning tasks

The Cost of Bullying
Ultimately, a workplace bully is a financial burden to a company. A bully's target tends to become unproductive because he or she spends a great deal of time defending themselves or seeking support from peers. They become highly stressed and unmotivated. Often, they lose time at work due to stress-related illnesses.

But the bully's negative influence extends beyond the target. A bully can poison an entire workplace environment by causing low morale, fear, and anger. This, in turn, leads to high absenteeism and turnover. Efficiency suffers, and the employer foots the bill. In extreme cases, bullying can lead to physical violence and lawsuits.

Bully Prevention
Every company's employee handbook should make it perfectly clear that workplace bullying is unacceptable behavior and will lead to termination. In addition, employers should establish processes for investigating, recording, and dealing with the issue. Complaints should be investigated quickly.

Employers will benefit by having a happier, more productive, and profitable place of business.

-- Dan Harvey

Dr. Oz, You Docs: How to deal with workday stess, and why you should

2011-09-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2011/09/you_docs_how_to_deal_with_work.html

Desk rage. Back-stabbing bosses. Sarcastic and inconsiderate co-workers. This is 9-to-5 reality for way too many people. You may have heard about a new, headline-making survey that says 43 percent of Americans have been targets of workplace incivility. It's easy to guess why: The shaky economy is ratcheting up workday stress for 70 percent of us.

Here are three great reasons you shouldn't put up with it:

1. It infects your home life. Rudeness has a ripple effect. You bring the bad vibes home, and things get tense there. The next day, your partner drags the ill will off to his or her workplace, triggering another outbreak of incivility.

2. It's a health threat. It's pretty easy to get sucked into a cycle of snarkiness, but it sure isn't good for you. Negativity and chronic stress boost your blood pressure and the threat of heart disease and lung problems. Being positive and polite does just the opposite.

3. It's bad for business. Managers and CEOs, listen up. Ignoring a nasty work environment (or contributing to it) costs you money. Workers who've been targets may not tell you so, but half of them waste work time dodging or worrying about the next "attack." One in five says they don't work as hard and one in 10 finds ways to spend less time on the job. Work stress costs the economy $300 billion a year, and plenty of it is "people stress."

If you're stuck in the kind of office that makes the Hatfields and McCoys look like kissing cousins, try these steps to help you rise above the ugliness and bring back respect:

Stage a one-person "good manners revolution." Good manners are a time-tested instruction manual for maintaining dignity and sanity. So respect others. Look for the best in people. Speak kindly. Bite your tongue when you're about to gossip or make a witty-yet-cruel remark about a co-worker. Really listen to colleagues. Do these things, and you'll also forge new connections and give your longevity a boost.

Outsmart the office jerk. Every water cooler has one: the complainer who always sees the dark side. Thanks to "mirror neurons" in our brains that mimic others, this can be contagious. Protect yourself by cutting him or her some slack (maybe there's a difficult situation at home). Consider changing your break time to avoid the verbal toxin. And think upbeat thoughts after a run-in.

Don't excuse it in yourself. Maybe you'd never send a nasty email, yell at a co-worker, take credit for others' work or snub a colleague in the cafeteria. But do you text during meetings? Take the last cup of coffee and not start a fresh pot? Walk away from a copier jam you caused? Snap at tech support because you're sooooo frustrated? Polish up your act.

Find an ally. If there's rampant incivility at work, talk with your boss or have a chat with human resources (especially if you're a target). Bring along this column. Business psychology experts emphasize that real change comes only from the top.

Find meaning in what you do. Work's not easy these days, but renewing your commitment to your job can help you shrug off the ill effects of incivility (and can make you nicer, too). Even if you have to dig, there's satisfaction somewhere in any job. Does it have a positive effect on others? Does it use at least some of your talents, or stretch them in new ways? Is it, even indirectly, helping you reach your purpose in life? And, yes, "purpose" includes earning enough money to raise a family. Or support a passion. Or do good elsewhere. Or retrain for a new job!

The YOU Docs, Mehmet Oz, host of "The Dr. Oz Show" and Mike Roizen of Cleveland Clinic, are authors of "YOU: Losing Weight." For more information go to www.RealAge.com

Workplace Bullies are bad for businesses bottom line...

2011-09-17T20:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/tribu/ct-biz-0919-work-advice-huppke-20110918,0,840477.column

When push comes to shove, workplace bullies are costing the company money. And that's a good focus when dealing with them.

Ask Rex Huppke: I Just Work Here

September 18, 2011

As a species, it seems we're doomed to interact with jerks.

It happens in high school, and we think, "Once I get to college, things will be different."

Then it happens in college, and we think, "Once I get a job, people there will be more mature."

Not so much. Jerks abound, and, as fate would have it, the workplace is as much a breeding ground for bullies as the playground.

While much has been done in recent years to address bullies in the schoolyard, the issue of bullying at work remains largely under the radar. In fact, because of a work culture that often rewards aggressiveness, bullies have a nasty tendency of succeeding at work.

"This is one of the great undiscussables in the American workplace because it seems if you haven't experienced it, you're likely to believe it doesn't happen," said Gary Namie, a social psychologist and co-founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute. "What we're seeing is a lot of abusive conduct, but it's accepted as routine in the American workplace."

Last year, Namie commissioned the polling group Zogby International to survey U.S. workers. The research found that 35 percent of the country's workforce has experienced bullying on the job, and another 15 percent has seen it happen.

The remaining 50 percent of respondents had neither seen nor experienced bullying, a statistic that Namie said makes it hard for some to relate to the problem. He calls it a "silent epidemic."

"So often in the workplace the feeling is, 'Hey, you're an adult, handle it yourself,'" Namie said. "They sometimes even blame the victim. But you know what? We said that for domestic violence for a long, long time until they criminalized it. So people need to stop the silly rationalizations."

To be clear, "workplace bullying" doesn't apply to acts of violence.

"What separates bullying from workplace violence or harassment is the fact that the bullying is something that's done on a continuous basis," said Timothy Dimoff, founder of SACS Consulting & Investigative Services, an Ohio-based company that specializes in high-risk workplace and human resource issues. "It's constant and repetitive; someone who's using different means of harassment, whether it's complaining about the person, spreading rumors, blaming them, encouraging others not to talk to the person. It's more psychological and emotional abuse."

Think about your workplace, and there's a good chance you've seen this or dealt with it. In the most severe cases, a manager tries to sabotage an employee by taking credit for work or writing a negative performance review. More routinely, a co-worker or manager picks away at an employee, making cracks about them in front of other people, demeaning them even in subtle ways.

This behavior may seem routine in a world of snarkiness, but when it happens day in and day out, and when the targeted person feels unable to fix the situation, it can lead to serious physical and mental health problems. Consider how difficult it might be, particularly in this job market, for a victim to protest the way a manager is treating them.

"Many people nowadays feel really locked in," Namie said. "Like there's no escape route, and that just makes the situation worse."

The fact is, some folks will find themselves in situations where the only way out is to quit. That's obviously a worst-case scenario, but if a bully is making your life so miserable it's affecting you physically and mentally, you've got to cut ties and take care of yourself.

Before that, however, there are steps you can take to try to put the bully in his or her place.

"They need to take it to their human resources person or their immediate supervisor," Dimoff said. "If they don't get any results, then they need to go to somebody higher. In the meantime, they need to document when these things happen, where they happen and what was said and done. If they don't write it down, it's hard to remember details, and things get distorted. When management sees an employee come in with this in writing, they react much more quickly and thoroughly to it."

Namie suggests that the target look for ways to quantify the harm a bully is causing a company. How many people has the person driven away? How much work time is eaten up contending with problems relating to the bully?

"You want to be able to tell the executives that the bully is too expensive to keep; actually present the business argument that the bully is too expensive," Namie said. "What can discredit the person who is the target is emotionality. The emotionality is scary to management. So you make a dispassionate argument."

Of course, management is, or should be, responsible for creating an environment that repels bullies.

"The company needs to have policies and procedures against bullying and workplace violence, and they need to let those procedures be very well known to their management and employees," Dimoff said. "Companies need to work on creating a more positive culture. In positive cultures, we don't see the bullying. People work together and don't resort to negative tools."

Namie's Workplace Bullying Institute is pushing a Healthy Workplace Bill, which is being considered in 11 states, that would crack down on office bullies and clearly define what it means to have an "abusive work environment." You can learn more about the bill at healthyworkplacebIll.org.

A final point: If you think a bullying co-worker is trying to make you a target, be proactive.

Bullies, at the end of the day, are cowards. They feed off people who put up with their abuse. So the moment someone begins to pick at you, stand up to them. Let them know you won't tolerate improper treatment.

The alternative is to let it go, and that's almost guaranteed to not end well.

Talk to Rex: Ask workplace questions—anonymously or by name—and share stories with Rex Huppke at IJustWorkHere@tribune.com, like him on Facebook at facebook.com/rexworkshere and find more at chicagotribune.com/ijustworkhere.

Sept. 15th Lobby Day for Healthy Workplace Advocates

2011-09-04T16:55:00.000-07:00

California Healthy Workplace Advocates plan to visit the Capitol on Thursday, Sept. 15th to promote the Healthy Workplace Resolution. Help us support this important Resolution by contacting YOUR legislators at www.leginfo.ca.gov and requesting their support:

California Healthy Workplace Advocates www.bullyfreeworkplace.org
Healthy Workplace Resolution, 2011

Resolution requesting the State of California recognize the detrimental impact of workplace bullying on creating a safe and productive workplace for all employers and employees

Whereas, The phenomenon of workplace bullying is recognized by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as a sub-lethal, non-physical form of workplace violence; and

Whereas, It can be defined as repeated, health-harming mistreatment by one or more employees manifested as either verbal abuse, work interference or sabotage, or conduct that is perceived by the targeted person as threatening, intimidating or humiliating; and

Whereas, The results of the 2010 scientific U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey written by the Workplace Bullying Institute, and conducted by Zogby International, demonstrated that at least 35% of all adult Americans have directly experienced bullying, afflicting 54 million Americans; and

Whereas, It is reasonable to expect that 5,602,429 million Californian workers are similarly adversely affected; and

Whereas, Over 20 years of research in the fields of occupational health, epidemiology, traumatic stress, psychology and organizational behavior document the nature and negative impact of workplace bullying; and

Whereas, Employees suffer bullying-induced health problems, including stress-related diseases such as cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, neuro-structural, musculoskeletal, and accelerated aging from DNA chromosomal damage in addition to psychological injuries including debilitating anxiety, clinical depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and in the worst case scenarios, suicide; and

Whereas, Adverse consequences for employers include undesirable turnover, lost productivity from excessive absenteeism, disability stress claims, and shattered morale of the workers who are directly or vicariously exposed to bullying; and

Whereas, Forty-four percent of U.S. employers treat complaints of workplace bullying with indifference and no corrective action. It is reasonable to expect the same holds true in California employers; and

Whereas, Without a law, neither private nor public sector employers are compelled to hold offenders as accountable as they are when incidents of illegal harassment are reported; and
Whereas, Bullying at work is considered abusive conduct; it is the sole form of abuse still accepted by society; and

Be it resolved that the State of California encourages all citizens, employees, and employers to learn how to prevent and correct such destructive workplace behavior during Freedom From Workplace Bullies Week, October 16th to October 22nd.

Respectfully Submitted,
California Healthy Workplace Advocates

Workplace Bullying Educational Events in Sacramento

2011-03-20T13:29:00.000-07:00

GREAT NEWS!
YOU ARE INVITED...Bring a friend!!
Two events coming the end of March!!

Join us at our next Sacramento
Healthy Workplace Advocates Meeting
Saturday, March 26, 2011 - 3pm
to be held at: Denny’s Restaurant
925 3rd St., Sacramento, CA 95814 Ph 916 443-1951
“J” Street exit, just off Interstate 5/ CA-99, next to Old Town Sacramento,
Enter from “J” St. or 3rd St. ______________________________________________________________________

Monday, March 28th, 6pm
FREE TO THE PUBLIC, Sacramento State University
UNION HALL, BALLROOM 1 (see attached map)
Sacramento State University
6000 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95819
FREE PRESENTATION ON WORKPLACE BULLYING
Dr. Gary Namie
Author of The Bully at Work
Founder of The Workplace Bullying Institute

See the attached map for directions...
YOU ARE INVITED, bring a friend!!
COME EARLY FOR BEST PARKING!!

Guest Presenter on Workplace Bullying at Sac State University

2011-03-18T22:18:00.000-07:00

YOU ARE INVITED, OPEN TO THE PUBLIC FREE OF CHARGE
Monday, March 28th at 6pm, Sac State University

Dr. Gary Namie, coauthor of the book, The Bully at Work and the National Coordinator to get the Healthy Workplace Bill passed into law, is coming to Sacramento as a guest presenter at Sacramento State University on Monday, March 28th, 2011.

Namie will be giving a free public presentation on Workplace Bullying on Mon. 3/28, 6 pm Ballroom 1, University Union on CSU campus (Sacramento State University, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95819). We hope you will plan to attend. Look for the Namie's new book, coming in May 2011, BULLY FREE WORKPLACE!

For more information, go to www.bullyfreeworkplace.org

State bills against workplace bullying gain traction

2011-03-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-workplace-bullying-20110319,0,1767245.story

State bills against workplace bullying gain traction

By Tina Susman, Los Angeles TimesMarch 18, 2011, 7:51 p.m.

Proponents say workplace bullying is widespread and procedures for dealing with it are ineffective. They back a model called the 'Healthy Workplace Bill.'

Reporting from Annapolis, Md.—

Kathie Gant knew the relationship with her new boss was bad, but she didn't know how bad until the woman, a Maryland attorney, hurled a bundle of pencils at Gant, her administrative assistant. "You just don't sharpen my pencils for me!" the boss raged, punctuating each word with exaggerated enunciation and the zing of a pencil across the office toward Gant.

Months later, Gant was in a storage closet in the courthouse where she worked when the lights were shut off. "I turned toward the door and she was standing there," Gant said of the supervisor. "I tried to say 'Hey, I'm in here!' " Her boss stared back, shut the door, and locked it from the outside, trapping Gant in the pitch-black space.

After months of taunts and needling by her boss, Gant said she ended up on a psychiatrist's couch and nearly in a psych ward.

With a quavering voice and tearful demeanor, Gant testified about her job situation during a legislative hearing this month at the state Capitol as Maryland became one of the latest states to consider legislation against workplace bullying. She recounted some details later in an interview.

Progress has been slow since California in 2003 became the first state to introduce a "Healthy Workplace Bill," which would give employees legal protection against those they say torment them at work (The measure died in committee). Since then, 19 other states have proposed similar legislation, though none has passed it into law.

David C. Yamada, a law professor at Suffolk University Law School in Boston and the author of the Healthy Workplace Bill, said laws protect workers from abuse only on the basis of such things as race or religion. Employees who do not fall into a protected category have no legal means of fighting bullying.

