The Workplace Bully: Bringing a Company Down

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

Workplace Bullying Leaders Speak in Sacramento

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

Celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment

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!

Chamber of Commerce is Chamber of Horrors this Holloween

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

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

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!