Gary Namie’s wife was the target of a workplace bully, and as a result Gary and his wife, Ruth, are on a mission to do something about bullies at work. Just check out Workplace Bullying Institute.
As Gary points out, America has come a long way in dealing with bullies in almost every environ, except the workplace. It has only been a decade or so since spousal abuse became a zero-toleration social problem. Of course, child abuse came out of the closet a long, long time ago. Recently, the destructive effects of bullies at school have been recognized and steps are now under way to deal with intimidation on the playground.
But, the bully at work still lives and even thrives. As Gary points out, there are virtually no laws on the books to prevent workplace bullying. While there are federal and state laws which prohibit discrimination based on factors like race, sex, and religion, bullying is something totally separate from discrimination. The bully picks a target, goes to work and usually drives the target out of the workplace. People who become the target of a bully may have been doing a good job at a position for years, only to find themselves harassed by a bully whose agenda is strictly personal, arbitrary and destructive. Most people do eventually quit their jobs, many after losing their mental and emotional stability.
Bullies may be a new owner who takes over an established business. Or a relative of a small business owner who begins work with the security of being related to the boss. Businesses fail to deal with these bullies because the bully has job security as the owner or relative of the owner. But what boggles my mind is how supervisors in large corporations can bully workers and not get fired!
In addition to helping people deal with bullying, Gary and his wife are pushing a nationwide effort to get states to pass legislation dealing with the workplace bully. Since 2003, thirteen states have introduced legislation dealing with this issue. You can read the bill introduced in New York here. Although none have passed it yet, Gary is hopeful that there will be success soon.
Excellent article and interview of Dr. Gary Namie. This sad chapter in the American workplace - corporate bullying and mobbing behavior - needs to be closed. With the continual diligence of Dr. Namie, upstanding business leaders and positive people practice champions, we can restore productivity and civility to toxic work environments that allow barbaric leaders to spew their venom on countless unsuspecting targets across America. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it makes financial sense to get rid of bullies. I challenge leaders of organizations to identify and eliminate your bullies. Again, great article and interview.
My sister worked for a company in Arizona called 95° & Sunny and shared with me that the owners are the biggest setback of this company and are the cause of office gossip, bullying and horrible lack of respect for almost all of the employees except one, which they also make clear to the other employees that she is their favorite. They give this one employee fancy vacations and pay raises that others don’t receive. This warehouse employee acts like she is invincible and runs around the office when the owner is gone and indicates to everyone that their job is on the line and that she herself made the recommendation to the owner that she should get rid of the other office employees and hire her daughter run the office single handed while she does the order pulling and shipping.
This behavior was reported to the owner and she thought it was humorous and indicated that everyone is expendable. This is just one small example of some of the things I have heard coming from this business. This kind of behavior is extremely unprofessional and keeps employees from functioning at 100%. This should not be tolerated at any level and it’s time to put a stop to it.
The moral in this company is very low due to the lack of respect for the employees which causes stress and a sense of hopelessness for all that work in this environment. This has made many of the employees physically ill as well. The bad treatment of employees has also created a much higher than normal turn over rate and the loss of some very talented folks who were very sincere about the success of the company. In a couple of instances the owners would not tell and employee they were let go, they just kept telling them they didn’t have any work for them at that time. There are also continuous snide and hurtful remarks made to employees on a daily basis by the owners and the owner’s pet employee.
From a job security standpoint it is a very poor company to work for to say the least. The owners put no value at all in their employees and have a process that will demoralize the most competent worker to a point of depression. No matter how good of a job an employee does or how hard they work it is never good enough and this is the case with all employees that work for this company.
Because this is a small company there really isn’t much opportunity for advancement or growth. In all fairness however this company really does have some nice potential if the right folks with some people skills and business training could run it on a professional level without the childish antics.
Their website is http://www.95andsunny.com