Sept. 15th Lobby Day for Healthy Workplace Advocates

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

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

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

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

Workplace bullying brought down the world economy

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.