Sunday, April 06, 2008
News

The business of bullying

Nasty bosses and co-workers cause turnovers and absenteeism in America’s workplaces

By Josh Clark

Last month, two Canadian psychologists reported that the emotional toll of workplace bullying is more severe than that of sexual harassment. Some experts believe that the tide of employees and bosses spreading fear and angst through words, nonverbal language and actions has become the new sexual harassment.

In compiling data for their own study, M. Sandy Hershcovis of the University of Manitoba and Julian Barling of Queen’s University in Ontario looked at 110 studies spanning 21 years and found that workplace standbys such as yelling, bringing up past mistakes, excluding co-workers from information or get-togethers, and gossiping have an impact on how we perform in the workplace. People who’ve been on the receiving end of workplace bullying quit jobs more often and have even less job satisfaction than those who have been sexually harassed.

The concept of bullies and tattletales may seem juvenile to some of us. But, says Ben Tepper, a professor of managerial sciences at Georgia State University’s Robinson School of Business, it has a real impact.

“People who are petty tyrants are poison around the workplace,” says Tepper. “What people feel and their attitudes have an incredible impact on their productivity.”

With the advent of lawsuits for such cases, there’s been greater awareness of the impact of sexual harassment on the workplace, but corporations have yet to address bullies. Hershcovis, one of the study’s authors, said at a recent American Psychiatric Association conference that “Bullying is often more subtle … For instance, how does an employee report to their boss that they have been excluded from lunch?”

Plus, while most of us weren’t sexually harassed as kids, just about everyone has some terrible memory of being bullied at school. And it might not take much guff from some jerk at work to dredge up said memories and send us spiraling to the happy place we created for ourselves back in fifth grade.

Certainly, all employees should live free from the threat of a swirlie. But should any allowances be made for an employee who feels a passing urge to report that their co-workers didn’t invite him to lunch?

Tepper makes clear that he’s not an advocate for a sea of lawsuits from people whose skins are simply too thin. But, he says, “I’ve come across cases where you have someone whose abuse of authority is so damaging that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some sort of regulation in place.”

There oughta be a law

To address problems of hard-core bullying while thwarting frivolous lawsuits, Tepper suggests setting a high standard for what constitutes bullying in the workplace. Open (and, ostensibly, repeated) hostility, for example, could bring on clinical depression, which, in turn, may be actionable. Setting such standards “would be difficult, but I think it can be done,” he says.

But lawsuits can’t be brought without legislation that establishes laws against bullying. Some states are already busy trying to put such legislation in place. Legislators in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have submitted proposals to squash workplace bullying, but all have failed, thanks largely to opposition from businesses. Connecticut’s legislation, however, is expected to be brought up again in the near future. Its provisions  would allow bullied employees to bring claims against the bully as well as the employer. If the bill is enacted into law, anyone treated maliciously, from being told to “f**k off” by a boss to having their work sabotaged by a co-worker, would be eligible to sue the pants off everyone involved.

Science Daily reported in May 2007 that American workers are bullied 50 times more than their counterparts in Scandinavia, but only about 9 percent even realize that what they’re enduring is actually bullying. University of New Mexico researcher Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik, who led the study featured by the publication, says that this disparity probably reflects an ingrained behavior in American workplace culture.

“Workers suffering on the job and thinking they're ‘going crazy’ learn that the phenomenon has a name, what it looks like, that it happens to many workers, and potentially, what they might do about it,” Lutgen-Sandvik said.

Her study concluded that American businesses frequently enable, trigger and reward bullying.

The new sexual harassment?

Workplace bullies in Georgia, however, still have some time left to brow-beat or back-stab their employees and colleagues before any legislation spoils their fun. The legislature is currently focused more on bullies of the traditional variety: those generally 5 feet tall and under. Senate Bill 461, introduced by state Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), codifies bullying in Georgia’s public schools. The fellow-student bullies, as well as school employee bullies who are caught in the act of trashing kids’ stuff, menacing others in the school or sending threatening notes, will be in big trouble. Just what kind of trouble, the state leaves up to the school system.

