Patricia G. Barnes - Surviving Bullies, Queen Bees & Psychopaths in the Workplace

by Patricia G. Barnes, J.D.

Copyright 2012 Patricia G.Barnes

Updated July 2013

SMASHWORDS EDITION

All rights reserved. This book may notbe reproduced in any form, in whole or in part, without writtenpermission from the author.

barnespatg@gmail.com

http://abusergoestowork.com/

SBN 978-0-615-64241-3

Many thanks to:

Cover Design byDorenChapman

Copy EditorJohn (Gene)Michals

Technical assistancefromJohn E. Barnes-McKivigan

To employers who respect

the worth and dignity

of the human beings

who toil in their enterprise.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Many who live with violence day in andday out assume it is an intrinsic part of the human condition. Butthis is not so. Violence can be prevented. Violent cultures can beturned around ... Governments, communities and individualscan make a difference. Nelson Mandela

Workplace bullying is epidemic in America,and it is getting worse as our economic travails leave workers withfewer employment options, less job security, and more vulnerable toabuse.

I became interested in workplace bullyingwhile employed at a domestic violence organization, one thatparadoxically suffered from a bullying culture. Management, whichincluded mostly women who had worked in the domestic violence fieldfor years, used tactics that were not unlike those that abusers usein intimate-partner relationships. Tactics like berating orhumiliating subordinates, making unreasonable demands and threats,shunning employees, etc. Sometimes bullies are bona-fidepsychopaths but I suspect these supervisors were simplymodeling management techniques they endured as underlings early intheir careers.

Like most organizations, managers inthis workplace were not promoted because they had the skillsnecessary to be a good manager, but because someone abruptlyresigned, leaving a vacancy. Or they were good at something thathad nothing to do with management, such as the ability to trackbudgetary numbers, create educational materials, or organizeconferences. And they received little or virtually no managementtraining.

But the result was nine hours or more, perworkday, of an emotionally toxic environment. A workplace riddledwith irrationality and fear. And every six months or so, anothertarget of bullying, finally fed up or dry-gulched by a seniormanager, walked down the hallway to the elevator, toting hermeager possessions in a cardboard box.

Consider:

- A scientificCareerBuilder survey in 2011 found that one in four workers(27 percent) is bullied.

- A 2010 scientific poll byZogby International for the Workplace Bullying Institute ofBellingham, Washington, showed that 37 percent of employees arebullied at the workplace thats 54 million workers!

- A 2007 scientific poll bythe Employment Law Alliance found that nearly 45 percent ofworkers worked for an abusive boss or employer at some point intheir career.

- A 2004 survey by theNational Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)found that, 24.5% of the companies surveyed reported that somedegree of bullying had occurred there during the precedingyear.

- A leading psychologist onworkplace abuse examined fifteen psychological studies; mostreported that at least half of workers experienced "emotionalabuse" on the job. (See Loraleigh Keashly, Emotional Abusein the Workplace: Conceptual and Empirical Issues, 1 J.Emotional Abuse 85, 114 (1998))

* Note :One reason for conflicting data is that there is no uniformlyaccepted definition of bullying.

Clearly, a significant percentage ofAmericans experience the workplace as a hostile and abusive place a place where workplace violence isrampant.

Workplace bullying is widely recognized as aform of workplace violence. The International LabourOrganization says workplace bullying is one of the fastestgrowing forms of workplace violence. According to theNational Institute of Occupational Safety andHealth (NIOSH):

Workplace violence is any physical assault,threatening behavior or verbal abuse occurring in the work setting.It includes but is not limited to beatings, stabbing, suicides,shootings, rapes, near suicides, psychological traumas such asthreats, obscene phone calls, an intimidating presence, andharassment of any nature such as being followed, sworn at orshouted at.

Similarly, the U.S. Department of Justice(DOJ) in 2003 defined workplace violence as any form ofconduct that intentionally creates anxiety, fear and a climate ofdistrust in the workplace. The types of workplace violencerecognized by the DOJ range from homicide and rape to sexualharassment and physical/emotional abuse and bullying.

Workplace bullying is not about normalworkplace conflict, petty slights, or rude behavior. Bullying canbe the equivalent of a thousand pin pricks that results in a mortalwound. It involves systematic and repetitive harassment over aperiod of time. Typically, it continues until the target isdemoted, fired or forced to quit. Bullying is an intentionalabuse of power, usually by a boss, sometimes by a group ofmobbing co-workers.

To differentiate workplace bullying fromnormal workplace conflict, experts have created a new vocabularythat emphasizes the intentional and violent nature of the problem.Victims are called targets - to emphasize that they are singled outfor abusive treatment by a bully. The mental and physicalharms that targets suffer are referred to injuries, to focusattention on the bully who has intentionally caused the injuries.In recent years, a new term has entered the American lexicon bullycide which refers to an individual who becomes depressedover bullying and commits suicide.

Workplace bullying causes targets to sufferpotentially severe psychological and physical harm. For thatreason, it arguably is illegal. The Occupational Safety and HealthActs (OSH Act), General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) 5, requires employers to provide workers with aworkplace free from recognized hazards that are likely to cause orare causing death or serious physical harm. There is anenormous body of research showing that targets of workplacebullying suffer from depression, stress and anxiety, insomnia, andthat workplace stress contributes to chronic disease includingcardiovascular disease and an impaired immune system.

Many other countries have treatedworkplace bullying as an important health and safety issue foryears. Irelands Health and Safety Authority adopted a Code ofPractice for Employers and Employees on the Prevention andResolution of Bullying at Work in 2007 that code requiresemployers to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, anyimproper conduct or behaviour likely to put the safety, health andwelfare at work of his or her employees at risk.

The European Union in 2000 adopted TheCharter of the Fundamental Rights of the EuropeanUnion (EU), which declares that every worker has theright to working conditions which respect his or her health, safetyand dignity. Europes leading business and labor organizationssigned The European Framework Agreement on Harassment andViolence at Work in 2007. The agreement states thatemployers have a duty to protect workers from harassment andviolence in the workplace.

France in 2002 adopted a law againstmoral harassment and Belgium passed a law equating bullyingwith harassment. Courts in the United Kingdom have ruledthat the 1997 Protection from Harassment Act encompasses theworkplace and makes it a criminal offence to harass a person. Several Canadian provinces have passed workplace bully laws,as have Queensland and Victoria, Australia. In Germany, courts andlabor unions have addressed the problem.