Tag: Workplace Bullying Institute

Mexico And Canada Act On Psychological Violence In The Workplace While America Buries Its Head In the Sand

The U.S. continues to  trail the rest of the developed world by ignoring the serious problem of psychological violence in the workplace.

The U.S. is now being surpassed by both of its neighbors,  Mexico and Canada.

This despite a spate of  workplace shootings that should at least raise questions about the problem of psychological violence in the workplace.

Mexico’s Ministry of Labor and Social Security last year published in its official gazette a set of  regulations addressing risks posed by psychological violence in the workplace called  Federal Regulation of Health and Safety at Work.  These regulations require employers to identify, analyze and prevent work-related psychological risks. They will go into effect on Oct. 23, 2019.

The regulations also require large Mexican employers to adopt measures to prevent and control psychological risks, address acts of violence, and promote a healthy workplace environment.

Continue reading “Mexico And Canada Act On Psychological Violence In The Workplace While America Buries Its Head In the Sand”

Solutions Exist to End Workplace Bullying; What is Lacking is the Will to Act

What to do about workplace bullying?

The Boston Globe published an article on the problem of workplace bullying recently that focused on a proposed state-by-state solution that has been touted since 2001 by Gary Namie of the Workplace Bullying Institute and Suffolk University Professor David R. Yamada, author of the proposed  Healthy Workplace Bill (HWB).  Originally introduced in California in 2002, the HWB  has been considered in some form by more than two dozen states. If Massachusetts eventually passes the HWP, that only leaves workers in 49 states,  five territories and the District of Columbia without protection from workplace bullying.

Is this really where all the din and struggle of the past decade has gotten us? The United States is falling even farther behind other western democracies, some of which acted decades ago to protect workers from bullying.

The Globe article also perpetuates the common misconception that all workplace bullies are sadistic bosses and mean-spirited co-workers. In fact, much of the problem can be attributed to unscrupulous employers that use bullying tactics strategically to expel older workers and workers who  demand  better working conditions or a legal right (i.e., overtime pay). The absence of anti-bullying laws and regulations in the United States leave these bottom-of-the-barrel employers free to cut corners and evade their legal responsibilities. Taxpayers are left to pick up the tab in the form of higher social welfare costs.

The Globe article, like so many others, fails to note that there are many possible approaches to the problem of workplace bullying in addition to the HWB. Continue reading “Solutions Exist to End Workplace Bullying; What is Lacking is the Will to Act”

Workplace bullying is a hot commodity but still no solution

So Gary Namie, a co-founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute, has announced the WBI will offer a three-day “Workplace Bullying University” in October  that will cost upwards of $2,000 to attend.

The faculty are Namie, who calls himself “North America’s foremost authority on workplace bullying,”  and Ruth Namie, his wife, a clinical psychologist and former workplace bullying target who says she is “the definitive expert on the devastating effects of bullying on targeted workers.”

Meanwhile, the WBI web site advertises sundry programs for employers, personal “low cost” consultations for targets of bullying, books, DVDs, etc. Alas, the Institute has announced it is no longer giving free advice to telephone callers.

The Bellingham, Wash.-based WBI is a veritable hive of capitalism. all revolving around workplace bullying, a serious problem affecting one in every three or four workers in the United States that has eluded a solution for decades.

Could one impediment to progress be the WBI?

Since 2001,  the WBI has championed a plodding state-by-state solution to the problem of workplace bullying, rather than a targeted national approach. The WBI recently claimed that Rhode Island will be the 30th state to consider the WBI’s seriously flawed  proposed anti-bullying legislation, The Healthy Workplace Bill. If by some miracle, a state does finally pass the WBI’s proposed bill, it is anyone’s guess how long it will take for the second state to do so. It is almost inconceivable that so-called business friendly states ever will adopt such a bill. Continue reading “Workplace bullying is a hot commodity but still no solution”

Still Far From a National Workplace Bullying Solution

It is an interesting phenomenon that workplace bullying advocates seem to have a hard time working together.

