Was Harvard professor bullied or bullying?

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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