Bully for you: organisational bullying
A recent report by the UK’s National Health System (NHS) estimated that as much as half of the UK workforce has either experienced or witnessed organisational bullying at some time in their career. Other reports put this figure closer to two thirds.
80 million days stress and sick leave and as much as £2 million pounds are projected to be lost from UK industry annually due to bullying. But it’s not a UK specific problem. Humiliating staff for ego, power and sport is now a global phenomenon that’s on the rise.
School yard bullying is something schools are increasingly taking a zero tolerance stance over, with Australia's NSW Department of Education’s published position stating that every child’s health well-being and safety is paramount to their educational needs. However, what happens between the home room and board room such that bullying behaviour becomes an accepted management tool?
I once worked for an organistional bully: a woman with little self esteem and even less talent who regularly would ring me, scream down the phone at me and then hang up. She was also quite taken with rebutting any suggestion I made in our team meetings with “I want you to intelligently assess that” implying that clearly I needed to be told to be intelligent. I put up with her not particularly subtle professional slurs for almost ten months before I realised that I neither wanted the job, nor wanted to be near her. I actually liked the job and most of the people I worked with, however I was emotionally over a barrel – I couldn’t continue to work for a woman who took delight in belittling me at every available opportunity. So I resigned.
I don’t regret that decision, as it opened new doors for me which have worked out fine, but it does annoy me that her bullying was rewarded by me choosing to opt out.
Had she been a man who treated me in this way, or made some reference about my legs or breasts, or looked me over for a role because I have a womb the line of harassment would be clear. However, organisational bullying at the hands of women who have risen to their level of incompetence is not protected under law unless you really want to test the boundaries of occupational health and safety laws.
Why is it that harassment laws relating to our interactions with men are so clearly defined, yet rabid humilatrixes continue to dominate the board rooms of so many industries and they get away with it simply because of their gender?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m infinitely grateful to the feminists who fought hard to allow me the opportunities I’ve had in my life and I like to believe I continue to fight the fight, but I refuse to accept this post modern view that women can behave as they see fit without recourse. People are people, regardless of gender, and as such they should be treated with a bit of basic humanity.
I write this piece, not to bang on about me, but to illustrate the point that I know five people, who at varying stages in their careers have chosen to simply opt out of the conflict they have been cornered into because their bosses didn’t like them, or they dared illustrate a little bit too much professionalism and talent and threatened their bosses.
I have had many people explain my prior situation to me as “she was threatened by you” and while I have no doubt that was true, in that I was starting my career and she was ending hers relatively, I fail to see that insecurity and low self esteem excuses anti social behaviour that in every other aspect of life is covered by laws prohibiting it. Yes, I do still feel sorry for her, as if a 22 year old who knows nothing about life can threaten you, it’s a fairly dismal life you lead in my mind. But it still does not adequately answer my question. How was my being verbally assaulted, humiliated and regularly denigrated to anyone who would listen not illegal?
We’ve all worked for these bosses, the ones who say yes to everything with absolutely no intention of every doing anything, and whose sole purpose appears to be simply to hold meetings to dump more work on you and waste your time under the guise of team work.
They are always visible, right up to the moment when they have to roll their sleeves up. And they like to micromanage everything, just to remind you that you’re so rubbish you couldn’t possibly do it without them, despite them not having the skills to do your job.
They are the herpes of the workforce – irritating and never gone. Even when they appear to be gone, they can spring up at the most inopportune times just to destroy your calm.
The point to this long tirade is that if organisational bullying is the epidemic it appears to be, touching the lives of billons globally on a daily basis, we need to do something!
I’m calling for a “just say no day” on October 1, 2007. The day when the workers of the world unite and if we are asked to do something that’s clearly our bosses job that we say no, or indeed if we are subjected to some kind of work place harassment that we take a stand and say “I don’t like it”.
We spend more than 50 000 hours at work in our life time, I really don’t think it’s too naive to expect that that time be fruitful, pleasant and respectful.
I’d love to hear your own experiences. Think of it as an opportunity to vent a bit. And feel free to pass the concept of just say no day along to everyone you know.
I’m serious if we can have those diabetes ribbon days, and diabetes only affects 3.25 per cent of UK residents (compared to 50 per cent) surely a day of action for something that impacts on you, or your partner/sister/brother/mother/father is possible?
80 million days stress and sick leave and as much as £2 million pounds are projected to be lost from UK industry annually due to bullying. But it’s not a UK specific problem. Humiliating staff for ego, power and sport is now a global phenomenon that’s on the rise.
