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
Monday, October 18, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Freedom from Workplace Bullies Week begins Sunday, October 17th-23rd
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.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Workplace Bullying Presentation in San Francisco & Sacramento
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  | |
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Tuesday, October 12, 2010
FREEDOM FROM WORKPLACE BULLIES WEEK!
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
Friday, August 13, 2010
Military workplace bullying: can a law help?
Smets: Military workplace bullying: can a law help?
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.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
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!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Workplace bullying is rampant in American labor
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.
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.
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