Tepper points out that there are laws on the books against bullying, called intentional infliction of emotional stress, but it’s difficult to prove: “You basically have to get the other person to say that they purposely hurt you.”

For now, corporations in the state will have to institute their own policies against the grown-up bully phenomenon. It’s a process, and one that mirrors the sexual harassment legacy.

“Where we are in the process now is where sexual harassment was 20 years ago,” says Tepper.

Identifying what constitutes bullying will be like the suits of the ’80s frantically trying to figure out what was sexually suggestive or abusive. The difficulty arises from the fact that each is a matter of perception—what strikes some guy at work as funny can make a co-worker feel like scrubbing himself down with cleaning solvent.

For Tepper’s students, the lesson begins in his classroom, where he says “I teach my students that it’s never acceptable to be an ***hole at work.” SP

Stephanie Ramage contributed reporting to this article.

Are you being bullied at work?

Use this Workplace Aggression Research Questionnaire, developed by researchers from the State University of New York in New Paltz and Wayne State University, to find out.
 
In the past six months have you regularly:

• --Been glared at in a hostile manner?
• --Been excluded from work-related social gatherings?
• --Had others storm out of the work area when you entered?
• --Had others consistently arrive late for meetings that you called?
• --Been given the “silent treatment”?
• --Not been given the praise for which you felt entitled?
• --Been treated in a rude or disrespectful manner?
• --Had others refuse your requests for assistance?
• --Had others fail to deny false rumors about you?
• --Been given little or no feedback about your performance?
• --Had others delay action on matters that were important to you?
• --Been yelled at or shouted at in a hostile manner?
• --Been subjected to negative comments about your intelligence or competence?
• --Had others consistently fail to return your telephone calls or respond to your memos or e-mail?
• --Had your contributions ignored by others?
• --Had someone interfere with your work activities?
• --Been subjected to mean pranks?
• --Been lied to?
• --Had others fail to give you information that you really needed?
• --Been denied a raise or promotion without being given a valid reason?
• --Been subjected to derogatory name calling?
• --Been the target of rumors or gossip?
• --Been shown little empathy or sympathy when you were having a tough time?
• --Had co-workers fail to defend your plans or ideas to others?
• --Been given unreasonable workloads or deadlines — more than others?
• --Had others destroy or needlessly take resources that you needed to do your job?
• --Been accused of deliberately making an error?
• --Been subjected to temper tantrums when disagreeing with someone?
• --Been prevented from expressing yourself (for example, interrupted when speaking)?
• --Had attempts made to turn other employees against you?
• --Had someone flaunt his or her status or treat you in a condescending manner?
• --Had someone else take credit for your work or ideas?
• --Been reprimanded or “put down” in front of others?

Posted by Kathy Hermes on Sunday, April 06, 2008 at 9:03 AM:

Thank you for the article about workplace bullying. I would like to correct some information about the Connecticut law, because what is said about the law could create unnecessary fear in the business community. While Connecticut included a number of actions that constitute bullying, it required that the bullying be MALICIOUS (intentional) and HEALTH HARMING (need medical proof), and it gave an affirmative defense to employers who could show they made a good faith effort to stop the bullying. Or the employer could prove no bullying took place. The law was very balanced and was not anti-business. CT does not want to hurt its businesses. The Connecticut Healthy Workplace Advocates group here has worked with legislators (and offered to speak with business groups) about what would be fair. Business groups have claimed the law has a subjective standard, but that is untrue. Legally speaking it has an objective standard. It's a good, balanced law that makes it hard to cry wolf. A target will have to have good proof to sue, and businesses that are proactive will have a defense. Good business practices can end the effects of bullying: lost sick time, decreased worker productivity, and sometimes even the suicide of the worker. It's a serious problem. So in CT if someone said "F&%k off" to a worker, that would not have been enough to get a suit off the ground under the proposed law. http://groups.google.com/group/connecticut-bullybusters