Opponents of legislation say employees already are protected by anti-discrimination laws and workplace rules against abusive behavior. They also say that human resources departments exist to help employees deal with workplace problems.

If all else fails, bullied workers can bypass their bosses and seek help from higher-ranking supervisors, said Champe McCulloch, president of the Maryland Assn. of General Contractors and a former human resources director at Verizon.

"There's always an internal appeals process," said McCulloch, one of three lobbyists to speak against the bill on March 3 when it was introduced to the state Senate's finance committee. "At some point, the employee has to screw his or her courage to the sticking post and keep escalating the complaint up the management chain. I assure you ... at the senior management ranks, somebody is going to take action."

But proponents say that alleged bullying that may have led to highly publicized suicides last year — including that of a 52-year-old magazine editor who accused his boss of abusive behavior, and a 15-year-old schoolgirl who was taunted by classmates — have focused attention on the problem and galvanized efforts to pass legislation. So, too, has workers' frustration over several states' efforts to follow Wisconsin in curtailing the power of unions representing public employees.

While the suicide of Phoebe Prince, the Massachusetts girl, shed light on school bullying, Gary Namie of the Workplace Bullying Institute in Bellingham, Wash., said it underscored the need for legislation at all levels.

"If it is not stopped at childhood, it clearly progresses into adulthood," Namie said, citing a 2010 study by the bullying institute and the Zogby International polling company that indicated 35% of adults in the United States had been bullied at work. An additional 15% said they had witnessed workplace bullying. According to the survey, most bullies are men and most victims are women, but both sexes report being bullied by male and female bosses, and women are more likely to seek help from human resources.

"This year it's an especially uphill struggle," Namie said of workplace bullying legislation, citing "attacks on workers in general" in Wisconsin and other states proposing new limits on labor unions.

But Namie said he believes New York, where the state Senate passed a bill last year, is likely to get it signed into law in 2011.

"If New York becomes the first to pass it, that's a bellwether state, so others would follow," said Namie, a social psychologist who founded the institute 14 years ago with his wife, Ruth, after she experienced on-the-job bullying.

The Healthy Workplace Bill, used to guide individual states' proposed legislation, forbids a health-harming "abusive work environment" and requires medical documentation to prove worker claims of bullying.

Proponents of anti-bullying bills say this is among the measures that would prevent a flood of lawsuits by disgruntled employees.

Yamada, the Healthy Workplace Bill author, said workers face the challenge of trying to prove bullying, which generally falls short of physical assault and is Machiavellian and difficult to identify. "I liken our understanding of workplace bullying to where we were with sexual harassment three decades ago," Yamada said. "A lot of people have had to deal with this for years but didn't know what to call it."

Bill backers say internal appeals processes often fall short, citing the case of Kevin Morrissey, who was managing editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review magazine. Morrissey shot himself to death last June after relatives and friends said his — and others' — repeated complaints about a bullying boss were ignored. The University of Virginia, which publishes the magazine, said it had handled the complaints properly and that the manager could not be blamed for Morrissey's death.

The recession has made it easier for bullies to carry on because jobs are scarce and employees are reluctant to quit or to speak up and be seen as troublemakers, bill proponents say.

Gant, who worked in a county courthouse, said that after a few months a new boss openly called her "stupid," humiliated her at meetings, and sent out office e-mails that belittled her work.

Gant is still at a loss to explain the behavior. Because much of the abuse was unseen by others — the pencil-throwing, the locking of the closet, the snide comments — it was difficult to make others realize how bad it was, she said.

"She was an attorney. I never felt she'd go that far," said Gant, who was haunted by the experience long after the woman's departure. One day, the woman returned to the office for a brief visit. Gant hid in an office until she was gone.

Gant remained on the job a few more months but has since taken another job that she enjoys. She said she also went back to school to study for a doctorate and bolster her self-confidence, "so if I ever see her again, I'll be ready."

tina.susman@latimes.com

Dr. Gary Namie to speak about Workplace Bullying Monday, 3/28 at Sac State University

2011-03-12T13:11:00.000-08:00

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC TO ATTEND AT SAC STATE
on Monday, 3/28/11 - 6pm Free of Charge, Ballroom in Union Hall

Dr. Gary Namie, author of The Bully at Work and a new book to be released in May 2011, Bully Free Workplace, will be speaking at Sacramento State University in the Ballroom at Union Hall at 6pm on Monday, March 28th, 2011. This event is open to the public at no charge. Nationally recognized as an expert on workplace bullying, Namie will be discussing Workplace Bullying and the devastating effects it has on our workforce, not only emotionally but economically.

Namie is national director of the Healthy Workplace Campaign, the grassroots network of citizen lobbyists working to enact the anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill in state legislatures. California introduced the first bill in 2003. The bill has now been introduced in 20 states and today there are 13 active bills in 11 states. There is currently no law to protect individuals who do not fall under the 1964 Civil Rights Act; in other words, status blind workplace bullying is currently legal in the USA.

The mission of the Workplace Bullying Institute (healthyworkplacebill.org and workplacebullying.org) is "To raise awareness of, and create a public dialogue about Workplace Bullying. To apply research, empirical and anecdotal, to solutions for individuals, unions, employers and public policy makers. "

To become involved with the grassroots movement in California, make contact through the website, www.bullyfreeworkplace.org. Monthly meetings are held in Sacramento, also open to the public with no dues or fees of any kind.

Workplace Bullying Leaders Speak in Sacramento

2010-10-18T20:32:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday October 20 at 7 pm, Drs. Gary and Ruth Namie, founders of the Workplace
Bullying Institute, authors of The Bully At Work (Sourcebooks, 2009), and recognized American
pioneers who have helped thousands of individuals since 1997 since launching the U.S. movement from Benicia, will speak at the Radisson Hotel, (500 Leisure Lane) Sacramento. Doors
open at 6 pm. There is a $25 fee; no pre-registration required.
WBI conducted the only scientific U.S. national surveys of workplace bullying’s prevalence first
in 2007 and again in 2010 (with help from Zogby). In 2010, 35% of adult Americans are, or have
been, bullied at work. Most targets are women, and when the bully is a woman, the target is a
woman in 80% of cases.
Their appearance is timely given the flurry of recent suicides from bullying, including the suicide
of Kevin Morrissey, manager of the Virginia Quarterly Review at the University of Virginia. They will discuss how circumstances could lead an adult to suicide and what to do to prevent a toxic workplace from affecting employees.
Also, the Namies will explain why bullying in schools cannot be stopped until the bullying of
adults working there stops. They will describe their innovative Workplace Bullying in Schools
project launched by WBI in 2009 in Sioux City (Iowa) and the Desert Sands (La Quinta, CA)
school districts.
In addition, Gary is national director of the Healthy Workplace Campaign, the grassroots network of citizen lobbyists working to enact the anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill in state legislatures. California introduced the first bill in 2003. Representatives from the California Healthy Workplace Advocates will describe local activities planned for the 2011 legislative session.
WBI is the only organization in the U.S. dedicated to the eradication of workplace bullying that
combines help for individuals, research, public education, consulting for employers, and legislative advocacy. As thought leaders on the topic, the couple has appeared in 900+ media interviews.

Contact:
Gary Namie 360.220.5158 / 360.656.6630 gary@garynamie.com
Director, Workplace Bullying Institute, workplacebullying.org
Director, Healthy Workplace Campaign, healthyworkplacebill.org
Michelle Smith info@bullyfreeworkplace.org
California Healthy Workplace Advocates, bullyfreeworkplace.org

Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week begins Sunday, October 17th-23rd

2010-10-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

October 23rd 2010

Freedom Week proclaimed & more

Special Events for the week

• OCT. 19. Thanks to the Texas Healthy Workplace Advocates, El Paso Mayor John Cook and the City Council will proclaim on October 19, Freedom from Bullies at Work Week! If you live in Texas, thank the Mayor. If you want to help Texas enact the anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill, contact the TX State Coordinator.

• OCT. 19, 5 pm (central time) on Pattie Porter’s Texas Conflict Coach radio show, the story of Kevin Morrissey’s suicide in response to his prolonged mistreatment at the Univ. of Virginia. Thank you, Pattie!

• OCT. 19 Wisconsin State Rep. Kelda Roys (sponsor of the state’s first bill, AB 894 in 2010) will be interviewed by Madison NBC-TV 15 news anchor Carleen Wild about her work in support of the legislation and 2011 plans. Air time is not yet set. Track the Wisconsin Healthy Workplace Advocates group for the schedule. If you live in Wisconsin, contact the WI State Coordinator to volunteer to help.

• OCT. 19 & OCT. 20 The California Healthy Workplace Advocates host Workplace Bullying Institute founders giving a public seminar, doors open at 6 pm, talk is 7 to 9 pm. Oct. 19 they will be in South San Francisco. Oct. 20 they will be in Sacramento. Come meet the Namies and CHWA volunteers to learn about legislative plans for 2011. If you live in California, contact the CA State Coordinator to volunteer to help.

• OCT. 23-24 BPW Saskatoon, Saskatchewan hosts a special conference for the community, “Powerless to Powerful.” Several workshops and presenters are scheduled. Topics include workplace bullying, the Ruth and Gary Namie will present, too.

Workplace Bullying Presentation in San Francisco & Sacramento

2010-10-13T19:50:00.000-07:00

Please join the California Healthy Workplace Advocates for
this Informative, Provocative Presentation(s)...the perfect event for
FREEDOM FROM WORKPLACE BULLYING WEEK, Oct. 17th-23rd!

We WELCOME THEM AND YOU! Register NOW!

An Evening with Drs. Ruth and Gary Namie!

New Science and Future Directions For The Workplace Bullying Movement and the Law

When & Where

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19th, 2010

Grosvenor Hotel, 380 S. Airport Blvd. So. San Francisco,650-873-3200

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20th 2010

Radisson Hotel, Leisure Lane, Sacramento 916 922-2020

$25 Register Online at bullybusters.org

or call 360-656-6630
Inscribed copies of The Bully at Work are available
at the event: Event + book = $40

Event Schedule:
6pm Meet 'n Greet
7pm Presentation by the Namies
9pm Learn about the 2011 California
Healthy Workplace Bill Legislative Campaign

www.workplacebullying.org

FREEDOM FROM WORKPLACE BULLIES WEEK!

2010-10-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

FREEDOM FROM WORKPLACE BULLIES WEEK - Oct. 17th - 23rd (see below!)

A Week for Support, Inspiration, Peace & Health

Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week is a chance to break through the shame and silence surrounding bullying. It is a week to be daring and bold. Here are different ways to celebrate Freedom Week.

Bullied Targets

Make this the time to break your silence. Tell co-workers, friends, and family. Ask for help. Put your health first. Read the voluminous research on health harm related to unremitting exposure to stress from bullying. Schedule an appointment with a mental health professional who understands bullying (see our Selection Guide). Talk to an attorney for one hour to see if you have any legal recourse. Refuse to believe the lies told about you and the shameful way you have been abandoned. It is not about you; it's the perpetrator's need to control others. Commit to either finding a new job or planning a fight-back strategy (involving co-workers, unions, the more rationale executives) to reclaim your dignity. Everyone should be entitled to being allowed to work without interference and assaults to her or his integrity. If the bullying is old and you are mad as hell, call your state senator and state representative to ask her or him to sponsor the WBI Healthy Workplace Bill.

Spouses, Partners, & Friends

Give unconditional positive support to the targets. Believe them. Tolerate dinners disturbed by their obsessing about the never-ending problem at work. Understand the exhaustion and withdrawal. Encourage them to get psychological and medical help. Validate that they are tough, but because they are human they cannot endure prolonged exposure to extreme stress without it impairing their health -- no one can. Provide needed respite from the toxic, stressful world of work targets endure. Distract them with pleasurable activities. Remind them of who they were before bullying injured them. Remember, you will be the last ones standing when all others have abandoned them. Don't ask them to do more than they are capable of doing. Don't ask why they did not do more to fight back. Support them now; you can ask for repayment of the credit you advanced to them later. Bullying tests the love between partners and friends. Pass the test for the sake of your loved one.

Co-Workers

Our many years of immersion in workplace bullying convince us that co-worker witnesses have the best opportunity to stop bullying, second only to employers. During Freedom Week, don't give in to the "F" factor. Stop the fear -- of being the only one who comes to your bullied colleague's assistance, of daring to provoke the bully with an indignant stand, of being the next target, of being called insubordinate if you talk or work with the target person, of losing your job. Go ahead and feel guilty for not helping someone who clearly needs your help and may have asked for it. Why do you worry about the bully's impression of you? Think more about your personal integrity. Your bullied friend may be too ashamed to ask for help. So, offer it without having to be asked. If all co-workers stood together and immediately confronted the bully AS A GROUP about interfering with work of the target, he or she would most likely back down, if only temporarily. Bullies are liars and cowards. It gives the target much-deserved safety. Unfortunately, the reputation of co-workers is well known. They cower in fear, doing nothing, or worse, siding with the bully. That's why some people call bullying "mobbing." It becomes many against one. Co-workers do the bullies' dirty work for them. By working together and showing the bully a united front, chances of being divided as a group are less likely. And if you stick together, you can't all be fired (thus overcoming the greatest fear of all). The very least you can do as a group is to comfort the target by sharing your experiences as a former (and probably future) target of the same bully. At least provide emotional support if tactical support sounds too scary. In the beginning of the bullying, targets believe they are alone and this never happened to anyone before (because co-workers are silent and do not share experiences). Reinforce the target's humanity. While being bullied, targets come to believe the bully's lies. The group can counter the lies. Be there for your friend. It's the social compact among human beings. Honor humanity; dare the bully to act humanely toward all of you. Read more about why groups do what they do in The Bully At Work. Make Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week the excuse to try something different. The results will please you. It will be something you can be proud of. And your targeted colleague will thank you.

Employers/Owners

Learn how bullying is an unsustainable cost. Look beyond personalities as causes to see how the workplace culture and environment make your organization prone to bullying. Commit to correcting and preventing it. Adopt the WBI/Work Doctor Blueprint to Prevent Workplace Bullying. Employers define all conditions of work. Leadership sets the rules and establishes the culture. Bullying could not exist without either the explicit or tacit approval from employers. You own the place and are responsible for the problems that exist within.

HR Workers

If you have ever been asked to intervene in an abusive situation by a bullied target and did not help, why? Have you ever supported a bullying boss because of HR's management support role? Have you ever coached a rookie supervisor to start documenting, surveilling, and tormenting the worker known by everyone (including you) to be the most technically qualified? Have you aided and abetted a bully? Have you prepared termination documents for workers who originally came to you seeking relief from a systematic campaign of interpersonal destruction? Seek atonement. For Freedom Week, make a personal pledge to never again stand idly by while people are harmed, or better still, find a moral and principled purpose to which your HR department can commit.

