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Bullying bosses a fact of life for many

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Mar 30, 2007 by Marie Price

Some 44 percent of American workers say they have encountered abuse from a supervisor or boss, according to a survey by the Employment Law Alliance.

About 64 percent believe that abused workers should have the right to sue for damages.

What an employee can do in these situations depends largely on the type of conduct and the company's own policies for addressing such behavior.

"When an employee has a supervisor or boss that they think is being abusive because of a protected category, like race or age, most companies have an internal complaint procedure that allows the employee go to human resources and make a complaint, so the matter can be investigated, and if credence is found with the complaint, correct it within the company," said employment attorney Leonard Court, with Crowe and Dunlevy.

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The Oklahoma City firm is the alliance's representative firm within the state. Court is Crowe and Dunlevy's contact for the Employment Alliance.

If internal complaining does not work, Court said, an employee has the option of going to the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to pursue claims of discrimination fostered by such harassment.

"But there is a whole series of conduct that would have nothing to do with protected categories, that would just be the abusive boss," he said.

In that situation, Court said, an employee should either go to the boss's supervisor or to the company's human resources department and file a grievance or complaint "to put the company on notice or alert as to what the conduct is."

However, Court said that to a degree bullying is in the eye of the beholder.

For example, he pointed out that 56 percent of the surveyed workers reported a supervisor or employer giving them or a co- worker a "dirty look."

"That's just something that you can't stop in a workplace," Court said.

But he doesn't think companies want supervisors who engage in demeaning or embarrassing behavior, "because, if for no other reason, that's exactly the kind of thing that causes employees to go to a labor union."

When it comes to harassment or bullying by a fellow worker, Court said, this should be reported to the co-worker's supervisor for discipline within the company, which should put a stop to it.

Things get stickier when the bully actually is the employer, or the president of a larger company.

"In that situation, I'm not sure that there really is anything that the employee can do short of looking for another job, if they find the work environment to be so abusive that they simply can't tolerate it," Court said. "At this stage, the law does not provide any kind of judicial remedy for just having a boss who is a jerk."

This may be especially true in a state like Oklahoma.

Oklahoma is an employment-at-will state, where employees may be terminated for no reason.

However, those reasons cannot trample workers' rights in constitutionally protected categories, such as race, age and the like, Court said.

As he pointed out, legislation has been filed in recent years in several states, including Oklahoma, to prohibit bullying in the workplace. However, the latest version of that measure, filed just this year, stalled in committee.

"The practical problem is trying to define what kind of conduct is sufficiently severe that it should lead to some kind of judicial remedy," he said.

To Court's way of thinking, that should not include the occasional dirty look shot a worker's way.

The poll generally looked at behavior not usually regarded as serious enough to merit the legal protections that cover racial, religious or gender discrimination.

Between 50 percent and 60 percent of workers say they have seen or heard about a supervisor or employer sarcastically joking about or teasing a worker, criticizing a worker's performance in front of others, interrupting an employer rudely, or yelling at or insulting a worker, among other situations.

About 45 percent reported a boss or supervisor demeaning or embarrassing them or a co-worker, either in person or by e-mail.

Forty percent said a boss has spread rumors or inappropriately shared confidential information about them.

About 17 percent reported an employer or supervisor making inappropriate physical contact with a worker, with 11 percent reporting that a boss had physically threatened them.

Alliance CEO Stephen Hirschfeld, a California employment attorney, said that with almost half of the surveyed workers saying they have been the victim of or observed such abuse, it's not surprising that close to two-thirds think victims should have some legal recourse.

"Only an employer in a state of denial would ignore the poll results and not re-examine their personnel policies, supervisor- employee relations and management training," said Hirschfeld.

The poll, conducted by the Reed Group of Philadelphia, was based on a sample of 1,000 adults earlier this month.

Interviews were conducted with 534 workers in all. The confidence interval for this sample size is plus or minus 4.24 percent.

Business Services Industry

Bullying bosses a fact of life for many

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Mar 30, 2007 by Marie Price

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