Bully Bosses are Like Cult Leaders

[sparkie]

Hello,

Brief of my situation:

I had a situation earlier this year that would fall under the title, Bully Boss. I was officially laid off but it was really a fire! I am in a union and my union hall has been pursuing this since the day it happened in early May 2005.

So far, the "E Board" & Arbitration Board has been able to take limited action. After having given the customary channels sufficient time to work, 6 mths, I now plan to research civil action against bully bosses & what is or is not illegal actions by a boss in the workplace.

Ironically, bully bosses falls along the lines of cult leaders, which I also had the misfortune to be near while doing volunteer work in the gulf coast for hurricanes Katrina & Rita.

Good....2 birds w/ one stone, as the expression goes. I don't think I made the common connection of both situations until today. Funny how life sometimes works!

I'm thinking: wrongful discharge, defamation of character, slander and libel

The cult leader I am referring to has packed up and gone home. I don't know how active he still is but I do know there still is a strong, blind support for him on the internet by some. These supportes do seem to be made up largely by people who never even met him or seen his operation. I guess they just believe whatever is typed.

You know, "Talk is cheap!"...well so is the typed word. How do you know I am 'typing' the truth...well, I guess you don't. I'll just site my sources when I can.

[sparkie]

Web Search-

I usually use Dogpile.com, a metasearch engine. Here is a link to my first search: http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/search/web/bully%252Bboss%252Battorney/1/-/1/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/417/top



First Source: A Hospice website, Link: http://www.hospicepatients.org/fightbullyboss.html

"WHY THIS WAS WRITTEN!

This article was inspired after reading still yet another thread on sci.med.nursing about the adverse effect Bully Bosses are having..... Everyone.....has a few stories to tell about Bully Bosses!

Almost every business in the USA is trying run ?mean & lean.? But this makes the facility very vulnerable to staff who stand up as there are no reserves built into the current ?just in time? method of conducting business. Staff can easily remove a bad manager and take down a facility. Companies...

You might be tempted to confront the Bully Boss directly in a calm and factual fashion. Be prepared by bringing a witness and selecting a private time and place. A real Bully Boss will most likely go off on you, blaming you for the problem, as blaming the victim is a common response. The Bully Boss might also promise to look into the matter or other nonsense type of responses. Don?t turn your back on the Bully Boss! That is why I always suggest a friendly witness or union representative.

But the boss really doesn?t hold all the power. Bosses today are fearful, using intimidation techniques to hold employees in check. Managers are paid to get work done through other people; employees and staff. It costs the company money when that work doesn?t get done! Managers are afraid of employees waking up to the fact that the working man and woman really can stop a lot of abusive practices by using intelligence, assertiveness and sticking together. Knowledge is power, and business managers fear this kind of power."

[sparkie]

"Beware the bully boss!

Study says this kind of employer can actually shorten your life

A bully of a boss can shorten your life, a new study says.
George Steinbrenner, Donald Trump are you listening? How about you, J.C. Dithers?

...study of 6,400 male British civil servants found that workers who felt they were being treated fairly by their bosses had a 30% lower incidence of coronary heart disease than those who felt abused at work.

Rania Victor Sedhom, a labor and employment attorney with the firm of Meyer Suozzi English & Klein, believes the results would be worse in the U.S.

For one thing, Americans work longer hours, she said.

For another, Americans are "ultracompetitive" and there is a definite "lack of communication" between management and workers. "Annual reviews are very short," she explained. "And what is discussed? Money!"

Another survey released yesterday found that 37% of American workers surveyed said they had an unreasonable boss.

But Sedhom cautions there is a difference between a boss "who expects perfection and greatness and one that is a bully. A bully never gives you a feedback."





Link: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/359742p-306450c.html

[sparkie]

"Workplace bullying is an experience that one out of five employees -

23 million people - will deal with at some point during their careers, according to a Wayne State University study. It doesn't just make for a hard day at the office. Being the victim of a brutal boss leads to clinical depression in 41 percent of victims, according to a survey by Bullybusters.org, an online nonprofit in Benicia, Calif., that advises victims of workplace abuse. ...also causes sleep disorders, ulcers, high blood pressure and even post-traumatic stress disorder. It eats away at self-confidence and leaves victims feeling inadequate and isolated.

Bullying is also bad for business. Studies show that overly aggressive bosses cause high turnover rates, reduced productivity and increased employee absences. But separating the bullies from the tough operators is a difficult and unpopular task, especially in high-tech and Internet industries where stress is considered a motivator and demanding higher-ups are the norm. And the victims are often hesitant to come forward, fearing that others will see them as weak or incompetent.