Mental Health Professionals

Don't say "let's change your behaviors that provoke the bully." Trust what abuse victims tell you. Believe that there are people as evil as have been described to you. Stop holding targeted clients responsible for the unsolicited psychological violence they endure. Understand how work environments, not personal flaws, explain health-harming mistreatment. Stop committing the fundamental attribution error. Be careful to not misdiagnose as borderline or adjustment disorder. Minimize psychological testing during acute phases of abuse so as to not skew results. Try EMDR. Suggest the client attend a trauma support group. Learn the consequences for the client of FMLA, Workers Comp, and Disability (short- and long-term). Learn more about workplace bullying at WBI University so you can specialize. Study the science behind bullying and stress-related diseases.

Unions

Help bullied members. Stop defending abusive members. Representation need not be a defense. Adopt the prevention of workplace bullying as an organizing tool. Schedule training for members to become internal experts in bullying so they can help member-coworkers. Make a bullying-free, safe workplace a goal for members. Adopt bullying as a strategic goal. Bargain tirelessly to include an anti-bullying provision in the CBA. Endorse the WBI Healthy Workplace Bill in your state and join the advocacy now. WBI and unions are natural partners in the fight for workers' rights and human rights. Dignity at work is deserved by all.

School Administrators

Learn about the WBI Workplace Bullying in Schools project, begun in Iowa, to address bullying among adult employees -- teachers and staff. Complement your student bullying with the program that reduces your risk exposure while creating a healthy work environment to optimize student success.

Legislators

Sponsor the WBI Healthy Workplace Bill in your state. 200 state lawmakers already have already done so in 17 states. Listen to your constituents' tales of workplace abuse. Add this bill to your populist - for the people - agenda.
From: http://www.workplacebullying.org/tools/freedom_week.html

Military workplace bullying: can a law help?

2010-08-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

Smets: Military workplace bullying: can a law help?

By Janice Smets
Ventura County Star
Posted August 11, 2010 at 7 p.m.

I was lucky; I survived a military reservist’s bullying. But a former civil servant experiencing bullying from another military reservist in the same office wasn’t as lucky — she died one month after being forced into retirement.

I personally saw the agency’s alternative dispute resolution (ADR) written settlement for another civil servant in the same office, which stated she could be transferred to a civil servant supervisor from her present military reservist supervisor (i.e., the bully) if she signed on the bottom legal line to retire — otherwise, if she doesn’t retire, the complainant remains working for the military direct supervisor (i.e., the bully).

Once a civil servant at the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) contracting division files a harassment claim against the U.S. Navy under Equal Employment Opportunity laws, the base commander has the right to make a determination to prevent further bullying and make changes. To date, no changes have been made.

It is guaranteed: The civil servant will not prevail in these cases against NAVAIR. A decade of history will support this view with a voluminous paper trail.

My EEO filing is now part of the unresolved cases regarding bullying at NAVAIR Pt. Mugu/China Lake. No civil servant is able to remain strong enough — emotionally, physically and financially — to get to an EEO hearing; the bullying becomes too great. However, the military reservists are promoted during or subsequent to their bullying behavior.

An article in The Star’s July 18 Parade magazine (http://www.parade.com) entitled “Workplace Bullying: Do We Need a Law?” brings hope. The Workplace Bullying Institute understands the humiliation and intimidation experienced by the bully’s victim.

A law would apply to all government employees of all ranks — laws have no prejudice. We need these laws to protect and serve the recipients of bullying.

Taxpayers deserve productive and hard-working employees. Employees deserve to work in a safe environment. Laws are needed that apply to public and private employers.

Thank you, Workplace Bullying Institute, for giving hope.

— Janice Smets lives in Oak Park.

Celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment

2010-08-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

A Celebration of Women’s Suffrage and a Protest of Meg Whitman Whose Voting Record Dishonors that Tradition Thursday, August 26, 2010 B Sacramento, California

Join our special celebration of Women’s Right to Vote and protest billionaire CEO Meg Whitman’s record of rarely voting for nearly three decades — except now that she is on the ballot.
“I was not as engaged in the political process [voting] as I should have been. I was doing lots of other things...building companies [and laying off workers].”
— Meg Whitman, March 15, 2010

Join Us — Thursday, August 26, Sacramento
Hop on board to join us for a very special celebration of the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment legalizing the right of women to vote in the U.S. Thousands of women, and men, fought for decades to secure this basic democratic right. On August 26, we will honor the achievements of the suffrage movement, and the women who were imprisoned and abused in the fight.
We will also continue our protest of Meg Whitman, who has disgraced the suffragists’ legacy, and now thinks she is entitled to be governor because of her wealth and privilege as a billionaire corporate CEO.

Thursday, August 26, 2010 We’ll meet at the Denny’s Restaurant on J St. at 2pm, then
Gather for March 3:00 pm Convention Center, Sacramento; March and Rally 4:00 – 6:00 pm Capitol West Steps, Sacramento.
Join us for this special occasion. Hosted by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United with California Healthy Workplace Advocates and other community and labor organizations. You’re encouraged to wear historic clothing of the era or black and white attire (or your "Bullying Breaks Hearts" Tee Shirts). Friends and family are invited to join the march and rally. Celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment...see you there!

Workplace bullying is rampant in American labor

2010-07-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

Legislator education about Workplace Bullying was scheduled as a Citizen Lobby Day on April 22, 2009 at the Illinois State Capitol to promote both HJR 40 Taskforce on Workplace Bullying Resolution and HB 374 Abusive Work Environment Act. Both are very critical to our State and Nation's continued social development. These bills are quite timely, if not overdue. Ours is of the last industrialized cultures to ignore work abuse and the toll it takes on individuals, families, and organizations.

Workplace bullying is rampant in American labor. If you haven't yet done so, check out the WBI-Zogby data at the Workplace Bullying Institute, http://www.bullyinginstitute.org/ ².
For both public and private sector employers, bullies are too expensive to ignore and to keep. Too often, employers don't know what to do about them, as there is yet no law against work abuse. Bullies can damage, if not destroy, an organization. The State of Illinois is a prime example of this, as we are still very much on the mend from our recent horrifying and embarrassing bullying experience from the top.

Opponents argue that passage of this legislation will create lawsuits. Those lawsuits are already occurring. They are poorly filed as discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, workers comp claims, etc. Severely damaged targets logically seek whatever avenue for justice they can find. This litigation is often weak and can last years, be quite expensive for both sides, and is often dismissed on slight technicalities. Settlements are usually accompanied by "hush clauses," even when the "fine for immoral behavior" is coming from public funds.

Our true mission is to "recognize and prevent" work abuse before it gets to litigation. Without the threat of litigation, about 10% of the perpetrators won't knock it off, behave themselves, and follow the Golden Rule like the rest of us usually do.

Keep in mind that the burden of proof is on the target. The standard of proof is quite high and subject to expert witnessing. The bill is easy to understand. It's written by Professor David Yamada, a Suffolk University labor law professor with a top national reputation.

Opposition is based on fear and is very shortsighted. It's like putting a blue tarp over a leaky roof instead of finding the leak and fixing the hole that causes it. Illinois needs to find that leak. The research that's already been done by the Drs. Ruth and Gary Namie of the WBI and a cadre of global experts is readily available.

Healthy Workplace Advocates will get this bill passed in at least one state very soon. Social evolution is slow, but certain. Illinois can be first, but it will not be the last. This movement will sweep our nation state by state. By being first, Illinois can bring moral capital back that we recently lost, much to our shame and embarrassment. Standing up to the bullies is deeply embedded in our State's history. I think Abe would be proud if we led the way out of this form of oppression. Don't you? For more information about what happened on the Citizen Lobby Day and how we can plan one for California, contact info@bullyfreeworkplace.org.

Yahoo asked, "Should you be able to sue your boss for workplace bullying?"

2010-07-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

Think of workplace bullying as the underlying foundation of all the other behaviors we discourage at work...sexual harassment, verbal abuse, physical abuse, prejudice...it's all about one person or group exercising unreasonable power over another. We've created laws to deal with the symptoms...now it's time to address the core issue, workplace bullying.

It's time to compel employers to put policies and procedures in place to correct and prevent workplace bullying. In most cases, once reported, if the bully is told to "knock it off", they will reign themselves in. If the bully refuses to stop their behavior, they will become responsible for their actions, not the employer.

Without being compelled by law, employers have no legal recourse to stop the bully. Employers need this law as much as the employees do. Without a law to prevent it, the HR Dept. can easily become complicit in the bullying, with or without their intention to do so. It's time...time to do the right thing. We're never too old to apply the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"...remember that one? I think we learned it in Kindergarten. It's time to apply what we learned in school to the workplace. After all, without intervention, where do we think schoolyard bullies go when they grow up?

Source(s):

www.bullyfreeworkplace.org
www.workplacebullying.org
http://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/why-the-healthy-workplace-bill-is-hr-friendly/

Workplace Bullying in New York Times & YouTube

2010-07-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

Lots going on right now...check out this New York Times article on workplace bullying, and the interview of Professor David Yamada, the Suffolk University law professor who crafted the language of the Healthy Workplace bill, now on YouTube:

New York Times article:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2005358,00.html#ixzz0uQqnQbMQ

Interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu2kWy14REg

David Yamada
Read my blog, Minding the Workplace, at:
http://newworkplace.wordpress.com

Think of workplace bullying as the underlying foundation of all the other behaviors we discourage at work...sexual harassment, verbal abuse, physical abuse, prejudice...it's all about one person or group exercising unreasonable power over another. We've created laws to deal with the symptoms...now it's time to address the core issue, workplace bullying.

It's time to compel employers to put policies and procedures in place to correct and prevent workplace bullying. In most cases, once reported, if the bully is told to "knock it off", they will reign themselves in. If the bully refuses to stop their behavior, they will become responsible for their actions, not the employer.

Without being compelled by law, employers have no legal recourse to stop the bully. Employers need this law as much as the employees do. Without a law to prevent it, the HR Dept. can easily become complicit in the bullying, with or without their intention to do so. It's time...time to do the right thing. We're never too old to apply the Golden Rule...do unto others as you would have them do unto you...remember that one? I think we learned it in Kindergarten...time to apply what we learned in school to the workplace. After all, without intervention, where do we think schoolyard bullies go when they grow up?

Source(s):

www.bullyfreeworkplace.org
www.workplacebullying.org
http://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/why-the-healthy-workplace-bill-is-hr-friendly/

Union Support for Healthy Workplace Bill in New York

2010-07-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.wnylabortoday.com/news/2010/07/09/buffalo-afl-cio-clc/healthy-workplace-bullying-law-passed-by-state-senate-continues-to-garner-support-from-organized-labor-while-being-attacked-by-the-buffalo-niagara-partnership-as-harmful-to-new-york-s-private-sector/

Healthy Workplace/Bullying Law Passed By State Senate Continues To Garner Support From Organized Labor While Being Attacked By The Buffalo-Niagara Partnership as “Harmful To New York’s Private Sector”

Published Friday, July 9, 2010 10:00 am

by Tom Campbell

(BUFFALO) – While the effort to have a Healthy Workplace/Workplace Bullying Law passed in New York is continuing to move forward – albeit slowly – the potential new state legislation is continuing to garner additional support from Organized Labor, but is also being attacked by the Buffalo-Niagara Partnership, which calls the measure “anti-business” and “harmful to the private sector.”

New York Healthy Workplace Advocates (NYHWA) State Coordinator Michael Schlicht tells WNYLaborToday.com the bill was recently passed by the Senate. However, the bill was tabled by the Assembly in June, and because of the state’s budget problems, Schlicht now says “the bill will be re-introduced in January.” For the bill to become law, the State Assembly must also pass it, and Schlicht is now calling on those who support the proposed law to personally contact their Assembly representatives and ask they support it.

According to the NYHWA - 1.4 million workers employed across the state continue to try to deal with on-the-job intimidation, mostly from bosses and others in authority.

Workplace Bullying is described by NYHWA officials as inter-personal mistreatment, harassment and/or psychological violence and directly affects - unbelievably, they say - 1 in 6 American workers. Approximately two-thirds of all harassment is "status-blind" and legal, and it poses an occupational health hazard. In addition, too few targeted individuals complain.

New York's Healthy Workplace/Workplace Bullying Bill, meanwhile, substitutes health-impairment for discrimination, and extends protection to all employees, working for either public or private employers, regardless of protected group status, who seek redress for being subjected to an abusive work environment, Schlicht tells WNYLaborToday.com.

Once law, it will be unlawful to subject another employee whose malicious conduct sabotages or undermines the targeted person's work performance, and will punish retaliation of the complainant or anyone who helps the complainant.

“We’re working on several issues within the bill,” said Schlicht of the slow process and taking time to point a finger at the private business lobby in New York State that “doesn’t want it.”

In Western New York, the Buffalo Niagara Partnership – a pro-business group that says it represents nearly 2,500 employers – is dead set against the Healthy Workplace Bill.

In a recent e-mail to its membership, the Partnership – which describes itself as an advocate in Western New York, Albany and Washington for “policies and resources to increase private sector investment and jobs and business success” – listed the Healthy Workplace/Workplace Bullying Bill as an “anti-business initiative” that’s “harmful to private sector investment and job creation throughout the state, and particularly in Upstate New York.”

However, that hasn’t stopped Organized Labor from continuing to step up and support the bill.

Labor Unions have been a solid supporter of the bill, Schlicht said, singling out the New York State AFL-CIO, the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and the United Transportation Union, to name but a few. In addition, the NAACP has also issued a resolution at the National level seeking to make Workplace Bullying illegal.

And just recently, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) voiced its support for the bill, Schlicht said, as well as DC 37/AFSCME (American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees) – which is described as New York City’s Largest Public Employee Union that represents 125,000 members.

In a released statement from DC 37/AFSCME’s Political Action & Legislation Director Wanda Williams, the Union said:

“This bill, if enacted, would afford workers subjected to workplace abuse the ability to establish a civil cause of action against employers that have done nothing to prevent it. This legislation would prompt employers to take more seriously the negative and potentially harmful effects of bullying in the workplace. District Council 37 supports this legislation. Workplace bullying encompasses extreme verbal abuse, hostile actions, and, in some cases, physical violence. Almost 54 % of the time, the employer did nothing – the bully experienced no consequences. Additionally, in 37% of cases reported, the target of the bullying was retaliated against for complaining. Those who have reported are often isolated by fellow employees, experience increased bullying, have been suspended from work, or in some cases, are demoted, transferred, or terminated. An abusive work environment is not conducive to any employer. The Healthy Workplace Bill provides both legal redress to employees suffering from workplace abuse and legal incentives for employers to work towards bullying prevention methods. The enactment of such legislation will help to increase workplace productivity, overall employee morale, and the amount of employers taking steps towards safer work environments. In addition, and as a result, various Health Care costs associated with the treatment of bullied employees will decrease providing for a more competitive state marketplace. On behalf of our 125,000 members and 50,000 retirees, District Council 37 supports this legislation and urges its passage.”

