Bullying Not Just for the Schoolyard
By KAREN ROUSE
The Record Hackensack, NJ
November 22, 2008
NEW BRUNSWICK -- Bullying often conjures images of a schoolyard thug abusing his much smaller classmate or "mean girls" taunting an "nerdy" peer on the Internet.
But bullying on the job is just as rampant and damaging to thousands of American workers, according to experts participating in a Workplace Bullying Issues seminar today sponsored by the Fort Lee-based New Jersey chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans and the New Jersey State Bar Foundation.
The panelists -- attorneys, academics and consultants -- defined workplace bullying as a repeated, malicious mistreatment of one employee by one or more employees that endangers the health of the targeted worker.
It can take on various forms, including a screaming boss who humiliates an employee, a worker who tries to sabotage the reputation of a colleague, a manager who excludes an employee from meetings or frequently denies vacation requests and a supervisor who excludes a worker from events, such as a weekend barbecue, with other employees.
Over time, such bullying can result in high blood pressure, ulcers, gastrointestinal problems and traumatic stress disorder, said Ruth Namie, a Washington state-based consultant who said she was once bullied for months by a woman who criticized the way she dressed.
"You go to the doctor and the doctor says to you, 'Oh, did you know you have high blood pressure?' and you never had high blood pressure before," she said. She added that bullying should matter to employers because it affects the bottom line with higher health costs and lower productivity, a result of low morale.
Namie's husband, Gary Namie, Director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, said 71.5 million American workers have witnessed or experienced bullying.
In 60 percent of cases, he said, the bully is a man. Men, he said, target men and women, while women typically target other females. Employees who complain are often seen as whiners and complainers, he said. But the reality is that 40 percent never report bullying or don't report it until there has already been damage to their health, Gary Namie said.
Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, D-Plainsboro, is sponsoring legislation that would allow bullied workers to sue their employers if they are abused. She said a dozen other states are working on similar legislation.
Under the proposed legislation, it would be illegal for an employer "to subject an employee to an abusive work environment or retaliate" against an employee who tries to address the abuse by suing or other action.
For now, protection against workplace harassment is limited to those who are part of a protected class, such as a member of a minority group or a woman, New Brunswick attorney John Kovac said.
The panelists encouraged the audience of about 100 people -- many of whom said they were the victims of bullying -- to document abuse in the workplace. Kovac said employees need to establish that injury has been made if they want compensation. Evidence of injury, in turn, can be established by a doctor who has treated the employee and it should not be a case of an employee simply not liking his or her boss, he said.
Never confront the bully, the panelists said, because that could lead to retaliation, and in many cases, the bully is a friend of the boss.
"They have spent many years kissing up, and so you're not going to be believed," he said. Ruth Namie said workers shouldn't feel bad if they don't know how to respond to a bully. It is common to "feel lost and helpless," she said. It's not you."
Panelist Leisa-Anne Smith, an attorney and expert on school bullying, said she sees many similarities between school bullies and those in the workplace. Often, someone in charge fails to intervene, she said.
People ask: "Why do kids bully?" she said. "The answer is very simple: because they can."
###
For more information about workplace bullying, visit workplacebullying.org
