Ban The Bully ! Or At Least Get Help!

This essay/blog is being written from the perspective of one who suffered through the bullying process and enjoyed (not quite the right word) losing one's source of employment through the actions of others. So in an effort to try to both understand and also come up with some type of solution I offer you the following thoughts. My position was within the ranks of a Public Service Department in Australia where a clearly defined moral and personal code is followed. This is code of conduct is legislated as "The Australian Public Service Code of Conduct". The code aims to fully protect and guide employees but unfortunately does not appear to fully protect against the bullying behaviours of others.

The Australian Public Service Code of Conduct is a well thought out living document, but if there are such obvious gaps that allows bullying or mobbing to occur with no redress to the mobber or bully, then maybe the related code/legislation needs to be re-processed/rethought from a different perspective.

My enforced early retirement from my place of employment gathered speed in the early 2000's when Raelene Dank arrived as the new branch head of my workplace. Life had previously been difficult as there was already a resident bully insitu, but as he was subordinate to me I was managing. Then the double whammy!

The then General Manager advised me that the newly appointed branch head was in fact Raelene. My reaction was one of dismay and I advised him that I had heard that she had quite a formidable reputation for causing grief and also that I was somewhat upset that she was coming to my area of work. I even said to him that I guessed my career was now over. To his commendation he sought me out the next day to say that there was nothing he could do about his choice, the wheels had turned and he hoped I was wrong -that it would work out all right. Well all I can say is it didn't for me - she won and I lost. She is in employment, and I am not. She is the smiling bully - one who by applying the Kiss Up: Kick Down system to the right people continues to sit in a tactical position of moral rectitude whilst as a hard working officer who worked diligently to achieve Australian Standards for the department, my reward was to be passed around like an unwanted sack of potatoes. These statements do not to take away from those who really tried to help me but such is the way of the public service once great wheel of bureaucratic righteousness starts to turn there is little anyone can do to stop the inexorable passage to the last station.

So after being forced to retire much earlier than I had planned,I write in an effort to finally shake off those feelings of ineptitude, sorrow, depression and loss of confidence, which came about as a result of my workplace mobbing. I am mostly in wonderment at the disappearance of the idea of a fair go for all. It used to be an essential part of the Australian persona - the fair go for all especially the under dog. From my perspective it seems to have been gradually eroded from all areas of our lives-from the plight of the unfortunate incarcerated refugees to the basic rights of the workers. The suggested changes to the current industrial legislation bodes no good for anyone. And it seems that everything always comes down to a) the eternal dollar, (the surplus to be used as a carrot stick at election time), the bottom line and user pays; plus b) the fear factor, which appears to be the current liberal governmental method employed for the purpose of winning elections.

It is a great name for such immoral behavior "mobbing" and although it has a somewhat uniquely Australian sheepish ring to it, the term actually originated in France and Scandinavia - an outcome to the workplace nightmare of victimization that occurs when according to the research carried out, a person doesn't quite fit the perceived mould of those who are employed in the same place of work.

This mobbing can come about for a number of reasons, the victim's background, ethnicity, religion, attitude to work, age, moral values, abilities and even if for example, there is someone already employed in the area who feels they have a better right or historical claim to the position the perceived interloper has won.

And it can be started by the smallest of issues - clothing, perfume, a spouse's employment, even smoking. There could even be a correlation here with the novel "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding, where the bullying attitudes of intellectually weaker, but stronger members of the group actually assume leadership over the intellectually superior, but less physical members to create moral and emotional havoc in their lives.

I can remember a case in an earlier place of employment where a chap sat and smoked his smelly old cigar at his desk, directly opposite a girl who was allergic to the smell of smoking in any form. She took her case to the highest person in the office to no avail. Desperate she took matters into her own hands and brought a large fan into work, which she positioned on her desk to face the smoker. When he smoked she turned on the fan and his offending smoke blew back onto him. Ultimately she was moved out of the office, across to a non air-conditioned building while he continued to fearlessly smoke his cigars until anti smoking legislation was introduced.

It would appear from what I have read and heard about there are many cases in the general arena where people have been mobbed out of their area of work, and in some really bad cases completely out of their place of employment. The victim is so demoralized that their feelings of worthlessness cause them to ignore any paths of possible redress so usually there is none, no comeback, no standing up for one's rights.

The mob or should I say the tribe, because that is how it appears to me with the social structure of the mob being somewhat tribal in its familial attitudes, then gets away with the dishing out inappropriate treatment - again and again.

Maybe from their point of view they think that what they are doing is correct - protecting the workplace from people they do not see as fitting their mould of operation. So it is that their perception of how work should be carried out in their little corner of the universe, their standards, and their ideal of what type of person should be employed in this particular place, becomes the office norm. This mobbing seems to cross all levels of employment. The employees to the boss, the new boss to the proven officer, the gang against a new person, and on it goes.

Really it is like being in the schoolyard again, but with your right to work and earn affected! What I would really like to know is how can this type of unequal and immoral behavior be stopped? What are the legal workforce bodies able to do to ensure the appropriate standard of mental and emotional safety for those they employ against the thugs (whom they also employ and for whom they are actually responsible) who operate within their own moral confines and enjoy what appears to be a comparative immunity?

This is quite apart from the age-old adage of "monkey see monkey do" where the messages, obvious and subliminal, are sent to others who are caught up in the events by being purely witnesses or accomplices to the unfolding events.

When did this type of behavior emerge or has it been there all the time in camouflage? Or is it that the normal bullying inherent in large organizations, has evolved into something of a different colour, flavour and nature?

From my own perspective I think that sometimes it is a power trip that has emerged when a somewhat emotionally fragile person (being the bully) has enjoyed all too briefly one moment in the sun, and who then wants a repeat experience of that fleeting importance of being.

Maybe the "mobber" or "bully" is a person who started out believing in the stringent truths of black and white with no allowances for the varying shades of grey and who as a result (or maybe just for argument's sake) becomes a "whistleblower". This person subsequently enjoys the judgmental comparisons between good and bad, the stealth of the investigation; the so-called admiration one receives for one's bravery in action, plus the hearty riposte exchanged between senior management and ambitious staffers. This event naturally concludes and the person involved feels for one reason or another diminished. And so through new life-changing measures the formerly fragile individual commences a life of conquests each time proving to themselves that yes they were right in their first assessment of that situation which occurred maybe ten/twenty years previously, and that they have every right to inflict further damage to unwary individuals who cross their paths. It is their subconscious feelings of superiority and worthiness that then over-reach everything to colour their perspective and judgment. A negatively biased behaviour manifests over the ensuing years - often to the detriment of others.

Obviously this not a crack at the integrity of all whistleblowers and, there are definite affirming places in society for people with their concerns for the correction of the societal ills that afflict people less equipped to deal with horrible outcomes like loss of employment, loss of rights, loss of emotional being and the additional fall out that can happen if they do not have adequate support in their hour of travail.

for my solution to this widespread problem please see next post... here's to us who have suffered there just may be redress if those who can help- do!

 

copyright: a.a.hardy 2007

 

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ps. Now to get to the next point if we can't get help at the very least we can get even - I have heard some incredible stories about this very subject! True or not it helps if one can see the possibilities of what can happen when role reversal occurs!

You do not even have to be an avenging angel but just reading about what others have done does give a laugh to those who have been there - although maybe not to those who have not - but as the old saying goes "you have to have been here!"

Maybe a hub/s on this subject will follow.