Anti-Inspiring

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Posted on June 15, 2015 by Adora Myers

“Take This job and Shove It”: How Targets and Witnesses Fight Back When Faced with Bullying

“When abuse persisted despite working harder, participants reported giving up. Working harder resulted in a brief respite but was inevitably followed by more demands and further demoralization…Thus, abuse engendered noncooperation rather than cooperation and consent.”

–Adult Bullying-A Nasty Piece of Work: Translating a Decade of Research on Non-Sexual Harassment, Psychological Terror, Mobbing, and Emotional Abuse on the Job by Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik

Note: For more information about combating workplace bullying, visit the Workplace Bullying Institute, Beyond Bullying Association, the International Association on Workplace Bullying & Harassment (IAWBH) and the International Conference on Workplace Bullying.

The following quote suggests that managers who bully subordinates also hire people with the intention of abusing them. It’s a little unnerving to think blatantly (consciously?) predatory behavior is behind some new-hire decisions.

This begs the question – how does a potential employee spot a predatory manager, or an abusive work environment, during the interview process? Are there techniques for identifying and avoiding the problem all together?

Serial Bullying: How Employee Abuse Starts, Ends, and Restarts with New Targets

“The most common occurrence coinciding with the onset of abuse is getting a new boss or starting a new job: “A surprising number (19%) are bullied almost immediately on starting their new posts. The recent job change and a change in manager account for 82% of the offered events relating to bullying onset.””

–Adult Bullying-A Nasty Piece of Work: Translating a Decade of Research on Non-Sexual Harassment, Psychological Terror, Mobbing, and Emotional Abuse on the Job by Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik

Serial Bullying in the Workplace

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Posted on April 20, 2015 by Adora Myers

Serial Bullying: How Employee Abuse Starts, Ends, and Restarts with New Targets

“Serial bullying is a repetitive, targeted, destructive form of bullying directed by direct managers toward their employees…also called merry-go-round bullying, [it] is when a bully picks one person at a time to terrorize and moves on to another person, usually after the initial target is driven from the workgroup.”

“Effectively interrupting the cycle requires more than just removing, coaching, or disciplining the abuse. Ending the cycle means encouraging rather than obstructing the expression of employees’ alternative workplace experiences, despite the likelihood that those voices will differ from management’s. Without honestly dealing with aggressors and the climate that spawns and supports aggression, organizations are doomed to repeat the cycle.”

“Only when organizational members at all levels can safely and openly question the dominant culture can the cycle of serial bullying be interrupted. This is no small feat.”

–Adult Bullying-A Nasty Piece of Work: Translating a Decade of Research on Non-Sexual Harassment, Psychological Terror, Mobbing, and Emotional Abuse on the Job by Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik

There’s Always Someone Bigger

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Adora Myers

Amazon.com

This is a fun story and a good discussion starter for kids dealing with bullying. The solution presented is based on being friends with a dinosaur that is much larger than the bully. While finding a bigger and stronger friend to protect you is not always the best way to address threatening behavior, finding friends and/or allies can be crucial. And, in many cases, those allies are like the super big dinosaur in this book – directly underfoot but, for whatever reason, not yet noticed.

QUOTE:

“I WANT THE JELLY BEANS!”
“You can shout as much as you like,” said Jackson, “but my friend can shout louder.”
…Snap! “Now do you believe that my friend can eat show-offs for breakfast?” asked Jackson….Jackson giggled. “Don’t worry. He could eat you, but he won’t!”

–The Really, Really, Really BIG Dinosaur, by Richard Byrne

Bullying in the American Workplace

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Posted on March 16, 2015 by Adora Myers

Prevalence, Perception, Degree, & Impact of Adult Bullying in the American Workplace by Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik, Sarah J. Tracy, & Jess Alberts

“Bullying causes widespread damage. Victims of bullying, called targets in research on the subject, suffer long-term often permanent psychological, physical, and professional harm. The experience is crippling and devastating.”

“In any given 6 month period, 1 in 4 (25%) US workers experience aggression at work that is persistent and harmful, whether or not these workers identify as targets.”

“In any given 6 month period in the US, workplace bullying harms nearly 40% of US working adults.”

“Witnessing bystanders, even though they do not feel directly bullied, experience more aggression personally targeted at them than do employees working in settings without bullying present. As bullying increases, job satisfaction and overall job rating decrease and job-related stress increases—for targets and for witnessing bystanders.“

–Adult Bullying-A Nasty Piece of Work: Translating a Decade of Research on Non-Sexual Harassment, Psychological Terror, Mobbing, and Emotional Abuse on the Job by Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik

What Women Want

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Posted on March 9, 2015 by Adora Myers

Amazon.com

“What most surprised the managers was that the top-performing women did not stay and fight. These days, strong women take their expertise and knowledge to greener pastures.”