NYHWA's Schlicht said the original Healthy Workplace Bill (A5414/S1823) had been amended as A5414A/S1823A to accommodate a change for Labor Unions, which would allow Union Members to utilize their contract provisions against workplace harassment in those instances where the negotiated collective bargaining language is stronger than the Healthy Workplace Bill. In cases where the negotiated contract language and the Healthy Workplace Bill are equal, a Union Member would have a choice of which option to use, a change NYHWA fully supported.

According to the NYHWA, serious psychological violence, in sub-lethal and non-physical forms, is said to create an abusive workplace and affects the targeted person's health. Demonstrable physical or mental health harm can include shame, humiliation, stress, loss of sleep, severe anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, reduced immunity to infection, gastrointestinal disorders and hypertension - which increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

The bill would require documentation of such impairment by a physician, psychologist, psychiatrist, and psychotherapist or by competent expert evidence at trial. Currently, the NYHWA says individual plaintiffs must rely solely on private attorneys as New York State has no enforcement role.

The bullied employee is directly liable for the unlawful employment practice, the NYHWA says. He or she is the first one to sue. The employer may be vicariously liable. However, the bill provides ample opportunities for employers to not be held liable when it exercises reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct the abusive conduct, and when negative employment decisions are consistent with legitimate business interests, or the employee's poor performance, illegal or unethical activity. The bill also seeks to compel employer prevention through internal policies and enforcement. No new employer regulations are created, the NYHWA adds. In addition, bullied individuals may accept workers' compensation benefits in lieu of bringing action under this bill.

"When we talked to our elected officials individually, they initially didn't believe us when we told these stories to them and presented them with our information. This has been a multi-year process to get the bill where it is and we have received a lot of Union support. We’re proud of what we've accomplished so far," the NYHWA's Schlicht said.

The 43-year-old Schlicht, meanwhile, painfully knows the repercussions of Workplace Bullying himself and is currently on a second leave of absence from his employer.

"I was bullied on the job and gone on medical leave," Schlicht, who declined to speak in specifics on the advice of his legal counsel, told WNYLaborToday.com a few months back. "I worked for a public employer and suffered psychological harm, including extreme stress, headaches and anxiety. Unless you are physically assaulted, there's really no legal recourse at this time. If I had been hit or punched (by this individual), I would be in a better position that I am in today."

(Editor's Note: For more information on the NYHWA, visit www.nyhwa.org or contact NYHWA State Coordinator Michael Schlicht directly at 716-316-4388)

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Ridiculous rationales against the Healthy Workplace Bill

2010-06-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

http://healthyworkplacebill.org/blog/?p=144

SHRM opposes anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill

The advocacy group for Human Resources (HR) issued an alert for SHRM members in June 2010 to oppose the NY versions of the HWB. In brief, Bob Carragher, SHRM’s manager of government relations (chief national lobbyist) and Susan Corcoran, NY state legislative director (state lobbyist) claim our legislation is “bad for business and bad for New York.” The two issued a “Talking Points” memo related to the bills that fell into our hands. Here is the text verbatim with WBI counterpoint in italics:

Human resource professionals, by the very nature of their positions, are dedicated to advocating for the interests of all employees in their organizations.

[Not true. HR is a management support function and acts accordingly. HR is not in the employee advocacy business, only unions are. To say otherwise is disingenuous.]

One of the many daily tasks of an effective HR practitioner is ensuring a positive work environment for all. Recognizing that an abusive work environment can have a serious effect on both the morale and health of their employees, while also seriously impacting the image and profitability of an organization, most employers (through their HR departments) have conducted extensive educational/awareness programs on the negative impact “bullying” can have in the workplace.

[Ensuring a positive environment for all? Give me a break! By allowing health-harming bullying to continue unabated as HR departments do, HR sustains an employee health and safety risk for those not fortunate enough to be considered credible to disbelieving HR types. In 2007, our national survey found that 44% of employers did nothing about bullying and 18% actually worsened situations for bullied individuals. So, where are the "extensive" awareness programs about bullying? And if they even exist, as run by HR, why are they so ineffective as to not put a dent into bullying's prevalence. Perhaps because Bob and Susan (above) can't bring themselves to take bullying seriously. That's why they put it in quotes -- "bullying." Similarly, HR workers like to define themselves as HR "professionals."]

A. 05414B, as currently drafted, could have serious ramifications for employers doing business in New York State. In short, the bill could:
- Strain the day-to-day employer/employee relations in workplaces throughout the Empire State. Many employers make great efforts to provide a positive work environment, backing these efforts with formal dispute resolution processes, written codes of conduct and open door policies.

[Great efforts to create safe work environments would produce results and eliminate bullying. The very existence of bullying is testimony that either the efforts are not great or HR is completely ineffective. Ironic that the lobbyists use the term "strain" which has meaning in the occupational health literature. Job strain refers to increasing task demand while simultaneously depriving a worker control over her or his taskload. Dispute resolution refers to forcing mediation down the throats of the already compromised targeted person, codes of conduct are as empty as flowery mission, vision, values statements that ring hollow, and open doors (?) are useless if nothing results from meetings in the rooms with open or closed doors. Open doors implies that management will listen. Not if their favorite bully "Bob" is being exposed. Bob can never do wrong. This is all drivel.]

- Undermine good faith efforts by employers to establish positive work environments. In addition, this legislation would significantly increase litigation and employers’ exposure to liability for lost wages, medical expenses, emotional distress, punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

[Bob and Susan can't read and Susan works at JacksonLewis, dragonslayers for corporate masters. According to the bill itself, employers who take care to prevent and correct abusive conduct will be rewarded with escape from (affirmative defenses for) vicarious liability. The bill when it becomes law will reward good employers. The careful reference to good faith rather than actual employer efforts that result in a policy and faithful enforcement of it is not an accident. Shrmy wants credit for trying even if they fall short.]

- Create an incentive for certain individuals to “game the system” in an effort to seek monetary gain. With the possibility of reaping a windfall from civil awards of compensatory and punitive damages, unscrupulous individuals could be tempted to claim physical or psychological harm due to an abusive work environment, requiring their employer to incur legal fees and lost work time defending themselves against such charges.

[Here Bob and Susan are branding the majority of employees, the non-supervisory ones, as fraudulent, unscrupulous schemers. How did these people get hired? Who did the screening? Oops, that was HR. What about ethics training? Again, HR. And if a person makes a claim of psychological harm, shouldn't HR care about that. After all, Bob and Susan stated above that HR cares about "the interests of all employees. Balderdash. This bulleted point shows the actual contempt HR and corp defense attorneys have for employees who dare sue. Oh, by the way, again the illiterate (or lazy) Bob and Susan did not read the bill. It is not sufficient that the misconduct be abusive and health-harming, it must also be repeated and malicious.]

- Prove as a deterrent to drawing businesses to locate in New York State. Given that New York would be the first state in the country to provide such a right, this legislation could have a chilling effect on the business climate of our state.

[This is the Bloomberg/Chamber of Commerce Big Lie. Where will they go? If they want the talent that NY state residents bring, the biz stays in the state. Otherwise, if they are big enough, they go offshore to China. If that happens, they won't take HR with them. We say that if you have to abusive to run a state or municipal agency or a company in NY State, then you should lose your charter to do so. Will it take the Foxconn rash of worker suicides to get American employers to stop the abuse?]

End of SHRM Talking Points

There you have it. HR, the folks with “human” in their job title choose to lobby against the humans working for them in favor of obscure, inanimate needs of an impersonal corporate entity. Little wonder they have little credibility in the C-suite. Though this lapdog, ingratiating fealty to corporate masters is designed to make them appear allies to the CEO, the toadying up, they still won’t gain the respect HR craves.

The dramatic opposition to working people captured in this lobbying document by HR cements the already negative societal impression. It should remove any lingering doubt by the most optimistic and uncritical soul that HR is not your friend or advocate. HR does not deserve workers’ trust, ever!

If HR opposes stopping abuse in the American workplace, then it necessarily seeks to promote it. Based on HR’s unconscionable reaction to bullying when it is currently reported, that is clearly the case.

Please write directly to Bob Carragher at Robert.Carragher@shrm.org
and Susan Corcoran at corcors@jacksonlewis.com to let them know what you think about SHRM’s position and the ethicality of their lobbying work.

G. Namie

The Postmaster General, and Inspector General, must go!

2010-06-10T21:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/06/10/mr-president-how-about-a-little-of-that-change-we-can-believe-in/

Mr. President: How About a Little of that Change We Can Believe in?

June 10, 2010 posted by Eric L. Wattree

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

While writing this series of articles I’ve had the great privilege of becoming acquainted with Dr. Stephen Musacco. Dr Musacco is a therapist, an organizational psychologist, and the author of the book “Beyond Going Postal.” In addition to his credentials as a psychologist, Dr. Musacco also has the specialized knowledge of having worked for the postal service for over thirty years.

As a professional and former insider with a through understanding of the inner workings of the postal service, the doctor’s assessment of the working environment within the agency is so chilling that one can’t help but wonder how such corruption, employee abuse, and adminsitrative indifference have been allowed to exist in a United States government agency. Thus, I’m going to devote this week’s column to an excerpt of the doctor’s professional assessment, a man who is uniquely qualified to speak to what he calls the “toxic environment ” that postal workers are forced to endure on a daily basis.

In doing so, I sincerely hope that the public will take heed to this mental health professional’s warnings. It is absolutely essential that the American people press our self-serving Washington establishment to step up to the plate to prevent another American tragedy BEFORE it happens for a change. This can be done, and it must be. In this election year the American people must realize that the only way they will ever be secure in their own lives is to make the political establishment insecure in theirs.

Justice is not cheap. The doctor’s words clearly demonstrate that in spite of what we might have been taught in grade school, justice is not a birthright. One must be prepared to fight for justice. His words also demonstrate that the time has come for the American middle-class to flex its political muscle – and fast.

At 600,000 strong, plus family, friends, and neighbors - and in an election year where incumbents are hanging on by their fingernails – postal employees are in the driver’s seat of a tank. Yet, they’re allowing themselves, and their families, to be robbed by a guy with a butter knife – and not just once outside a liquor store, but repeatedly in what is supposed to be the sanctity of their workplace. This has got to come to an end.

Why are so many union officials missing in action? Where are your congressional representatives? And President Obama, where are you?!!

Another USPS Workplace Tragedy

Dr. Steve Musacco

On the morning of June 2, 2009, a city letter carrier went to work and reportedly fatally shot himself in the head in the locker room at a postal facility in Gastonia, North Carolina. The Gaston Gazette online news report stated that the “Gastonia Police are investigating an apparent suicide this morning at the post office. . . . One of the employees is inside dead from a gunshot wound.”

Prior to my retirement from the USPS, at a former district I worked for, there were three suicides within a two year period that I concluded were contributed to in significant part by how these employees were treated in the workplace. The third employee, a city letter carrier, fatally shot himself in a postal jeep and left a letter stating that he could no longer take the job. The night before he committed suicide he told his wife he did not know if he would be able to handle his job anymore. How do I know? His wife told me this one day after his suicide. He was one of the best employees in the office. The District Manager and I interviewed his coworkers after his death, and they stated he would urinate in a bottle while on delivery route for fear he would not meet an artificial deadline set by postal management. During the interviews, one of the postal supervisors told the District Manager and me that the day before the suicide she gave a letter to all the city letter carriers in the station, noting that any future over time used for their routes would be considered unacceptable performance. The suicide at the Gastonia postal facility was the second since December 2005.

Many people have asked: Why is there so much stress and workplace tragedies in the U.S. Postal Service? The answer to these questions is because the postal culture embraces and reflects core values that center on achieving bottom-line results with little or no regard for employee participation, respect, dignity, or fairness. Additionally, there is little or no accountability for the actions of top management in the Postal Service. Many postal facilities consequently have toxic work environments, and they can be a catalyst or trigger for serious acts of workplace violence, including homicide and suicide. The associated rewards system for behavior consistent with the postal culture core values, moreover, enables systemic organizational and individual bullying of employees at all levels of the organization.

I define a toxic workplace environment as a workplace where there is a high incidence of stress-related illnesses. These stress-related illnesses are manifested by psychological and physical deterioration. In other words, these types of environments seriously erode employees’ health and well-being. The primary factors contributing to a toxic workplace environment are high job demands, low job control, and low social support. Low social support generally entails a lack of respect and validation of employees’ dignity by their “superiors”. It also oftentimes includes organizational practices and methods that encourage the bullying of employees to meet corporate goals.

The name of the city letter carrier who committed suicide in Gastonia, NC on June 2, 2009 is Steven Spencer age 60. According to his obituary, Steven was married and leaves two daughters and three grandchildren. He was a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers/ and state representative for Muscular Dystrophy Association. He was the founder of the National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive for Gaston County. He was very active in Scouting, attaining the highest rank of Eagle Scout. He also was a member of the Order of the Arrow. Steven was a veteran of the Vietnam War serving his country proudly in the US Navy.

I find it highly improbable that an employee will kill himself or herself in a postal facility or while on a postal route unless it is to send a clear message that a toxic workplace exists and the person can’t handle it anymore. Sadly, it also may be a tragic attempt to better the lot of one’s fellow coworkers by drawing attention to the tragic event itself.

Prior to Steven’s suicide, I was contacted by a relative of an employee at the Gastonia post office in April of this year. She was concerned because of what she reported as a toxic workplace environment at the Gastonia post office, lack of accountability to address employees’ concerns, and that the situation may lead to another workplace tragedy. Unfortunately, her worst concern became a reality on June 2, 2009. She further indicated several employees have resigned their positions at the office because of the toxic workplace environment and others were suffering from negative psychological and physical effects because of this environment.

I was told employees’ attempts, mostly city letter carriers, to have their concerns addressed over a two-year period included: filing of discrimination complaints and grievances, unprofessional workplace assessments, town hall meetings, contacts to congressional representatives both locally and nationally, contacts to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and petitions to Charlotte postal District officials as well as to national representatives of the Postal Service and the NALC. She further indicated that none of these measures contributed to fully addressing the workplace environment or alleviating its negative impact for the employees at the Gastonia Post Office.

In order for the U.S Postal Service to become a safe and healthy organization and thereby prevent future workplace tragedies, which have been at an epidemic level over the past three decades, there is an urgent need for congressional intervention and legislation to address its toxic postal culture. Dr. Gary Namie and his wife, Dr. Ruth Namie, along with their colleague Dr. David Yamada, have for years pushed for such legislation at the state and federal level. In order for national legislation for the prevention of workplace bullying to have the intended impact, it would require sanctions to employers or their representatives who are in violation of a new workplace statute that defines workplace bullying as a harmful and illegal activity.

The Postmaster General, and Inspector General, must go!

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Chairman Edolphus Towns
U.S. House of Representatives
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-5051

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like me – it’s just that God does.

New York Healthy Workplace Bill to be Voted on...

