phenomenon of "workplace bullying" and the need for status-blind hostile work environment protection, The

B. THE MODERN AMERICAN WORKPLACE: PRIMED FOR BULLYING

There is a strong sense among Americans that civility has been last in the modern workplace. In a major public opinion survey conducted by The New York limes in 1995, respondents by a fifty-three to eight percent margin felt that the workplace is "more angry" than "compared to the way things used to be."53 The study concluded that "(p)all respondents see the bonds of loyalty between employees and companies and the spirit of friendly cooperation among employees being eroded by anxiety and pressure to work harder for less."54

An analysis of economic and social conditions supports The New York Times survey data and buttresses the assertion that the modern workplace is primed for abusive behavior toward workers. Five often-interrelated economic and social trends-the growth of the service-sector economy, the global profit squeeze, the decline of unionization, the diversification of the workforce, and increased reliance can contingent workers-are combining to create more "bully-friendly" working conditions and point strongly toward a continuation of, if not a likely increase in, bullying behavior. In order to understand how these economic and social conditions are creating a climate favorable toward bullying, each trend is individually considered below.

1. Growth of the Service Sector Economy

The growth of jobs in the service sector and the characteristics of these jobs have led to an increase in workplace bullying. Service sector work can be defined as work "in which face-to-face or voice-to-voice interaction is a fundamental element" of a job.55 Labor market statistics demonstrate that service work has constituted a steadily increasing share of the U.S. labor market. In 1850, service sector work represented under twenty percent of total employment.56 By 1950, the number of service sector jobs rose to roughly fifty percent.57 In 1990, service work provided over seventy percent of U.S. jobs.58

By contrast, the manufacturing sector reached its high point in terms of employment around 1950; when it constituted just under thirty-five percent of the workforce.59 The number of jobs in the manufacturing sector dropped to about twenty-five percent by 1990.60 The agricultural sector has continually and sharply declined since 1850, when it represented just under sixty-five percent of the workforce; by 1990 it represented only three percent of the labor market.61

Professors Cameron Lynne MacDonald and Carmen Sirianni observe that "(b)ecause personal interaction is a primary component of all service occupations, managers continually strive to find ways to oversee and control those interactions . . . . "62 In contrast to goods-producing work, service-sector labor "no longer entails the assembly of a product but the creation and maintenance of a relationship."63 Because service sector work is so dependent on personal interaction, it becomes a form of "emotional labor" in which the psychological consequences of work, both positive and negative, are easily exacerbated, especially in comparison to the more mundane yet steady working conditions of a manufacturing plant.64