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Mean bosses annoy workers

Oakland Tribune, Mar 22, 2007 by Tim Simmers

That grade school bully you remember as a kid may have grown up to be your boss, judging from a survey released Wednesday that says workplaces are rife with abuse.

Nearly 45 percent of American workers say they have experienced workplace abuse, according to the nationwide poll by the Employment Law Alliance, a network of lawyers who help companies create workplace policy.

The biggest complaints from workers are of bosses taunting their job performance in front of co-workers, yelling at them, rudely interrupting them or embarrassing them with psychologically demeaning remarks.

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"There's a growing recognition that abusive bosses are more than just an annoyance, but a very real problem," said Stephen J. Hirschfeld, chief executive officer of the law alliance and an attorney at Curiale Dellaverson Hirschfeld & Kraemer in San Francisco. "Employees will increasingly demand protection, if not from employers, then from the courts."

Indeed, the survey found that 64 percent of workers polled said there should be specific legal recourse for the victims.

"A lot of it is just rude and inappropriate behavior," Hirschfeld said. "It's conduct not protected under law."

The survey did not focus on abusive behavior serious enough to warrant the legal protection afforded to racial, religious or gender discrimination, or sexual harassment.

Still, Hirschfeld said employers ought to implement "no tolerance" policies for abusive behavior and should implement management training to combat it.

Nearly a dozen states are considering legislation to prohibit bullying in the workplace, including Connecticut, Oregon, New York, Oklahoma and Washington, Hirschfeld said. California has considered similar legislation, but it did not pass.

Hirschfeld said business leaders are concerned legislation could "open the floodgates" to frivolous litigation, or would prompt managers to be lessfrom Business 1

firm when holding employees accountable for performance.

The law alliance survey comes on the heels of the recent release of the bestseller, "The No A------ Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn't," by Stanford University professor Robert Sutton.

Workplace abuse is even worse than the survey indicates, said Sutton, a professor of management and science. "But the show of high levels of abuse is on target," he said.

Some of the other abuses highlighted in the survey include a boss giving you or a co-worker a dirty look, ignoring you, spreading rumors, inappropriately sharing confidential information or making inappropriate physical contact.

White-collar workers experience more harassment than blue-collar workers, according to the survey. That's probably because white- collar workers are more sensitive and blue-collar workers don't expect as much from the workplace, Hirschfeld said.

"(Workplace abuse) is definitely on the increase," said Gary Namie, director of theWorkplace Bullying Institute in Bellingham, Wash., and a consultant for companies.

Namie calls the bullying "systemic," often brought on by pressure from the private sector to show quick profits.

"It gives a blank check to abusive people to deliver results and squeeze and harass other people to do it," Namie said.

More than 1,000 people were polled in the past two weeks in the survey, with 534 workers responding.

Contact Tim Simmers at tsimmers@angnewspapers.com or (650) 348- 4361.

Mean bosses annoy workers

Oakland Tribune, Mar 22, 2007 by Tim Simmers

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