2010-06-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

IF YOU LIVE IN NEW YORK....Call to support the New York's Healthy Workplace Bill...we're ALMOST THERE! When one state passes this bill, the others will follow. We cheer New York to lead the way and hope California won't be far behind with the California Healthy Workplace Bill! See the timely article below:

http://tcworkerscenter.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/make-a-phone-call-for-a5414a-the-healthy-workplace-bill/

Make a Phone Call for A5414A, the Healthy Workplace Bill
June 8, 2010 · Leave a Comment

I’ve just heard that A5414A, the Healthy Workplace Bill, is scheduled to be voted on in the Labor Committee. According to newspaper reports, Committee Chair Susan John is opposed to this bill. Please contact the Assembly Labor Committee members if you can, urging them to send the bill to the Assembly floor. Barbara Lifton is one of the multi-sponsors of this bill. Thank you again, Barbara!

Since I first started researching workplace bullying and speaking about the Workers’ Center commitment to addressing this largely unacknowledged problem, I have heard many stories about targeted workers suffering severe health problems. It is not uncommon for targets to end up in mental health units of hospitals; heart attacks and stomach and digestive complications have also been reported to me. This is a serious problem that we must take seriously.

Don’t let this bill die in the Labor Committee!

Update: I’ve just learned from Megan at Barbara Lifton’s Albany office that A5414 was returned to Committee for further consideration. This means that the Assembly bill was not defeated but not sent to the Assembly for vote yet either. Megan said that this bill will be voted on by the Labor Committee before Session which starts June 21st.

This means that we do have time to call the Labor Committee, particularly Susan John, the Committee Chair, to urge the legislators to send this bill to the Assembly this summer. Please try to make that call or email.

US Chamber of Commerce protects rapists in Iraq !

2009-11-18T14:28:00.000-08:00

This just in from Moveon.org:

The US Chamber of Commerce [a bullying corporate lobby organization - CHWA words] has sent a letter to Congress saying that it would "set a dangerous precedent" to allow rape victims into court. The worst news? The Chamber has enough clout to tie up the bill for years, unless we fight back.

In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was working for a private contractor in Iraq when she was brutally gang-raped by coworkers. Four years later, Jamie is still being denied justice.

Jamie can't file U.S. criminal charges because the rape took place overseas, and a fine-print clause in her contract takes away her right to file a lawsuit in the U.S.

Congress is working to protect the rights of rape victims like Jamie.* But, shockingly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is fighting it. They say that it would "set a dangerous precedent" to allow rape victims into court.

Organizations endorsing the petition include the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, Public Citizen, Consumer Action, Workplace Fairness, National Association of Consumer Advocates, Take Back Your Rights PAC, Alliance for Justice, and the Jamie Leigh Foundation.

A compiled petition with your individual comment will be presented to U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue.
http://pol.moveon.org/chamber/rape/

*Senator Al Franken has proposed an accepted amendment to right this wrong. When Moveon.org speaks, the Chamber is fearful. The mightly, wealthy Chamber knows the US voters' values are represented by this organization. So speak up and sign that petition. You don't have to join their organization to show you care.

UC anti-bullying legislation fell out!

2009-11-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

California State Assemblymember Tom Torlakson of Antioch, California sponsored a Concurrent Resolution to appropriate $180,000 for voluntary participation in workplace bullying training for managers. Unfortunately, this resolution died in the appropriations committee.

Mr. Torlakson, who is running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction has no plans to go forward at this time. He is concerned that that the press would twist the issue into a controversy. Interestingly, the “educational establishment” has often been the lead opponents of the Healthy Workplace Bill because they are loath to lose absolute power over educators who are not in their inner circle.

The floor vote for this in the Assembly was all ‘ayes’ for Democrats and all ‘noes’ for Republicans. The California University Employees Union first brought the idea to the Member. The resolution was voluntary because our state legislature cannot place requirements on University of California schools, as it can on California State University schools for which it serves as regent.

Staffer Monique Ramos from the Torlakson office commented, “What the issue needs is education.” Yes, we first the education to correct and prevent. But in the end, without a legal club, no bully will stop the bad behavior. They are not cognitively capable.

The response to Ramos was, “We’ve been trying for a decade and we will keep up the good cause.” What opponents fail to realize is that this bill would easily pay for itself.

Assemblymember Torlakson’s government site can be reached for ‘thank you messages’ from Bullybusters. At least he tried. http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a11/

To read the bill analysis, see: http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_0051-0100/acr_55_cfa_20090530_134517_asm_floor.html

Bill documents can be read at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=acr_55&sess=CUR

Bill history for ACR #55: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_0051-0100/acr_55_cfa_20090630_095254_sen_comm.html

From California Assembly Concurrent Resolution #55:

Urges the training be presented by trainers or educators
with knowledge and expertise in the prevention of
workplace bullying.

1) Fiscal impact . According to the Assembly
Appropriations Committee analysis, this bill has
estimated one-time costs of approximately $180,000 for
UC to develop the course content and materials and plan
for the implementation of the training. In addition,
there would be ongoing costs of about $50,000 in
consulting contracts to provide the training as well as
additional, but unknown costs associated with staff time
to attend training.

Chamber of Commerce is Chamber of Horrors this Holloween

2009-10-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

While most Americans thought of the Chamber of Commerce as a social organization to which local merchants belong, it has evolved into a powerful Washington and state-level lobbying organization that opposes all things American. Those include labor rights, environmental protections, progressive industrialization and technological advancements.

The anti-workplace bullying movement and the Healthy Workplace Bill face the Chamber of Commerce as the most formidable opponent. Whenever this bill reaches legislative floor votes, it is the Chamber that is most verbal in calling this morally responsible bill "A Job Killer!"

Hiding behind its mask as "The Protector of Small Business," the Chamber is in fact the exact corporate giants who are putting small business out of business in this nation. Though they employ more Americans than any other sector, small businesses (those with 100 or fewer employees, by definition, depending on the industry) are the largest employers, even in this recession-era economy. To add insult to injury, banks recently bailed out by We the Taxpayers will not lend to small businesses. The TARP language included no such language when it was rushed through Congress by the out-going Bush administration.

The United States of America is being bullied by the US Chamber of Commerce!

The $300,000 spent daily by these same huge, largely global corporations to stop health care reform and to squelch the public option, comes from the same behemoths that commandeer the Chamber of Commerce. Local Chambers are crying for change in our health care system. They are going out of business from the high cost of supplying health insurance to employees.

And the Chamber is lying about their membership in the process.

The Wall Street Journal, moveon.org, and Mother Jones have all reported that the national Chamber is boasting it has 3,000,000 member businesses when it only has about 200,000. That's only 6.666...% of their false claim. The Chamber is hiding behind the very people they are destroying in our deregulated, laissez-faire capitalistic economy. And Congress is buying their lies at our expense. Or should we say that the Chamber of Commerce is buying Congress?

1. "U.S. Chamber Spent a Record $34.7 Million on Lobbying in Past 3 Months," The Wall Street Journal, October 19, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85026&id=17752-6792541-sfL8qfx&t=3
2. "The Chamber's Numbers Game," Mother Jones, October 13, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85045&id=17752-6792541-sfL8qfx&t=4
3. "Chamber Rejects Use of Term '3 Million Members,'" Mother Jones, October 23, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85030&id=17752-6792541-sfL8qfx&t=5
4. "U.S Chamber of Commerce: About Us," U.S. Chamber of Commerce website, accessed October 30, 2009
http://www.uschamber.com/about/default.htm
5. "Survey of Business Owners," U.S. Census Bureau, accessed October 30, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85048&id=17752-6792541-sfL8qfx&t=6

Dr. Gary Namie explains workplace bullying

2009-10-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Workplace bullying is NOT simply tough management.

While workplace bullying takes several forms, it is always repeated, health-harming mistreatment that disrupts the productive flow of work. This interview of Dr. Gary Namie of the Workplace Bullying Institute explains this hateful behavior.

While the WBI is located in Bellingham, Washington, the Drs. Ruth and Gary Namie, are psychologists with an international reputation. Thanks to their 15-year dedication to exposing this silent epidemic of abuse, they have helped to educate the United States and Canada to this key problem in the North American workforce.

http://www.break.com/usercontent/2009/7/dr-gary-namie-talks-about-bullying-in-the-workplace-on-kvos-862099.html

While watching, keep in mind that status-blind (non-discriminatory) workplace bullying is presently legal! Most Americans believe that all harassment is against the law. Not so.

Which state will become the first state to pass this progressive, common-sense law? New York? Illinois? Wisconsin? They all have bills like California once had but lost when our present governor came into office. For interesting reasons, that bill suddenly went "poof"!

Workplace bullying brought down the world economy

2009-10-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

If it sounds hyperbolic that workplace bullying could bring down an entire world economy, think about the communicative property of mathematics. If a = b and b = c, then a = c. Simple! Now, consider a journalistic analysis published over this October 17, 2009 weekend by news reporter Kevin G. Hall of McClatchy Company: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/economy/story/77244.html

“As the housing market collapsed in late 2007, Moody’s Investors Service, whose investment ratings were widely trusted, responded by purging analysts and executives who warned of trouble and promoting those who helped Wall Street plunge the country [and therefore world investors] into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.”

As this horrific tale of work abuse goes, Bullying Boss Brian Clarkson was made the draconian head CEO of this economically pivotal organization which ranks the credit worthiness of borrowers for commercial and government entities. Clarkson’s reign of terror at Moody’s right when the bottom was falling from the US housing market. He railroaded a narrow-minded notion he called “structured finance” down the throats of experts who knew better. Anyone who dared to speak up became a target for workplace bullying and was fired. Compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission regulations to safeguard the rest of us, “Be damned!” Bullies walk above the law.

Does this sound familiar to Healthy Workplace Advocates, or what? No doubt Clarkson was considered a heroically strong leader by the few who kissed up to keep their jobs, the cronies in power on Moody’s board, the investors whose pockets were bulging with faux money, and the stooges who were brought in by Clarkson. That’s the way it goes with workplace bullies. Yet, the emperor had no clothes. Now the rest of us are naked too.

Had there been an Abusive Work Environments Act, the targeted analysts and executives would have had legal recourse to act against this financial terrorist who destroyed the credibility of our economy. Checks and balances for civility and legal reporting are not yet existent in the American workplace. Anyone who thinks this country can tread longer in the denial of how workplace bullying ravages our nation or that it can be tamed without a hand from the law, is woefully ignorant.

‘M’ in healthcare stands for “money,” not “medicine”

2009-10-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

Critical care is badly needed for the United States’ ailing heathcare non-system. We as a nation are being bullied by the “medical industry” into paying a 50% markup for medical care that does not anywhere compete with other “First World” nations’ quality of care and medical delivery systems.

Film producer Alex Gibney (Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room) offers a documentary film based on Maggie Mahar’s book, Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much. This informative film is about how US medical care comes through a free-market enterprise and not through a “health care system.” Most nations have medical systems, loosely designed to treat the patients like citizens instead of like profit centers. Bill Moyers’ Journal offers a shortened version of this truth-daring film. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html

Mahar clears up the mystery of the “medical industrial complex” that feeds off those it cultivates like farm products. “Informed consent is informed persuasion” speaks to the hard sell with missing and superfluous information directed slightly above the head of the investor or person who happens to own the body being treated. This hard sell for medical care is directed at patients, their families, employers, our state governments, and federal politicians.

We are not getting the bang for our bucks. The cost of service is grossly inflated. We are getting sicker and the health care industry loves it for they are making money on the backs of our sick.

“Show me the money” is being cried from both sides of our recent health reform debate. Maggie Mahar shows us where the money is hidden. Money mysteries of this cryptic social institution have highly specialized language. Few of us are expected to understand, let alone read in a thousand-page bill. That includes every lawmaker in Washington which is why they have research staff.

But all this artificial confusion can and will be resolved once this moment in our history becomes infused with humanity and civility. We need to apply the Golden Rule. We need to set our prioities for American assets. Do we want sick Americans and healthy warheads? If we are the "Best Country in the World," it's time we start to act that way by caring for the weakest among us. http://www.healthbeatblog.org/

Other countries have fixed this and so can the Unitied States. Other countries know better than to place their employers in the impossible position of providing both a decent workplace and healthcare. The world is watching us Americans while we push, prod, shove then rob the sick, the elderly, and our children. Now there’s some real bullying!

Congressman 'Bullies Up' at Town Hall Meeting

2009-10-02T06:53:00.000-07:00

Congressman McClintock bullied up at town hall –

Whenever a minority party in any government finds itself at the short end of a losing stick on important issues, they tend to ‘bully up.’ They rally their troops to fight dirty, to throw superfluous arguments at the majority, and to obstruct all reasonable argumentation. That is precisely what went on at town hall meetings across the US during this recent long, hot summer of Republican discontent. http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2159726.html

Town halls on healthcare reform quickly depreciated into shouting rallies for the dissemination of disinformation spread by big money from the medical-industrial complex. The message read: “I’ve got mine. The rest of you can go [Fill in your own blank].” For this reason, reasonable people failed to attend the town halls in great numbers. Why would people go where they were not wanted to share their thoughts or knowledge, even if they knew the negative medical outcomes of our present dysfunctional, market-driven non-system?

Faux town hall meetings in District 4 of Northern California displayed how truthful dialog could be grossly perverted. Congressman Tom McClintock, a freshman this term, presented several sham town halls this summer. Reports from progressive thinkers who have begged for health care reform for two generations described a horrendous display of McClintock’s political manipulations.

This career politician, who termed out of his state legislative seat after 27 years as California’s most obstructionist law-blocker in modern politics, promised equal participation for both sides of healthcare reform. Then he didn’t enforce the alternating of opinions as he promised, like a teacher who lets the jocks mow over the skaters in a classroom. The ‘nay’ crowd outnumbered the ’yea’ crowd, so the Good Congressman likely rationalized his false promise as he rationalized his pitiful bill-sponsoring record when he claimed to be a Southern California lawmaker.

The September 1, 2009 town hall meeting was attended by very confused people. McClintock did very little to explain the legislation. Perhaps the Congressman himself understands little about the extremely complex medical delivery non-system that is made up of complicated jargon which only medical industry employees and bureaucrats might clearly understand. At this meeting there were about 175 pro-reform people and about 350 anti-reform people. (Notice that pro-reformers stayed home, lest they be screamed at by hate-radio mongers.)

One progressive, who did catch an open microphone to speak, reminded McClintock that “…the tax credit he continued to tout was in fact for $2,000 a year and the average cost of a health care premium is $1,086 a month. He [McClintock] conceded the credit was not enough.” Did the opponents of reform bother to listen or begin to understand, if they even tried to hear this important point?

But when this same pro-reformer delivered to the Congressman the 3,000 signatures of supporters for Obama’s health care principals, she was ignored, “I got a bit flustered and didn't want to get into McClintock's personal space - so I dropped the bag on the floor near the front row... it was awkward... and then to compound it, McClintock later characterized this as "having a suitcase thrown at him."

Mr. McClintock needs to be reminded how he won his seat with a very narrow margin of a few more than 1500 votes. He perhaps missed the redistricting initiative for California while learning political ropes in DC. Many of the people who voted for McClintock have since lost their jobs and therefore their health care too. Ahh, oh!