School yard bullying is something schools are increasingly taking a zero tolerance stance over, with Australia's NSW Department of Education’s published position stating that every child’s health well-being and safety is paramount to their educational needs. However, what happens between the home room and board room such that bullying behaviour becomes an accepted management tool?
I once worked for an organistional bully: a woman with little self esteem and even less talent who regularly would ring me, scream down the phone at me and then hang up. She was also quite taken with rebutting any suggestion I made in our team meetings with “I want you to intelligently assess that” implying that clearly I needed to be told to be intelligent. I put up with her not particularly subtle professional slurs for almost ten months before I realised that I neither wanted the job, nor wanted to be near her. I actually liked the job and most of the people I worked with, however I was emotionally over a barrel – I couldn’t continue to work for a woman who took delight in belittling me at every available opportunity. So I resigned.
I don’t regret that decision, as it opened new doors for me which have worked out fine, but it does annoy me that her bullying was rewarded by me choosing to opt out.
Had she been a man who treated me in this way, or made some reference about my legs or breasts, or looked me over for a role because I have a womb the line of harassment would be clear. However, organisational bullying at the hands of women who have risen to their level of incompetence is not protected under law unless you really want to test the boundaries of occupational health and safety laws.
Why is it that harassment laws relating to our interactions with men are so clearly defined, yet rabid humilatrixes continue to dominate the board rooms of so many industries and they get away with it simply because of their gender?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m infinitely grateful to the feminists who fought hard to allow me the opportunities I’ve had in my life and I like to believe I continue to fight the fight, but I refuse to accept this post modern view that women can behave as they see fit without recourse. People are people, regardless of gender, and as such they should be treated with a bit of basic humanity.
I write this piece, not to bang on about me, but to illustrate the point that I know five people, who at varying stages in their careers have chosen to simply opt out of the conflict they have been cornered into because their bosses didn’t like them, or they dared illustrate a little bit too much professionalism and talent and threatened their bosses.
I have had many people explain my prior situation to me as “she was threatened by you” and while I have no doubt that was true, in that I was starting my career and she was ending hers relatively, I fail to see that insecurity and low self esteem excuses anti social behaviour that in every other aspect of life is covered by laws prohibiting it. Yes, I do still feel sorry for her, as if a 22 year old who knows nothing about life can threaten you, it’s a fairly dismal life you lead in my mind. But it still does not adequately answer my question. How was my being verbally assaulted, humiliated and regularly denigrated to anyone who would listen not illegal?
We’ve all worked for these bosses, the ones who say yes to everything with absolutely no intention of every doing anything, and whose sole purpose appears to be simply to hold meetings to dump more work on you and waste your time under the guise of team work.
They are always visible, right up to the moment when they have to roll their sleeves up. And they like to micromanage everything, just to remind you that you’re so rubbish you couldn’t possibly do it without them, despite them not having the skills to do your job.
They are the herpes of the workforce – irritating and never gone. Even when they appear to be gone, they can spring up at the most inopportune times just to destroy your calm.
The point to this long tirade is that if organisational bullying is the epidemic it appears to be, touching the lives of billons globally on a daily basis, we need to do something!
I’m calling for a “just say no day” on October 1, 2007. The day when the workers of the world unite and if we are asked to do something that’s clearly our bosses job that we say no, or indeed if we are subjected to some kind of work place harassment that we take a stand and say “I don’t like it”.
We spend more than 50 000 hours at work in our life time, I really don’t think it’s too naive to expect that that time be fruitful, pleasant and respectful.
I’d love to hear your own experiences. Think of it as an opportunity to vent a bit. And feel free to pass the concept of just say no day along to everyone you know.
I’m serious if we can have those diabetes ribbon days, and diabetes only affects 3.25 per cent of UK residents (compared to 50 per cent) surely a day of action for something that impacts on you, or your partner/sister/brother/mother/father is possible?
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I worked for a woman who turned out to be the boss from hell just like you described in your post. She micromanaged everything and I ended up making the mistakes that she first accused me of.
I ended up resigning too. What was worse is that there was a co-worker who had witnessed her do this to the person who had my job before me.
Great post. I'll mark the date in my diary.
Love & stuff
Mrs M
Yellow Brick Road
I also once worked for a woman (again) who took umbridge with the way I punctuated (no kidding). It appears I use too many commars.
She not only took the time to mark up, with a red pen, every commar I used, but also called a meeting between myself, my boss, her PA and her so she could publically humiliate my over reliance on punctuation. She was made redundant about 3 years ago. I hope they punctuated the hell out of her letter!
And grievance procedures in organisations appear to be as toothy as the UN when it comes to action. Basicaly the employee, if being harrassed by their manager, can do nothing as they have no power.