In fact, they don’t, which is one reason why after so many years there is no national solution on the horizon to the problem of workplace bullying.

The Workplace Bullying Institute, chaired by Gary Namie, has been touting a law written by Suffolk University Professor David Yamada since 2002. The so-called Healthy Workplace Bill  (HWB) has been considered by more than 20 states but it has only been passed, in small part, by Tennessee. Unfortunately, Tennessee’s version of the HWB was so unfortunate  that it was promptly disowned by Namie.

Even if the HWB was passed by some states in an unaltered form, it is almost inconceivable that it would be adopted by competitive, pro-business states where workers are the most vulnerable to abuse. And some say it is fortunate that the HWB has fared so poorly, because it offers scant real protection to targets of workplace bullying, especially when compared to anti-workplace bullying laws and legislation passed in other countries.

Nevertheless, the Workplace Bullying Institute has succeeded in bringing attention to the problem of workplace bullying through its state-by-state campaign.

I was part of the formation of the National Workplace Bullying Coalition (NWBC) a couple of years ago.  Some of the group’s members had been put off by Namie, a seemingly gruff and territorial man who has been called a bully himself by a competitor.  Despite this, the NWBC reached out to Namie and Yamada with no success.

From my perspective, it is unfortunate that the NWBC finally settled on a vague mission statement to “work with legislatures at the local, state and federal levels to refine the definition of workplace bullying and implement laws to protect workers’ rights to dignity at work.”  That’s a type of frustrating all things to all people approach that reminds me of the “I’d like to buy the world a coke” commercial for world peace.

Yet, the NWBC has made progress by encouraging the EEOC to study the issue of general workplace harassment. One of the NWBC board members, Professor Jerry Carbo, is a member of an EEOC Select Task Force recently formed by EEOC Commissioner Jenny Yang. The group is expected to issue a report that sheds insight into and offers suggestions to address workplace bullying.  This is an important step.

My area of focus is and always was to achieve a national solution to the problem of workplace bullying.  I believe the answer lies in a combination of health and safety regulations enforced by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration and in a federal law that protects all workers from a hostile workplace environment. I advocated a national solution when I wrote my book, Surviving Bullies, Queen Bees & Psychopaths in the Workplace and I still believe it is the only realistic way to protect American workers.

For years, I have received emails every week from good, hard-working Americans who are being viciously bullied on the job and who are suffering severe mental and physical distress. Workplace bullying is a widely acknowledged form of workplace violence. Other industrialized countries took steps years ago – in some cases decades –  to address the problem of workplace bullying. And yet workers in the United States, who have lost so much in recent years, still have virtually no protection, especially if they are poor or middle class.

Maybe it is naive to think we could be more effective if we worked together to demand a national solution? But workers need a real solution and they need it today, not in the distant future.

Hollow Victory of Anti-Bully Law

The recent controversy over the passage of an anti-bully law in Tennessee provides more evidence that a national solution is the only viable way to combat the epidemic of workplace bullying in the United States.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported upon the lack of enthusiasm for a new law passed by Tennessee’s legislature last May to protect public sector employees from workplace abuse. The upshot of the story was that the law actually provides little or no protection to public sector workers who are targets of bullying and workplace abuse.

Tennessee’s  “Healthy Workplace Act” calls for an advisory commission to create a model anti-bully policy for public sector workers by March 1, 2015.  The law states that if a public sector employer adopts the model policy or an equivalent anti-bully policy  “then the employer shall be immune from suit for any employee’s abusive conduct that results in negligent or intentional infliction of mental anguish.” Thus, if administrators  simply adopt a policy –  even if it is never enforced –  they will receive legal immunity from potential lawsuits.

Not only does the Tennessee law do little to protect workers, it potentially could make things worse by preventing targets of workplace abuse from seeking damages for emotional distress while removing what many consider to be the only real  incentive for employers to maintain a healthy workplace – the threat of a lawsuit.

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