Other of his voters are already on government-sponsored Medicare but have adult children in their 20’s. The 20’s is the decade when most young people haven’t secured healthcare-paying careers. Perhaps those lucky Medicare voters now have children in their 30’s with chronically ill children of their own. Maybe their kids are in their 40’s when daughters so often get divorced, losing a husband’s benefits. Maybe their sons are in their 50’s and suffer being bullied off the job so they won’t cost an employer should they become ill and therefore expensive.

All Americans, regardless of politics, get sick and start to die. We will all need doctor, hospital, pharmaceutical, and insurance corporations to make possibly bullying, investor-focused medical decisions. Then, those who voted for McClintock will join the rest of us who can only pray for an ever-fading Golden Rule with its universal ethic to do unto others as we would have done unto ourselves…or our children.

Workers Bullied off the Job for Being Sick -

Healthy Workplace Advocates are hearing from targets of work abuse who were indeed bullied off their jobs because they or their family members became seriously ill. In our present non-system of employer-sponsored health care, an employer’s “experience rating” is based on the number of claims the employees make through the insurance company that carries the policy. Like car insurance: If you make a claim, your rates go up! The same thing happens with medical insurance.

Employers, especially small business owners, can ill afford to keep ill employees on the job. For reasons involving the American with Disabilities Act, the employer is then better off to bully sick employees out the door (constructive discharge) than to honestly tell them that they are costing the company too much money. Because employees or theirs family member are sick and might make too many medical claims, they would drive up the medical insurance experience rating and the costs to the entire workforce employed. Small businesses have been known to shut down for this reason.

The United States’ market-driven, medical non-system is sick!

While Tom McClintock has helped his party bully up to the majority people, he needs to know the “law of reciprocity.” He needs to understand, “what goes around, comes around.” He is hurting real Americans, both liberal and conservative. What may be a Republican party game to him is a life-and-death game for the rest of us. http://www.gawkk.com/mcclintock-heads-townhall-meeting-in-placer-county/discuss

Oprah.com puts focus on workplace bullying

2009-09-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

Oprah.com puts focus on workplace bullying, finally! – Check this out! Oprah producers are recognizing our mission and the hard work of the Workplace Bullying Institute.

California Healthy Workplace Advocates, please read this site and leave a comment. Ask that the Oprah Show go further with this important social issue and the movement so many of us have worked so long to expose.

http://www.oprah.com/article/health/wellnessandprevention/20090922-orig-workplace-bullying#startcom

Workplace Bullying can lead to "shattered core beliefs about human relationships"

2009-09-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

Book Review: Shattered Assumptions: Towards a New Psychology of Trauma

“Why is severe, malicious workplace bullying so traumatic for many targets? A 1992 book by University of Massachusetts psychologist Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, Shattered Assumptions: Towards a New Psychology of Trauma, offers valuable insights. According to author, Janoff-Bulman, victims of intentional, malevolent harm may find that the mistreatment they experienced fractured their core beliefs about human relationships. They now face unique and difficult psychological challenges." Quoted from Dr. David Yamada's blog at:

http://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/why-severe-workplace-bullying-can-be-so-traumatizing/

Statistics on Suicide in the Workplace Shock Healthy Workplace Advocates!

2009-09-10T01:47:00.000-07:00

California Healthy Workplace Advocates respectfully acknowledge today, Sept. 10, 2009, as National Suicide Prevention Day. It's difficult NOT to link workplace bullying with workplace suicides. Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor released the following statistics:

"Increase in Occupational Fatalities due to Suicide Preliminary data from the 2008 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) program reported 251 workplace suicides, their highest level since the inception of the CFOI program in 1992. The 2008 count is 28 percent higher than the 196 suicides recorded in 2007. Further information on the increase in occupational fatalities due to suicide is available at www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/osar0010.pdf."

According to Chris Penttila, reporter for Examinier.com, "These figures don’t include employee suicides that happened away from work property, however. More than 30,000 Americans die as a result of suicide every year --- making it the fourth leading cause of death for adults ages 18 to 65, according to the Feeling Blue Suicide Prevention Council, a Pennsylvania-based organization that works both to prevent suicides and to support the people affected by them."
http://www.feelingblue.org/about-suicide/facts-figures

“Even more sobering: The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports that 90 Americans will kill themselves today, and 2,300 more will try.”
http://www.afsp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewpage&page_id=050FEA9F-B064-4092-B1135C3A70DE1FDA

Will these statistics go down when states in the United States have a Healthy Workplace law? Will a law that corrects and prevents workplace bullying, much like the sexual harrassement laws we now have, prevent workplace suicides? We believe so. We believe the time has come to advance our society to the next level of humane treatment...remember the "Golden Rule"?

Healthy Workplace Bill to correct and prevent Workplace Bullying, it's time has come...

2009-09-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Battle over Workers’ Compensation insurance rates looms

Here we go again. The elections of next fall, which will make major shifts in political office holders, promise workers’ compensation insurance rates as a key item for debate. While the great Schwarzenegger fix of our State’s workers’ comp system kept the lid on the rates for a short while, it was very much at the expense of the workers. That would be We the People. Workers’ benefits and the chance of proving work-related injury have greatly diminished. Employers happily enjoyed reduced premiums for a while. No more. Those insurance rates are sneaking up like mites on tights and employer’s squeaking is turning into shouts of “no fair!” Maybe legislators will take California Healthy Workplace Advocates seriously now when we tell them we have a bill that will greatly reduce worker’s compensation claims. http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/024634.html

Watch out! The governor is thinking about selling off State Fund, the compensation fund that helps pool small businesses together to get better rates. If this sale to private insurance carriers happens, small business rates for workers’ comp will go even higher. Will the Chamber of Commerce let this happen without protest? The Chamber so often hides its true colors behind the small-business-protection shield, though everyone knows that the Chamber is dominated by huge corporations. http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/2124061.html

Workplace Bullying? Arnold swinging sword on twitter...

2009-09-08T08:54:00.001-07:00

One can tell the character of a man by the way he handles power. In this Twitter video, Arnold handles a knife to symbolize the butchering of the California budget.This video is most revealing.Those who work in the Capitol can recall clearly the bullying politicians who would throw chairs at staffers when the bullies were angry. Thank goodness the budget was signed before someone was hurt...someone in addition to the poor.

Now that the budget has been signed, many will be hurt by the cuts, including the environment which has once again been sold to large oil corporations who do not pay their fair share of taxes. These oil companies own the Chamber of Commerce and the minority politicians who refuse a Constitutional Convention. For now, minority rules because of the 2/3’s vote to pass a tax hike as it was slipped into Proposition 13 by…big oil companies, the Jarvis tax conservatives, and the Chamber.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOCHtasxmIY

Workplace Bullying link to employee's suicide

2009-09-07T12:29:00.000-07:00

Employee commits suicide on supervisor’s porch –

Facts in this case will not likely ever be known. But read this sad, California news story and imagine what should be written between the lines. Was this man simply crazy, or was he driven crazy by ill treatment from his supervisor?
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_12957838

Society has little sympathy for those who commit suicide, despite our knowing that one can physiologically be driven to kill oneself due to psychological abuse. See what others wrote in the blog about this unsettling case. Might a Healthy Workplace Bill have prevented injury to all who were involved, including the children on both sides?
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/santa-cruz-sentinel/TSFDEHG5DNEFSG5OO

Workers are more important than money! Happy Labor Day

2009-09-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

California Healthy Workplace Advocates agree with the original Illinois Healthy Workplace Advocate, Abraham Lincoln....as quoted here, "Capital is only the fruit of labor,
and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.
Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much
the higher consideration.”
-Abraham Lincoln
We agree! Help us pass a law to protect laborers from workplace bullying. To learn more about legislation to correct and prevent workplace bullying, go to www.bullyfreeworkplace.org. Happy Labor Day!

Octogenarians bullied into excessive medical care

2009-09-06T18:13:00.000-07:00

Medical over treatment of elderly is common, based on experience of many baby boomers who are caring for dying parents.

While screaming about Granny being left to die because of health insurance reform, no one is speaking about the over treatment of the elderly. This is precisely why a Republican proposed the end-of-life counseling for those over 65. Many, if not most of us, have no idea about “durable power of attorney” papers and “living wills” or “do not resuscitate orders” until we either help our parents through their dying process or see that our own deaths are imminent. By then we are stressed out and lacking in reason.

Nor do Americans know until a loved one dies how heart breaking it can be to watch an octogenarian being bullied into medical care such as radical chemotherapy, immediately after he has been diagnosed with rapidly-spreading, fourth-stage lung cancer that has already metastasized into his breast bone.

Witnessing a loved one’s reduction to ‘cash cow’ or ‘guinea pig’ status for the sake of padding the pockets of a cancer care doctor corporation or hospital corporation is gut-wrenching. The gain: two more extremely depressing months of diaper-dependent, bed rest while struggling to swallow 100 pills daily.

To pray for the mercy of death changes the way one views the world around and the money-driven medical care that has so corrupted this country. Few of us dare to speak of this.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/16/opinion/l-medical-overtreatment-of-elderly-is-common-living-will-solution-396892.html

Bullying, greed, propaganda and lies try to stop health insurance reform

2009-09-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

Even to the extent of maligning Canada and Britain, “…the greed of the medical-industrial complex, the lies of the right-wing propaganda machine and the gullibility of voters who believe those lies,” could prevent millions of American families from being broken and bankrupted by health care’s, market-driven non-system that has run amuck.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/opinion/17krugman.html?scp=1&sq=It%20was%20the%20blooper%20heard%20round%20the%20world&st=cse

We American US citizens who have lived and received medical care in the UK or Canada know better. We are ashamed of fellow Americans whose ignorance prevails over their common sense. These are lies told about our closest allies who do not at all appreciate the disparagement.

Other lies include the one about the United States having the best medicine in the world. Not so! We don’t have the best outcomes. We don’t promote medical research, except that which serves private industry. We were not world leaders in laser technology to medicine. We are still performing global fusions on our spines while many other countries are installing the artificial disk. Medical research is left largely to venture capitalists because our government so seldom gets behind the funding.

If an American has one of the 5000 listed “orphan diseases,” he will wait ‘til hell freezes over before a cure would come from his own country. America may be the best country in the world, but just don’t get sick, with or without health insurance.
http://www.bostonherald.com/jobfind/news/healthcare/view/20090816health_care_reform_alone_wont_make_us_healthier_experts_say/.

Is this free speech, hate speech, stupidity, racism, hyperbole, or bullying?

2009-09-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

Republican South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint said in a conference call with Conservatives for Patient Rights, "If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”

So this U.S. Senator openly admits he wants a new U.S. President to fail. He also said, “This health care issue Is D-Day for freedom in America."

So this man believes that administering to our nation’s children, elderly, poor, and sick will end our freedoms. Is this free speech, hate speech, stupidity, racism, hyperbole, or bullying? All of the above. One ponders if the good Senator might also claim to be a good Christian.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0709/Health_reform_foes_plan_Obamas_Waterloo.htm1

"SPOILERS" continue to spread fear

2009-09-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

Medical industry and hospital building boom finally goes bust

Ben Bernanke blamed the US budget deficit on rising medical costs due to “the hospital building boom.” Corporate hospital CEO’s drove towns and suburbs to build palatial facilities, each with its own atrium, two-story waterfall, and heart clinic. Each had to have state-of-the-art machines that would cost $6000 for a single patient’s 10-minute session of pictures, per doctor requests, that were only required while machines were otherwise idle and Medicare or Medicaid would pay. Japan MRI’s cost $150 per use, according to PBS’s “Sick around the World.” If an American has no coverage, he might pay the special price of $8000. If she has assets and cares about her credit score, she slowly pays off that bill and its accumulated interest which is likely on her credit card.

But the hospital and medical boom is coming quickly to a halt. People are not seeking medical treatment because of the recession. States and counties are cutting back on payments to hospitals or issuing IOU’s. Investors are getting afraid to buy stocks in medical corporations of any kind. Change needs to come, now! And everybody knows it, including the “spoilers” who offer no solutions of their own, but continue to shout about their fears implanted by huge corporations that supply medical goods and services. Such is the fate of all robber barons. Such is the fate of those who practice ‘I’ve-got-mine:-the-rest-of-you-can-go-fish-for-it.’

http://www.hfmmagazine.com/hfmmagazine_app/jsp/articledisplay.jsp?dcrpath=HFMMAGAZINE/Article/data/02FEB2009/0902HFM_FEA_CoverStory&domain=HFMMAGAZINE

California Healthy Workplace Advocates say it's time for change. Let's NOT take the public option off the table...WE ARE THE PUBLIC!! Let's take care of ourselves and not simply line the pockets of those who shout the loudest and are fighting to keep the already failing status quo.

California Healthy Workplace Advocates find data on hospital industry

2009-09-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

Real data on hospital industry, medical corporations, medical suppliers, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical profits almost impossible to find:

The rising costs of US health care, therefore health insurance, are not true measurements of real costs. They are the result of gouging, profiteering, unchecked lobbying practices, excessive advertising, and gross inefficiencies in delivery, measurements of outcomes, system irregularities, and smorgasbord regulation shuffling from state to state. http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2061111.html

Real data from Kaiser Family Foundation is readily available:

“The Foundation is an independent voice and source of facts and analysis for policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the general public. The Foundation publishes research and analysis to foster understanding of increasingly complex policy issues in the U.S. Much of the work focuses on the issues and debates affecting those most vulnerable and disadvantaged, including Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries, the uninsured people living with HIV/AIDS, low-income women, and racial and ethnic minorities, helping policymakers and the media understand what’s driving changes in the health system.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Family_Foundation#What_the_Foundation_currently_does
a. Medical costs reached $7,498 per person in 2008, twice higher than any
other nation.
b. Average family deductible for PPO increased 30% to 64% in two years.
c. New York Times/CBS News poll said 85% of respondents want fundamental
change.
d. Same poll said 72% support a government administered health insurance
plan.
e. Spoiler campaign of health care industry is spending $1.4 million a day.

California Healthy Workplace Advocates say it is time for change...

2009-09-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

Conservative Republican, David Frum, supports health insurance reform. This very well-respected Republican explains that “[Employers are] paying a lot more for labor, about 25 percent more. All of that increase in the wage fund was consumed by the cost of benefits.”

Frum, an insider in the G. W. Bush administration, says that victory against reform will be victory for the status quo. Health insurance regulation at state-level isn’t working in the health market. Rising health care costs wiped out all of the Bush tax cut benefits. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08142009/watch2.html

While you are on Moyers’ site, watch or read his interview with media analyst Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Kaiser Family Foundation president and CEO Drew Altman [who] discuss the messages in health care ads today, and how well they reflect [or don’t reflect] the real issues of health care reform.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08142009/watch.html

Bullying in the Media

2009-09-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hateful fight against Health Insurance Reform rages on...

