Ayinde O. Chase All Headline News March 21, 2007 9:40 a.m. EST
San Francisco, CA (AHN) - A new poll says the bully that used to torment you in grade school may have grown up to become the oppressor at your office.
According to a nationwide poll by the Employment Law Alliance released on Wednesday, researchers found that nearly 45 percent of American workers say they have experienced workplace abuse.
Workplace bullying, is very similar to child bullying in that individuals or groups to use aggressive or unreasonable behavior to achieve their ends. Unlike the more physical form of schoolyard bullying, workplace bullies are able to hide within the established rules and policies of their organization and their society while maintaining control over their subordinates livelihood.
Stephen J. Hirschfeld, ELA'S CEO who also serves as an employment lawyer, said the poll results reflect a growing recognition that abusive bosses are more than just an annoyance, but a very real problem. The numbers also show that employees are beginning to increasingly ask for the court's protection from abusive bosses.
Hirschfield said 64 percent of respondents said there should be specific legal recourse for victims.
He also went on to say that the survey comes at a time when almost a dozen states are considering laws protecting against workplace bullying.
In a book titled "Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work" industrial psychologist Paul Babiak, Ph.D. and psychopathy expert Dr Robert D. Hare write, "Bullies react aggressively in response to provocation or perceived insults or slights. It is unclear whether their acts of bullying give them pleasure or are just the most effective way they have learned to get what they want from others. Similar to manipulators, however, psychopathic bullies do not feel remorse, guilt or empathy. They lack insight into their own behaviour, and seem unwilling or unable to moderate it, even when it is to their own advantage. Not being able to understand the harm they do to themselves (let alone their victims), psychopathic bullies are particularly dangerous."
Commenting on the poll results, Dr. Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering, and Co-Founder of the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization said, "This national survey adds to the growing mountain of evidence showing that abuse of power is a rampant problem in the American workplace. It is time for senior management to realize that this conduct damages their people and is costing them a fortune. Demeaned workers respond with a reduced commitment and loss of productivity, and they run for the exits to find more humane bosses. And these costs will keep escalating as more victims realize that they can fight back in court."
Hirschfield, believes that an aware employer is a prepared employer when it comes to focusing on preventing incidents and avoiding costly litigation.
"Only an employer in a state of denial would ignore the poll results and not re-examine their personnel policies, supervisor-employee relations and management training", he said.
Hirschfield continues, "One of our Canadian members, Montreal-based lawyer, Manon Savard from Ogilvy Renault, reports a recent case, still under review, where an employer was ordered to pay $5,000 as moral damages for inflicting psychological abuse under Quebec's anti-psychological harassment law. That law provides a right to recover damages for "any vexatious behavior" that affects an employee's dignity or psychological or physical integrity."
Some of the highlights of the poll that may have employers rethinking office place behavior include:
44 percent of respondents admit they worked for a supervisor or employer who they consider abusive.
More than half of all Americans have been the victim of, or heard about supervisors/employers behaving abusively by engaging in sarcastic joking, teasing, rudely interrupting, publicly criticizing, giving dirty looks to, yelling at subordinates, or treating them as if they are invisible.
64 percent of respondents said an abused worker should be able to sue for damages.
The survey also found that there may be some truth to southern hospitality since 34 percent of Southerners are less likely to experience an abusive boss than their Northeastern and Midwestern counterparts, at 56 percent and 48 percent respectively.
In the book "Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work" Babiak and Hare continue by saying,
"Of course, not all bullies are psychopathic, though this may be of little concern to their victims. Bullies come in many psychological and physical sizes and shapes. In many cases, "garden variety" bullies have deep seated psychological problems, including feelings of inferiority or inadequacy and difficulty in relating to others. Some may simply have learned at an early stage that their size, strength, or verbal talent was the only effective tool they had for social behaviour. Some of these individuals may be context-specific bullies, behaving badly at work but more or less normally in other contexts. But the psychopathic bully is what he is: a callous, vindictive, controlling individual with little or no empathy or concern for the rights and feelings of the victim, no matter what the context."
According to current laws in the U.S., court action based on workplace bullying is hard to prosecute. Namely, the plaintiff must prove that the bullying actually took place, that the bully's actions can be categorized, and that the plaintiff's subsequent problems stemmed from the bully's actions.
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