The Workplace Bullying Podcast

Podcast Descriptions

3.1 Toxic Leaders and Tough Bosses
Teresa Daniel, JD, PhD, joins Dr. Gary Namie to discuss her 2024 book — Toxic Leaders and Tough Bosses. They discuss the organizational factors that support & sustain toxic, destructive people. Remarkably, the U.S. Army is working to purge their toxic leaders showing corporations why and what to do. Organizational solutions are offered. You can purchase the book here.

2.9 Workplace Peace and Employment Law
Plaintiff’s employment attorney Jessica Childress discusses her e-book and e-course, Peace: Leaving A Toxic Workplace On Your Own Terms. Jessica is a Washington, DC-based attorney with lots of trial experience coupled with consulting to organizations on training workplace investigators, writing employee handbooks, DEI training as well as legal strategies. She describes the vagaries of U.S. employment law. You can read about her work here: https://thechildressfirm.com/

2.8 Evildoers and Workplace Bullying
An exploration of sources of evil with Joan Arehart-Treichel, award-winning science writer and author of Warding Off Evildoers. We discuss genetic, neuroscience and environmental origins of bad people who harm others. The fit between Joan’s scientific study of evil and the experiences of people bullied at work is also examined.

2.7 Lessons from Stoicism for Bullied Targets
Stoic authority and Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia) Associate Professor of Philosophy, Matthew Sharpe, PhD, discusses how his specialty, Stoicism, provides a toolkit of techniques to offset the misery bestowed by workplace bullying. He is author of the new book, Stoicism, Bullying and Beyond: How to Keep Your Head When Others Around You Have Lost Theirs and Blame You. Don’t be fooled by any stereotypes about academic philosophers, Matthew “gets” bullying and is very pragmatic and helpful.

2.6 The WBI Story – Drs. Ruth & Gary Namie
Suffolk University Law Professor David Yamada leads the conversation with the Drs. Namie — Ruth and Gary — about the origins, evolution, and current state (in 2022) of the Workplace Bullying Institute, founded by them in 1997. The American pioneers tell their story for the record in celebration of WBI’s 25th anniversary.

2.5 Researchers’ Perspectives on Bullying in Higher Education
Veteran researchers Loraleigh Keashly, PhD (Associate Dean and Professor, Wayne State University, Detroit) and Kathleen Rospenda, PhD (Professor, Psychiatric Institute, University of Illinois, Chicago) discuss 25 years of research of emotional abuse and workplace bullying. Convergent themes include the roles of chronic, long-term exposure to abuse, the relational aspect of it, and the importance of the context of the abuse. In addition, they describe a large systemic intervention at the VA and emergent policies adopted by universities. The program ends with a dialogue about the uniqueness of academic sites for bullying and prescriptions for what can be done.

2.4 Lessons From Norwegian Workplace Bullying Research
Dr. Ståle Einarsen, Director, Bergen Bullying Research Group; Professor, University of Bergen discusses his voluminous body of work from the past 32 years. Without peer, Einarsen’s prolific work, cited 43,571 times on Google Scholar, leads all academic researchers in both breadth and depth of knowledge on the topic. We cover the search for personality predictors of targethood, a model of destructive leadership (yes, there is worse than simply doing nothing), biological substrates of the bullying experience that mediate the harm inflicted, key organizational risk and prevention climate factors and what progressive nations like Norway do to mitigate harm to workers. Listen for the great line — “it’s the organization, stupid!”

2.3 Bump It Up — From Individual to Organizational Responsibility
Dr. Maureen Duffy, co-author of Overcoming Mobbing and counselor with extensive experience delivering trauma-informed care to bullied individuals, makes the case for ending the habit of making targets fix situations they did not cause. She invokes famous chef Emeril Lagasse’s trademark exhortations — “Bam!” and “Bump it up a level.” Instead of adding flavors to food, Dr. Duffy refers to switching the focus from individuals and their personal traumatic histories to organizations where true responsibility lies. The conversation ends with her explanation of why only trauma-informed mental health professionals can help bullied targets.

2.2 The New Zealand Workplace Bullying Experience
Kiwis enjoy a reputation as progressive, compassionate people. But the government’s failure to adequately address cases of harmful workplace bullying torpedoes that national myth. Allan Halse, the nation’s longest serving worker advocate in bullying cases through CultureSafe NZ, his small and successful organization, details how various entities abdicate responsibility to enforce the Health and Safety Act of 2015 and other relevant legislation. It seems callous government representatives seek to deny bullied workers redress. It’s a tale of squandered opportunities.

2.1 Tale of a Union That Helps Its Bullied Members – MAPE
In contrast with the indifference too many unions show towards bullying of its members, MAPE (Minnesota Association of Professional Employees) is the model of compassion and action regarding workplace bullying. Kathy Fodness, the Business Agent who led the internal campaign, and Alice Percy, a state worker who served on the initial Task Force, describe what MAPE did — from discovery, to purging toxic managers, to surveying members, to created an elaborate member education toolkit, to using a legislator to compel the State as employer to collaboratively create the first policy for all state workers, and sustaining the fight for the psychological safety of MAPE members. A must-hear tutorial for all union members who deserve similar service from their unions. Demand your union do the same!

1.7 World Addresses Psychosocial Risks in Workplaces, Not the U.S.
Attorney Ellen Pinkos Cobb, author of Managing Psychosocial Hazards and Work-Related Stress in Today’s Work Environment: International Insights for U.S. Organizations, discusses the advances made around the world to reduce harm to workers from psychosocial factors (work conditions and social factors). Great progress has been made to prevent employers from engaging employees after work hours, to guarantee the chance to sleep more, and to ensure healthier workplaces. All of these positive changes have not yet been adopted in the U.S.

1.6 Bullying in Broadcast News
“Luke,” a former TV news executive who speaks anonymously, introduces us to the abusive culture and some of the players he’s encountered in the major corporate networks. The prototypical TV exec is profiled with real-world illustrations of destructive, draconian bullying tactics. Money and attention hardly justify how toxic work is for those who produce the news for the viewing public. Luke offers hope as he describes his escape to a saner, healthier world of work.

1.5 Bullied Targets as People of Conscience Rediscovering Their Voices
G. Richard Shell, author of The Conscience Code: Lead with Your Values. Advance Your Career, and professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics and Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, discusses the importance of personal duties felt, character, responsibility and integrity in life. Aim toward the profound tranquility of living authentically. And he advises targets how to rediscover their lost selves in a novel way.

1.4 Understanding the Disability Option for Injured Targets
Carol Fehner, long-time AFGE Union activist and Social Security expert, describes her discovery of workplace bullying as steward. She then explains the challenging process of applying for SS Disability Insurance and why it may be worth the effort.

1.3 Bullied While Mitigating the Death Penalty
Tim Jon Semmerling, PhD, JD, introduces our audience to the art of a mitigating expert in death penalty cases. His skills draw him to working with Walid bin ‘Atash in Guantanamo Bay when the defense team turns on him. Attorney-on-attorney bullying is showcased.

1.2 Unions and Bullying
Greg Sorozan & Jeff Recht two retired union anti-bullying advocates describe their work. Questions answered: uncaring stewards? corrupt leaders? members’ misuse of representation? benefits of union membership?

1.1 When the Bully is an Embezzler
The career of a consummate public school teacher, Carrie Clark, was derailed by a scheming superintendent. The man was a thief and embezzler who landed at several California school districts without consequences before retiring.