Town hall bullies shout out, stopping others’ free speech – From the PBS News Hour you can watch this debate between former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, chair of FreedomWorks, a conservative group that has shamelessly practiced obstructionism and rallied protestors at health care town hall meetings and Richard Kirsch, the national campaign manager of Health Care for America Now, a liberal group which has urged its supporters to turn out at the meetings.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/video/module.html?mod=0&pkg=13082009&seg=3

Next, read this blog on how those who shout down others’ freedom of speech are hypocrites when they cry their free speech is being exercised. Bullies do kick sand into faces on the beach. http://www.workplacebullying.org/2009/08/10/town-hall-bullies/

Evidently, these people can only shout as they are instructed.They don’t even seem to know that they are being used or that socialism and communism are the opposite of Nazis fascism. http://www.sacbee.com/babin/image_media/2109569.html

Was Harvard professor bullied or bullying?

2009-08-30T21:54:00.000-07:00

We learned from this single incident that certain behaviors are not acceptable and should be checked. Nationally renowned social-anthropologist, Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested on his front porch for misbehavior toward a police officer. Prof. Gates is of African-American ethnicity. The arresting officer was many years the professor’s junior, a police instructor of profiling techniques, and Caucasian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Louis_Gates_arrest_incident"

The question remains: Should Professor Gates sue for racial discrimination?

"Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, an organization that has sued the New York Police Department many times on behalf of individuals and groups, told [the ethicist] that lawsuits can be ‘an important tool for reform when coupled with advocacy and public education efforts and when the circumstances are conducive to change.’” http://ethicist.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/why-henry-louis-gates-should-sue/

Barack Obama called this incident a “teachable moment." Can we Americans learn from this incident about the racism that continues to haunt this country? Or do we just take sides? http://www.workplacebullying.org/2009/08/04/teachable/

Black, Latino, and Native American mothers and fathers teach their sons about what to do when they will be arrested for crimes not committed. The problem is just this common.

Workplace Bullying in mobile home parks is rampant

2009-08-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

An all too common problem in California's Mobile Home Park communities, residents of this mobile home park in the San Fernando Valley are dealing with rotting infrastructure and management that not only doesn’t care, but also fires back with retaliation for complaints, another scenario seldom tagged as workplace bullying, but most certainly is. Many of these complaints are not only valid, they are within parameters of present Mobile Residency law, guarding the welfare of the mobile home residents and the communities being served by the park’s very existence.

How sad that this story includes an 8-day trial where the tenets prevailed because, among other things, the judge pointed out that they put up with years of “inexcusably rude, petty and bullying behavior."

Unlike other tenants of residential property, mobile home owners cannot simply pack up their belongings and ship off to the next abode. They have to bear the huge expense of shipping their abode with them as well. Mobile Home Park Owners know this and take severe advantage of the mobile home owners they pack tightly together their parks.

Often these parks have service systems (sewers, roads, hookups, etc.) that are aging while the property values continue to rise. Park owners are known to suddenly sell out, leaving tenants to fend for themselves with new owners who are usually anonymous LLC corporations that arrive with rent increases, bulldozers with a mandate to move-or-be-smashed, or a new team of workplace bullies they refer to as managers.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mobile27-2009jul27,0,2043044.story

“At-will” labor law needs to be reconsidered in light of Workplace Bullying

2009-08-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

Employment law in the U.S. has traditionally been governed by the common law rule of "at-will employment," meaning that an employment relationship could be terminated by either party at any time for any reason or without a reason. This is still true today in most states. However, starting in 1941, a series of laws prohibited certain discriminatory firings. That is, in most states, absent an express contractual provision to the contrary, an employer can still fire an employee for no or any reason, as long as it isn't an illegal reason (which includes a violation of public policy). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_labor_law and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment
“While most people in the USA do not seem to care about practices in other countries, several law review articles have noted that the USA is alone among the industrialized nations of the world in providing no protection against wrongful termination of employment.” http://www.justlawlinks.com/PRACTICE/ctlabor.htm
Take heed. High level CEO’s and public managers (school superintendents, fire chiefs, city managers, top hospital administrators, etc.) have tightly-written contracts that either abolish “at-will” common law for their particular employment, and pay high stock dividends or “buy-outs” when the employer wants to release that person prior to the contracts duration language.
Also lament, the United States is the only industrialized country that has no mandatory sick leave (even with Swine flu upon us), no mandatory vacation law, and the longest work week and shortest average vacation times taken of the industrialized world. Yet, we claim to be “the best country in the world to live in.” Love it or change it. California Healthy Workplace Advocates vote for change.

Workplace Bullying Chronic in Macedonia...

2009-08-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

Business Week offers article about Macedonian work abuse
The problems permeating Macedonia’s issues with workplace bullying and inadequate laws to protect targets read the same as every state in our Union. To exacerbate our problems, most of the United States adheres to fire “at-will" policies, and status-blind workplace bullying is still legal.

Unions only represent 12% of our workforce in the USA and that number is shrinking. Sometimes, unions actually contribute to the bullying. Almost always, unions look the other way because they have no contract language to act upon. Unions are caught in the middle. Fortunately, the sharper unions lend us their support for the Healthy Workplace Bill.

See the Business Week article here:
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/aug2009/gb20090812_707411.htm#readerComments

Help reach the goal of 8000 for a petition against workplace bullying

2009-08-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

In case you have not yet signed the Causes2Care petition to legislate against workplace bullying, here’s the site. Please participate. California Healthy Workplace Advocates thank you.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/471007117?z00m=19784307

Workplace Bullying worsens with recession for 5 million Americans

2009-08-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

Bullying at work worsens with recession for 5 million Americans

Many times targeted workers are asked, “Why don’t you just stand up to the bully?” or “Why don’t you just get another job?”

Targets answer:
“Because I fear retaliation! They will believe the bully, not me. She has the power. And there’s a recession going on. Jobs aren’t easy to come by. My blood pressure is so high, thanks to that bullying #*%+ that I couldn’t even pass the physical for a new job, should I find one. Nor would I qualify for private health insurance because my high blood pressure would be a dreaded pre-existing condition. Have you seen the price of buying my health insurance under COBRA? It would take over half of my unemployment, which I don’t get unless I am fired. And that bully knows it. This recession is why she’s taking so many runs at me. I know she enjoys the bullying. You should see the grin on her face whenever she gets a good one on me. It happens every other day.”

Genuine fears for real problems. This recession really is increasing the incidence of workplace bullying. Read this blog which contains the results from a recent poll taken by The Workplace Bullying Institute:

http://www.examiner.com/x-19539-Seattle-Workplace-Bullying-Examiner~y2009m8d11-Bullying-at-work-worsens-for-5-million-Americans Better yet, weigh in with your own experience: http://workdoctorsurveys.com/wbi080609/startsurvey.php

Workplace Bullying in Academics

2009-08-26T21:48:00.000-07:00

Academic authors just can’t bring selves to use the “B” word – “Incivility,” they call it. Very, very nice. Their other publications say, ‘bad behavior’ and ‘rudeness.’ Adjectives in their citations are “insidious” and “counterproductive” to describe bullying workplace behaviors. Any word, except ‘bullying.’ Of what might they be afraid? Perhaps sounding like children who are quite honest?" http://www.thecostofbadbehavior.com/home.html

Workplace bullying law meets whistleblower protection law

2009-08-25T21:59:00.000-07:00

Workplace bullying law meets whistleblower protection law in Britain – The “mother country” of Canada and the US (for that matter), has enjoyed national whistleblower protection law, the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998: (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/ukpga_19980023_en_1) and workplace bullying law, the Protection from Harassment Act 1997: (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1997/ukpga_19970040_en_1 ) for over a decade.

Notice the words under the part pertaining to Scotland, “Every individual has a right to be free from harassment.” Take heed that one need not be a member of a “protected class” due to his race, color, ethnicity, sex, national origin, religion/sect, disability, or age (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_class). In other words, the Brits to do not confuse harassment and discrimination as the Americans do. What a concept!

Now, take a look at this short article from the UK about a whistleblower who wins the right to sue over alleged workplace bullying: http://www.rjw.co.uk/news-events/directnews/whistleblower-wins-right-to-sue-over-alleged-workplace-bullying_1805
After eating your little North American heart out, pull yourself together and visit this remarkably wonderful site for what California Healthy Workplace Advocates call “small-time whistleblowers” and just try to figure out what the heck is the connection between blowing the whistle and making false claims might be. No, it has nothing to do with “crying wolf.” It has to do with the False Claims Act against a government, called “qui tam statutes, that allow whistleblowers to actually step into the shoes of the government and seek damages on behalf of the government.” http://whistleblowerlaws.com/index.php

In other words, in the US, a small-time whistleblower can make like the government itself and vicariously sue an entity for making false charges for government moneys. But it better be about multi-millions of government dollars or you will NEVER find attorney representation.

Healthy Workplace Advocates tell this to legislators and even governors. We call our whistleblower protections “infantile” because they provide so little protection for the typical whistleblower. Those whistleblowers we read of or hear about in the media are big-timers – the very reason the media picked up their stories in the first place. The rest of us just pucker up and blow away.

Workplace Bullying - Equal Opportunity Bullies

2009-08-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

Dr. Gary Namie appeared on YouTube; California Healthy Workplace Advocates missed it. In case you missed this news clip on YouTube, like we did until Google Alerts flagged it this month, check it out. KDRV TV in November of 2007 comes another news feature about the Zogby- WBI study.
The clip highlights a professional woman and two female colleagues whose higher-level job duties were stripped and replaced with make-work projects of a trivial nature. Removing responsibilities from a target is a common bullying tactic and especially egregious abuse to those who are educated for professional or paraprofessional duties.
You will hear how these women from New York State prevailed legally, most likely because they sued for gender-based discrimination, which is indeed illegal.Had their bully been another woman, they wouldn’t have had a legal leg to stand on.

But, should we succeed with a federal Healthy Workplace Bill, “Look out, you equal-opportunity bullies! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh_weiY-d6A

Workplace Bullying Rife in the Helping Professions

2009-08-24T08:31:00.000-07:00

California is not the only place where workplace bullying is rife in the helping professions. Tampa Bay news writer really “gets it” – Here’s a story about a registered nurse who went through what Healthy Workplace Advocates hear from targets over and over and over again.

Written with compassion and understanding, this St. Petersburg Times staff writer relays this nurse’s story in such a way that even the hardest opponent of the Healthy Workplace Bill could not deny workplace bullying’s very existence and our present law’s inability to address it.

We should ask the story’s opponent if he would want his nurse to be subjected to similar cruelty while tending to his illness. We should ask any opponent if she can any longer deny the ‘elephant in the labor living room’ of the American workforce. Then, Healthy Workplace Advocates should contact this Times staff writer and thank her.

Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at rcatalanello@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3383.) She will tell this now-damaged nurse in Rebecca’s story that she is not alone and that Healthy Workplace Advocates not only believe her: We care about her plight. http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article1021546.ece

Please join us in our legislative lobbying mission to pass legislation to correct and prevent workplace bullying in California. Our next meeting is on Saturday, Sept. 26th, 2009 at Denny's Restaurant in downtown Sacramento. Go to www.bullyfreeworkplace.org for more information.

Aug. meeting of California Healthy Workplace Advocates

2009-08-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

"Workplace Bullying: Repeated, health-harming mistreatment manifested as either verbal abuse; conduct which is threatening, humiliating, intimidating; or sabotage that interferes with work or some combination of the three." www.workplacebullying.org
As reported yesterday at the August meeting in Sacramento for California Healthy Workplace Advocates, Funding problems end British workplace bullying organization ended The Andrea Adams Trust in the UK.
On July 31, 2009 the first UK organization to combat Workplace Bullying — http://www.andreaadamstrust.org/live/home.html The Andrea Adams Trust exited from the public stage for lack of funding after 15 years of service. The Trust’s namesake, Adams, coined the phrase workplace bullying for the world. She (with Neil Crawford) wrote the first book on the topic in. Cancer claimed the pioneer. From The Workplace Bullying Institute which provides this support, education, and legislative campaign for Canada and the United States, CHWA is told, “We at US-based WBI salute and thank the British pioneers for their contributions, including the six years of Ban Bullying Days and crisis line support for targeted individuals. Lyn Witheridge, founder and chief executive of the trust said: ‘It is time for the Andrea Adams Trust to pass on the baton, and I urge other organizations who share our passion in the fight against workplace bullying to continue with our work. Recognition of the effects of bullying in the workplace is essential if it is to be legitimately challenged, which can only be achieved through persistent effort to raise awareness of this insidious practice. The Trust will be missed. The Adams-Leymann duo has now truly passed on." http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2009/08/04/51644/workplace-bullying-charity-andrea-adams-trust-closes.html

Workplace Bullying without a target...where do they go?

2009-08-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

"I must write a response to a blog author who expressed the belief that if targets would speak up, workplace bullies would go away or change their behavior. That logic struck me like, "If no one is in the forest to hear the tree fall, would it make noise?" If targets stand up for themselves, do we have any real evidence bullies will go away or stop their behavior? This is not rudeness we are talking about. I say, go research the phenomenon of workplace bullying, then write about it.

Sadly, targets often get blamed for the behavior of their perpetrator. Bullies are self-contained. They do not need to be set off by anyone else's behavior, and seldom will they voluntarily stop their behavior simply because a target calls them on it. That is why it is so very important that companies put policies and procedures in place to correct and prevent workplace bullying, much like the law now requires they do in regard to sexual harrassment.

Although we don't yet have any laws in the United States to protect us from this life altering phenomenon, we are not going away. We will keep up our citizen lobbying until we achieve legal protection. I am sure there are some employers who are savvy enough to see that changes are coming. Many realize that productivity in the workplace is directly linked to maintaining a healthy environment, both mentally and physically.

So to those who want to believe that all it takes to stop this problem is to stand up for yourself, I respond by saying that I am standing up for myself by leaving the toxic environment that supports the bully and joining others in the campaign to pass legislation to compel employers to confront the bullies, call them on their behavior, and demand that they change or be held liable if they do not!"

Thank you to the member of the California Healthy Workplace Advocates who contributed this entry. We are part of a HUGE network of states, workers, and professionals who are working toward legislation to correct and prevent workplace bullying. Please join us.

Work Shouldn't Hurt - Workplace Bullying Does!

2009-07-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

"It is Sunday evening and you wonder where the weekend went. The thought of going to work is making you feel sick to your stomach. You are calling in sick more often and dreading to go into work on Monday morning. For me, I would wake up in the morning and vomit or have hard dry heaves that left my stomach feeling turned inside out. One morning I experienced chest pains severe enough that I went to the emergency room. Though medical tests revealed that I wasn't having a heart attack, the ER doctor advised me to see a cardiologist.

Is your blood pressure too high? Are you experiencing headaches, stomach aches and/or bouts of diarrhea? Grinding your teeth at night? Or maybe you just can't sleep as you lay awake replaying an incident at work over and over in your mind? Do you feel exhausted and depressed from the oppressive atmosphere at work and the way you are being treated? You may be experiencing workplace bullying, a highly toxic experience that can tear your entire life apart.

