When Your Boss is the Abuser
Workplace Violence and Bullying Ruins Careers, Companies
The scenario is not unlike domestic abuse, except it is happening in the workplace. The nitpicking, being singled out and placed under a microscope and bosses using any reason, any infraction on which to base a firing is wrong.. but what to do? How does the worker convey the idea he or she is being abused at work and not appear to be a random complainer at human resources, the court system or police?
Unfortunately, it is a tenuous path paved with a blame-the-victim mentality that often ends in unnecessary job loss.
Who is Abused
According to Sally L. Ford, President and CEO of Ford Consulting Group, an outsource for human resources management, management training and human resource administration services, workplace violence is the number one cause of death for women at work. Almost 20 percent of the reported acts of workplace violence occur in the Midwest and the most common targets are women, and employees over 60.
Work trauma is defined as how an employee's physical and emotional wellness, health and safety is impacted as a result of physical and emotional violence experienced in the workplace. It is devastating not just to the employee and to the employee's family, but also the company.
Symptoms typically include, but are not limited to, external wounds and injuries and symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, excessive stress and stress-related illnesses, according to a worktrauma.org fact sheet.
How it Happens
Managers who take their entanglements to work may abuse their staff, according to information from systemicoaching.com. If managers see their employees as sub-human - or as substitutes for parents, partners or children, (termed transference in the mental health community) the managers may abuse their workers and later refer to their employee abuse as effective management, while the worker who wants to keep his or her job, suffers quite frequently in silence.
Abused employees rarely understand office politics or systemic power and control issues. Abusive managers are often incompetent, yet want status, recognition and power. Similar to relationship abuse, which is about dominance and control with emotional displays, threats, lies, broken promises and humiliation, many abusers are emotionally immature. Abusers hurt millions of people, but few incidents are reported due to no community support or lack of legal knowledge, the Web site continued.
Cathy Hartt, RN, CNM, Editor of VH Publishing's woman2woman and author of the article "Sticks, Stones and Broken Careers: Verbal Abuse in the Workplace," writes of a tale of horror where a male boss is heaping undue harsh criticism upon a female subordinate. Hartt describes the boss' posture of superiority and condescending speech and how it apparently unnerved the female employee as he told her casually that the newsletter she produced as a part of her job, meant nothing to him or the other employees.
He told her that the newsletter mostly ends up in the trash. Unknowingly or not, what the boss said was abusive and his company can be sued if a pattern of abuse is proven.
Bullying, not just for the school yard, causes emotional scars. In tort law that scar can be translated into monetary damages.
Frequency of Workplace Abuse and Violence
A Society for Human Resource Management study, "Verbal Threats and Most Common Violent Acts" shows that more than half the companies in the United States have experienced some sort of workplace violence with verbal threats being cited by 41% of respondents as the most common form. The study also indicated that about 68% of respondents said they have a formal workplace violence policy.
In 1994, 1,070 murders occurred nationally on the job and the size of a company has little to do with acts of workplace violence - small businesses are just as likely to experience violence as large organizations although rules of conduct are thought to be suspended due to size.
In Indiana specifically, companies that can prove they have fewer than 15 employees are exempt from legal ramifications, according to a lawyer within the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Even OSHA has a freestanding office located in Indiana that is not connected with the other Occupational Safety & Health Administration federal offices in the country, according to an employee there.
Workplaceviolence911.com writes that the most violence is perpetrated by males ages 30 to 40 and more than 70% of perpetrators use guns. Violence occurs most frequently within public, delivery and retail industries. Employers that lack feedback systems and counseling and that are generally non- nurturing to their employees suffer more workplace violence than concerned employers. Domestic violence often accompanies or precedes workplace violence. Some sexual and romantic relationships are initiated at work.
What Can Be Done
According to the Faragher v. City of Boca Raton decision in 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that companies must prevent - not simply react to - a hostile workplace. However, lack of money may prevent some victims from pursuing the matter all together. Changing local rules in federal court procedure can also hinder the Pro Se litigant from standing up for his or her rights effectively.
Most executives are reluctant to admit that workplace abuse occurs within their organization.
Affected employees who try to implement change risk termination due to employment-at-will laws. New laws are necessary for companies to enforce significant policies to prevent and stop employee abuse and bullying.
These laws could provide for strict consequences against companies that allow abuse as well as provide employees with more immunity, rights, and recourse.The implementation of new laws and company policies requires individuals and groups to accept responsibility for helping to implement them, according to to a fact sheet found on counselingoutfitters.com, a site aimed at stopping workplace violence.
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