HELP, MY BOSS IS A BULLY!

I once received a phone call from an acquaintance who was very upset with conditions at her workplace. She said her boss, the CEO, made impossible demands and is never happy with her performance.  He expected her to be available 24 hours a day. If she didn’t answer her work phone, he would immediately call her personal phone. Half the time she said she had no idea what he expected of her. If she asked for clarification, he often got angry and short-tempered with her.

She had gone to the vice president of Human Resources to discuss her work situation, which she described as a form of bullying. That colleague proposed an informal mediation to discuss her workplace issues. Her call to me was for more information about what to expect during the mediation.

Her call to me was to ask if I thought mediation would help. I suggested we first talk about bullying. To be considered workplace bullying there must be repeated actions intended to cause the victim physical or psychological distress, as well as an imbalance of power.

The effects of workplace bullying include damage to self-esteem, physical health, cognitive functioning and emotional well-being. I asked if these applied to her. She said she was decidedly unhappy. Her health was suffering, her relationships with family and friends were suffering and yet she felt she had no where to go for help. When she confided with friends in the workplace, they listened, but could offer her no support.

We discussed the implications of the power imbalance. Did she feel comfortable that the HR vice president would be able to guarantee her safety from any retribution? She felt that he could do that.

A week later I heard from her. The HR vice president convened the meeting and immediately focused the discussion on her and what she had been doing wrong. In my opinion, the so-called “mediation” was just a continuation of the bullying. The VP failed to provide a safe “level playing field” for discussion of legitimate concerns.

Within a few months she was able to find another job where she flourished. The organization she left replaced her. That person lasted less than two years as the situation repeated.

The critical factor is the extreme power imbalance. Like many other mediators I do not support mediation of workplace bullying when the situation has advanced to the degree described in this example.

The Workplace Bullying Institute reports that in 2014, a Tennessee law took effect that addresses abusive conduct, which is defined as something that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive and unrelated to an employer’s legitimate business interests, including repeated infliction of verbal abuse, undermining of a person’s work performance and verbal or physical conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening or humiliating. This law appears to be the first step toward protecting workers against bullying in the workplace. Similar laws have followed in other states.