At work you may notice your manager or even co-workers may be treating you differently than other workers. Someone may be watching when you arrive at work, how long you take breaks and what time you leave work. You may find you are given more and more work to do and what seems like impossible deadlines. Or you may find that the work projects that normally came your way are being passed on to someone else. You notice your co-workers going to meetings that you aren't told about. When you ask for the same training opportunities offered to others in the office, you are denied; the information necessary to do your job is withheld.

You may discover that someone else is taking credit for the work you did. No matter how hard you work, and you know you are doing the best job possible, you are told, either directly or indirectly, that it is not good enough...implying YOU are not good enough! You may find you are being reprimanded for incidental things that your coworkers do every day. You are afraid to speak up and say anything in fear you may be written up for insubordination or you may be accused of not being a team player.

Your supervisor may be in your face, yelling at your while others at work are being told not to talk to you. There are rules that apply to you but not to others in your office. You find that everything you do or say is being scrutinized. You feel isolated and alone as your career takes a dive. When you complain to management the situation worsens. You ask for a transfer and the transfer is denied. WORK SHOULDN'T HURT!"

California Healthy Workplace Advocates would like to thank the member who wrote this biography of experiences. If any of this is happening to you, please join our grass roots movement to pass a law to correct and prevent workplace bullying! Thankyou

Workplace Bullying- Arnold slipped this one in...

2009-07-17T08:35:00.000-07:00

BUDGET CONTAINING OFFSHORE DRILLING LANGUAGE GOT PAST US...

California Governor Arnold slipped this one over on us. Because fur was flying during the budget process, few noticed that off-shore drilling would be used to drum up the money needed to balance our goofed up political system. Would this kind of politics be considered a form or workplace bullying?

Wonder if Arnold has ever read Faust? He’s selling state cars with his signature on them. Wonder if he will sign his soul when he sells that too? Or maybe he already has.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/20/ED2M18S3UU.DTL

Dealing with Workplace Bullying is passed to the next generation...

2009-07-17T04:16:00.000-07:00

As quoted by Associated Press writer, Philip Elliot, on news.yahoo.com yesterday, "WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama is telling the nation's oldest civil rights organization that government, families, and neighborhoods must work together to improve communities."

Did you know that on July, 2008, the NAACP National Convention proposed a resolution that (#15 Workplace Bullying) Resolved: That NAACP Units at all levels will seek legislation at all appropriate levels to deem workplace bullying illegal."? The resolution was adopted (see bullyfreeworkplace.org under News Articles 2006-2008 to read the entire article). THANK YOU!

What legacy are we leaving our future generations if we continue to take NO ACTION to correct and prevent bullying in the workplace? We are doing the same thing we are objecting to in corporate America. We are colluding with the bullies! I am referring to the collective "We" since many of us are working diligently to get the Healthy Workplace Bill passed into law.

Once again, I am going to post a paragraph submitted to California Healthy Workplace Advocates by email today. This comes in from a member of the 30 something generation:

"My experience with working for a corporation is that a law has to be put into place in order for the business to adhere to providing a fair work environment. There will always be bullies; it's human nature. But bullying in the workplace is unfair and can only be controlled if a business fears legal and/or financial consequences of the behavior elicited by the bully. I generally see a lot of reactive behavior in lieu of proactive awareness. Labor laws eliminate that choice and encourage organizations to follow the laws."

THANK YOU for this submission, this objective and insightful paragraph, and permission to publish it! California Healthy Workplace Advocates next meeting is this coming Saturday, July 25th in Sacramento (see website for time and location). Please join our grassroots movement in our mission to pass a law to correct and prevent workplace bullying!

Submitted today by a target for your review...

2009-07-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

"I have been targeted by my supervisors. My story is a painful one, as I imagine, are yours. I have been forced to defend myself by going intermittendly to my union representative, who has been a blessing. I have also resolved to educate myself, which I am doing behind closed doors. Any knowledge I accumulate, whether about correctional healthcare or about management in general, or about bullies co-existing with them, serves to make the bullies around me more insecure. My every move infuriates her.

I personally/professionally feel that workplace bullying has a trickle down effect. Frustration, depression, anger, resentment, etc. experienced by parents in the workplace is witnessed by children and re-enacted in a painful cycle on the schoolyard playground. History repeats itself. I am concerned that the increase in child suicide is linked to workplace bullying, and schoolyard bullying, and hatecrimes.

...I am deeply committed to doing whatever else I can to help. I am a passionate and hard worker. When I set my mind to do something it gets done. Count on it."

Thank you to this courageous person for permission to use this submission. California Healthy Workplace Advocates is committed to preserving the anonymity of our members, i.e., "The names have been changed to protect the innocent", just like the old TV show, Dragnet. Please join us in promoting legislation to help establish a bully-free environment at work for ALL of us by passing a law to correct and prevent bullying in the workplace.

Whose responsibility is workplace bullying?

2009-07-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

I'm still processing the broadcast on yesterday's TODAY show on NBC, available to see at
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/#31904004

Whose responsibility is it to provide a safe and healthy workplace? The employer

Whose responsibility is it to reign in the bully's behavior? The bully

Who are often people targeted for workplace bullying? The brightest and the best

Why are they targeted? Their competence and accomplishment present a threat to the bully

WE DO NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG TO INVITE WORKPLACE BULLYING!

Yes, I've read and heard, "You should not disagree with management", or, "Don't rock the boat". But who would have dreamed that expressing ideas, questioning the way things are done, or just being good at what you do would invite workplace bullying?

One of the best quotes I ever heard was from John Bradshaw, author of Healing the Shame that Binds You. To quote as I recall, he said, "Unquestionable authority stopped at the Nuramberg Trials". Does anyone remember all those who tried to evade responsiblity for their actions by saying they just followed orders? Need I say more??

Please join our grassroots movement to promote legislation into law to correct and prevent workplace bullying. Go to http://www.bullyfreeworkplace.org/ to learn more.

Review of TODAY Show on Workplace Bullying

2009-07-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

NBC's TODAY SHOW once again exposed the problem of workplace bullying on Tuesday, July 14, 2009, successfully featuring Colleen Robinson, a coordinator of the Illinois Healthy Workplace Advocates. Not since May 23, 2005, has TODAY acknowledged the Workplace Bullying Institute as the nation's leading source of research on work abuse. The announcer said that 1 in every 8 workers was targeted by workplace bullying. Oddly, the study quoted, the WBI-Zogby poll of 2007, tells us that 37%, or one in every 3+ workers are targeted in the US at sometime in their careers. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31904004#31904004)

Unfortunately, TODAY's career expert offered naive advice for targets of workplace bullying. She suggested,
"You need to stand up for yourself." (you'll likely get fired because we do not yet have a law against status-blind work abuse.)

"Bullies go after the weak." (Only weak people get targeted? Targets are statistically INDEPENDENT, COMPETENT, SOCIALLY ADEPT, and ETHICAL WHISTLEBLOWERS.)

"It's about power." (Yea, that's why 72% of bullies are bosses!)

"They're going to go after someone else." (You may be traumatized by witnessing other's abuse.)

On this highest-rated television morning news and talk show, the topic of workplace bullying is covered once or twice a year. Because of the good work of WBI and Healthy Workplace Advocates, the tone used has become much more empathetic to our slowly-recognized problem of workplace bullying

In 2005, TODAY anchor, Matt Lauer, displayed a somewhat antagonistic attitude about the subject. He interviewed Dr. Gary Namie in the studio and seemed to question the very existence of workplace bullying with the typical attitude of denial given to an abuse long ignored by our society. Perhaps Lauer himself has been impacted by various controversies historically surrounding employees of TODAY, the third, longest running daytime TV program. (See Wikipedia" TODAY Show)

More likely, our culture is finally evolving and awakening to the issue of work abuse and it's high cost to our society. Thanks to the Workplace Bullying Institute's legislative campaign for the Healthy Workplace Bill, our words are out there: Workplace Bullying does indeed exist and does indeed destroy lives at an enormous cost to our communities. THERE OUGHTA BE A LAW!
Join our grassroots movement at www.bullyfreeworkplace.org

See Workplace Bullying on TODAY SHOW 8am Tuesday, July 14, 2009

2009-07-13T16:04:00.001-07:00

Special alert! The NBC morning TODAY SHOW is to air a special segment on Workplace Bullying with Collene Robinson, an Illinois Healthy Workplace Advocate on Tuesday, July 14th at 8am. Don't miss this opportunity to learn more about this incidious phenomenon, a national disgrace that continues to run rampant through all levels of business.

Join our grassroots movement to pass legislation to correct and prevent workplace bullying! Contact us directly at www.bullyfreeworkplace.org to learn more.

Office Jerks or Workplace Bullies entrenched on Wall Street?

2009-07-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal recently publish a snarky expose' about an extreme form of abusive behavior permeating our present work culture, destroying individuals, traumatizing entire workforces. "The Fall of The Workplace Jerk" (July 2, 2009) suggests this wonderful recession will flush these evil doers or "jerks" out the door. Nothing could be further from probability.

Those of us who advocate for targets of workplace bullies know well of lost careers, nervous breakdowns, suicides, bankruptcies, and destroyed lives caused by bullies, often psychopaths, who often rise to the top. We Americans and present law fail to recognize or correct work abuse. We need to grow, now more than ever.

The trivializing term "jerk" is defined by Microsoft's dictionary as "somebody who is regarded as behaving foolishly." A "workplace bully" is defined by the Workplace Bullying Institute as a person who commits "repeated mistreatment in the form of verbal abuse; threatening, humiliating, and intimidating conduct; sabatoge which interferes with work; or some combination of the three." Would the Wall Street Journal publish satire about child abuse, spousal abuse, or animal abuse? Perhaps WSJ editors still regard, "Pow, Alice! Right in the kisser!" as a humorous punch line. Most of the rest of us have grown up and do not.

Wall Street is rightfully blamed for having pushed and shoved 5% or more of American workers right out of their jobs. It's of little wonder that the business rag Wall Street worships would make light of the workplace bullying plight of the little people. What is the tally of mortgage borrowers who were bullied into buying houses they could ill afford or into subprime mortgages when they qualified for prime? This abuse hurt our country and the global community immeasurably. Perhaps the Wall Street Journal might publish a snarky article about the abuse of borrowers by lenders and their bullying agents? Abuse comes in many forms. At least a few of us have brought workplace bullying into the light of day.

We bullied workers are "mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore." Remember that punch line? How ironic. It was spoken by a character portraying a news man.

Workplace Bullying, a Social Problem Too Serious to Ignore

2009-07-11T23:52:00.000-07:00

A safe and healthy workplace environment is under an employers control. When companies do nothing about workplace bullying, what are they really doing? According to Dr. Gary Namie, co-author of The Bully at Work, "Doing nothing is NOT a neutral act." Have you ever thought about it that way before? If employers do NOTHING when workplace bullying is reported, they collude with the bully, giving their silent approval.

Our efforts to promote the Healthy Workplace Bill into law is for one primary purpose, to apply a solution to this actual social problem. The business community continues to demonstrate that they are NOT willing to voluntarily put policies and procedures in place to correct and prevent the harmful phenomenon of workplace bullying, that is why we need a law to compel them to do so, to protect us all.

Our citizen lobbyist groups continue to show employers, legislators, and Chamber of Commerces' the high cost of bullying to companies, targets, taxpayers, health care providers, workers compensation (insurance companies), etc. (more examples listed at www.bullyfreeworkplace.org) yet they continue to dismiss or disregard the evidence. Another "Do Nothing" act.

We must act. We must insist that our legislators listen to us, take us seriously, and understand that workplace bullies are too expensive to ignore. Please join our grassroots movement to pass legislation to correct and prevent workplace bullying!

"We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization." Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Workplace Bullying, Health Care Consequences

2009-07-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

The consequences of workplace bullying often include health care issues. Many who lose their jobs are left with little or no health care coverage, some even bullied off the job because of their health or a family member's health issues.

After watching Bill Moyers Journal on PBS last night, I am amazed at how much money insurance companies are making from keeping the insured with claims OFF their roles so they meet "Wall Street expectations". If you didn't get a chance to view it, go to pbs.org and watch the show for yourself. An amazing awakening in the making!

So, how does this apply to us? We are physically being injured by workplace bullies. Remember the definition by Drs. Namie book, The Bully at Work? "Repeated health harming treatment". Do we think any industry that is making money off our misery is going to "voluntarily" going to change? NO...that is why the Healthy Workplace legislation is so important. Legally requiring businesses to put policies and procedures in place that will "correct and prevent workplace bullying" is the only way to go.

Check out this quote from Dantes, taken directly off Bill Moyers PBS interview on the website:
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, maintain a neutrality." Please join us in our mission to promote legislation to correct and prevent workplace bullying!

California Healthy Workplace Advocates

2009-07-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

If we had enforceable policies and procedures in the workplace to correct and prevent workplace bullying, wouldn't it make the workplace much safer and healthier for everyone, everyone from the top down? Did you know workplace bullying is currently legal unless a person falls into a protected status from the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Isn't it TIME we do something to protect the rest of us?

Who remembers what many people had to endure before there were legislative policies required in the workplace to correct and prevent sexual harrassment? How can we create the same process to protect workers, management, and even company owners from workplace bullying? We are all subject to the dangerous possibility of workplace bullying...no one is exempt.

First, let's define what we are talking about. Workplace bullying is something that can be perpetuated as "bullying up", "bullying down", or "bullying across", meaning anyone can become a target of workplace bullying. Repeated health harming treatment is a good way to describe the action and consequences of this phenomenon.

According to the professional WBI/Zogby Poll conducted in 2007, 37% of California workers are on the receiving end of workplace bullying...that is a whopping 5,602,429 California workers!! Another 12% of people have witnessed someone being bullied in the workplace, noting this phenomenon affects 7,419,433 people in California. These numbers are not made up out of thin air...they are REAL, and must be addressed publically to pressure lawmakers to do something to protect us!!

The book, The Bully at Work by Dr.s Ruth and Gary Namie, clearly tells us that naming the problem is where our recovery from this disaster begins. Look, if bullying is being recognized on school grounds as a problem, a very SERIOUS problem, why don't people make the obvious jump to realize these people grow up and take the very same behaviors with them to the workplace?! Also, if the behavior is ignored, it obviously escalates and gets worse.

There is a Healthy Workplace Bill being circulated to legislators in 26 states right now, including California. We know the current administration does not support this legislation (look who is at the helm...The Terminator!), but soon we will have different leadership, and hopefully they will believe in human rights, the right to be safe and healthy in our workplaces. We have a lot of work to do to get this legislation to "Correct and Prevent Workplace Bulling" passed into law.

If you believe this is as serious a problem as we do, join us at www.bullyfreeworkplace.org, join this BLOG, and support our mission to get legislation passed to make social change for the good of us all. Thanks, more to share in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.