Workplace Bullying:
The Epidemic Keeps Spreading
The Epidemic Keeps Spreading
The Journal Record, Tulsa, OK
October 24, 2008
TULSA Spreading rumors, taunting and sabotage. These are part of an epidemic spreading across the business community: workplace bullying. "It's a repeated mistreatment," said Gary Namie, founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute. "It takes the form in verbal abuse and humiliating the individual in a work environment."
Namie was brought in by the Tulsa Chapter of the Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium to speak to the local business community about the realities of workplace bullying October 23.
The term bullying is typically associated with schoolyard bullies who spend their time making the lives of fellow classmates miserable, said Namie. That results in many not believing bullying is applicable to the work environment.
But there is scientific and academic research that legitimizes the term workplace bullying, said Namie. Fifty percent of American workers have been affected by workplace bullying, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute-Zogby Survey.
"There is an increasing pressure in the private sector to make profit," he said. "Organizations who have to do more with less is a recipe for stressing people."
There are many reasons why some people become bullies, Namie said. In many cases they were not born as bullies. Rather, the cutthroat business environment turned them into bullies, he said.
Bullies are willing to exploit others to advance their own career, Namie said. "Bullying is not conflict because conflict can be worked out," he said. "This strips people of their dignity."
The effects of workplace bullying are brutal on a target's health, Namie said. Stress is the most reported health concern with bullying.
"Doctors will say if you are stressed a job can kill you," he said. "People try to tough it out and they enter their day with a total sense of dread."
Still, with all the issues associated with workplace bullying, Namie said most executives don't do anything about it. In 62 percent of workplace bullying cases, employers did nothing to prevent or stop the bullies, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute.
This is because the bully has sucked up to the boss in a way that the executive is blind to the bullying activity, Namie said.
Kevin Kennemer, partner with The People Group, said in his previous positions he's witnessed bullying take place. He said many of the human resource professionals did not take the side of the target.
"They would side with the bully because it would carry a lot of political clout," he said. "They need to make the commitment not to side with the bully and make an unbiased judgment."
Namie said if bullying is not addressed it can become a costly behavior for the company. "It can result in turnover or a great deal of absences," he said. "Bullying results in unproductive work, which becomes expensive for the company."
Ben Ruddock said he has been on both sides of the workplace bullying issue. He's been the bully and also been bullied himself. He said discussions about workplace bullying have helped him understand what triggers the activity. "It's about a power struggle," said Ruddock, engineer manager with Oklahoma Forge Inc. "People want to see what they can get away with."
Namie said his organization is striving to get legislation passed to ban workplace bullying. Fourteen states, including Oklahoma, have proposed workplace bullying legislation. None have passed legislation on it yet.
"Employees need to have a policy in place," Namie said. "It clearly happens and the harm to people is unconscionable."
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