“Their workplace wish lists rarely state “being promoted” as a prime motivator. Instead, my survey respondents told me they look for (1) frequent new challenges that stretch and grow their ability to achieve; (2) the opportunity to be flexible with their schedule; (3) the chance to collaborate with other high achievers; (4) recognition from their company; and (5) the freedom to be themselves.”

“Self-satisfaction seems to be more important to today’s high achievers than the outer trappings of success.“

–Wander Woman: How High-Achieving Women Find Contentment and Direction by Marcia Reynolds

Unfortunate Reality

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Posted on February 16, 2015 by Adora Myers

“Sadly, workplace bullying is relatively common; it touches the lives of nearly half of the working adults in the United States—by either being targeted or being forced to witness one’s coworkers and colleagues bullied. Adult bullies are far more astutely strategic than children, more likely to use indirect aggression because indirect is easy to deny, and are excellent at managing up—appearing completely innocent to upper-managers or other organizational authorities.”

–Adult Bullying-A Nasty Piece of Work: Translating a Decade of Research on Non-Sexual Harassment, Psychological Terror, Mobbing, and Emotional Abuse on the Job by Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik

Workplace Bullying Defined

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Posted on January 19, 2015 by Adora Myers

“One of the things that make workplace bullying so difficult to explain and understand is that we lack an agreed-upon name for the experience. Some call workplace bullying harassment of a non-sexual nature, employee emotional abuse, psychological terror, mobbing, and so forth. A review of research on the subject suggests that all of these terms describe roughly the same phenomenon—repeated, long-lasting aggressive abuse at the hands of other organizational members.”

“Bullying is exceedingly destructive and is associated with targets’ impaired physical, mental, and occupational health; deterioration of personal relationships outside of work; and economic jeopardy. An audience of coworkers also live in fear of being the next target.”

“Bullying constitutes, and is constituted by, hostile work environments marked by pervasive fear and dread of workgroup members. Bullying is both an outcome of hostile work environments and a building block of hostile work environments. Perceived power disparity. Bullying at work is marked by a (perceived or actual) difference in power between perpetrator and target.”

–Adult Bullying-A Nasty Piece of Work: Translating a Decade of Research on Non-Sexual Harassment, Psychological Terror, Mobbing, and Emotional Abuse on the Job by Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik

Misogynistic Expectations

Posted on November 28, 2014 by Adora Myers

Amazon.com

I have included several quotes from this essay because the subject and the story felt very real to me. I can’t help but wonder how many women of my era physically injured themselves trying to hide the blessing of physical strength (or height) in an effort to fit in, become invisible or simple live through a difficult period while hoping things would improve on the other side.

I found myself both impressed by the author’s ability to flaunt her physical strength and skill, regardless public opinion, and envious of the opportunities and community structure available to her, thereby making this flaunting possible (not easy, just possible).

I truly hope the trend toward strong female characters (both physically and intellectually) in movies and literature (of all kinds and for all ages) not only continues but helps provide the widespread cultural change that will allow more young women to be both strong and unafraid of being seen as strong.

QUOTES:

“The power of mass media pales in comparison to the power of high school gossip.”

“As the story went, I fought him off, not because he was weak, but because I was a freak. I was stronger than I was supposed to be…I was not really a girl—but could never be elevated to the power of a guy—so I was somewhere in between: a genderless monster….It was that I sometimes walked down streets, or went to a movie alone. Occasionally, I stopped and helped someone who was stuck by the side of the road. I acted as if nothing had changed since we were all boys and girls playing four-square on the playground, all equal in power. I had not grown up. I had not learned how to be constantly, subconsciously, submissive and afraid. I was not a woman.”

“I was downright, happily, self-confidently crazy. I was a girl in high school, and although I did not assume I would always win, I knew I always had a fighting chance.“

–Animal, Mineral, Radical: Essays on Wildlife, Family, and Food by BK Loren

Bullying is Unnatural

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Posted on November 19, 2014 by Adora Myers

Amazon.com

“Though bullying is a problem that cuts across lines of class, race, and geography, the reality is that most kids aren’t directly involved—either as perpetrators or as targets. And when kids understand that concerted cruelty is the exception and not the rule, they respond: bullying drops, and students become more active about reporting it.“

-Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy by Emily Bazelon

Adora Myers

Category Archives: Bullying

Anti-Inspiring

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Spotting Bad Management

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Serial Bullying in the Workplace

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There’s Always Someone Bigger

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Bullying in the American Workplace

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What Women Want

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Unfortunate Reality

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Workplace Bullying Defined

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Misogynistic Expectations

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Bullying is Unnatural

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