"It's a silent epidemic in U.S. business," claims Gary Namie, head of Bullybusters."

Link: http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=420&article_id=5082362&listelement=1&cat_id=1223

BullyBusters.com: http://www.bullybusters.org/index.html

[sparkie]

The Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute

"You Know You Are Bullied At Work When ...

[experiences outside work]


-you feel like throwing up the night before the start of your work week

-your frustrated family demands that you to stop obsessing about work at home

-your doctor asks what could be causing your skyrocketing blood pressure and recent health problems, and tells you to change jobs

-you feel too ashamed of being controlled by another person at work to tell your spouse or partner

-all your paid time off is used for "mental health breaks" from the misery

-days off are spent exhausted and lifeless, your desire to do anything is gone

-your favorite activities and fun with family are no longer appealing

-you begin to believe that you provoked the workplace cruelty
[experiences at work]

-you attempt the obviously impossible task of doing a new job without training or time to learn new skills but that work is never good enough for the boss

-surprise meetings are called by your boss with no results other than further humiliation

-everything your tormenter does to you is arbitrary and capricious, working a personal agenda that undermines the employer's legitimate business interests

-others at work have been told to stop working, talking or socializing with you

-you constantly feel agitated and anxious, experiencing a sense of doom, waiting for bad things to happen

-no matter what you do, you are never left alone to do your job without interference

-people feel justified screaming or yelling at you in front of others, but you are punished if you scream back

-HR tells you that your harassment isn't illegal, that you have to "work it out between yourselves"

-you finally, firmly confront your tormentor to stop the abusive conduct, you are accused of harassment

-you are shocked when accused of incompetence despite a history of objective excellence, typically by someone who cannot do your job

-everyone -- co-workers, senior bosses, HR -- agrees (in person and orally) that your tormentor is a jerk, but there is nothing they will do about it (and deny saying what they said later when asked to support you)

-your request to transfer to an open position under another boss is mysteriously denied"

Gary Namie, Ph.D.

Link: http://www.bullyinginstitute.org/home/youknowwhen.html

[sparkie]

An active Message Board on Monster.com about Bully Bosses


http://community.monster.com/Forums/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=95

[sparkie]

No, I am trying to locate a good employment lawyer. Got any ideas? I have no lawyering experience.

[Franklin]

Hi Sparkie,

Interesting topic. Fortunately, I haven't had to deal with a Bully Boss for a long time. Last time I did, I quit my job and went into contracting. I figured that a consultant/client relationship is more equitable than a boss/underling relationship.

I don't think the relationship has to be officially consultant/client for it to work. the same type of relationship should be at play between employers and employees or managers and laborers - laborers in this sense includes white-coller. I hesitate to use the word "subordinate" as it suggests a hierarchical relationship. Which is why I have stopped using the word "boss". As I see it, the only people who have bosses are mafiosos. If you can be whacked for insubordination, then you are working for a "boss".

I can have a client, a manager, an employer - but as a free American citizen, I am not subject to the whims of a "boss". Ideally, the employer pays the employee to perform a task which is worth what the emplyer pays - i.e. it's an equal exchange. If it's not equal, the pay should be adjusted, the employee shoud quit or the employer should sever the relationship. Money does not entitle anyone to treat another with contempt. Same idea holds with a customer in a store - the fact that the customer is paying the proprietor does not give the customer license to abuse the proprietor. the customer is not always right and neither is the employer.

The reason employers feel they can get away with it is because, generally, they do have the upper hand as there are more workers than there are jobs. Although the employers do sometimes get a reality check after they brow beat a good employee into quiting, then spend money to advertize for a replacement, pay the new employee while she is learning the job, then finding out the former employee did a better job. So, as the article you quoted said, it does cost the company.

So unions were formed to address the inequity, to prevent employers from abusing their employees from a place of having the upper hand. Unfortunately in many cases, the Union tries to out-bully the management bullies, instead of demanding that their members be treated with dignity. So we have a situation where neither side respects the positions of the other side. I've heard - but don't know if it's true - that unions in Europe tend to get union representatives on the board of directors. Sounds like a good idea to me. This way they know whether management is lying when they say they cannot afford a raise or that they must lay people off. And it would behoove the unions to allow management to fire the dead weight. Union membership should not be license to slack off. With the dead weight gone, there is more money to pay the productive workers.

I worked on a contract for a government agency once. I don't know if it's true across the board, but in this situation there were about 25 employees working on the project. Three of them were contientious. The rest were skating, knowing that it would be nigh on impossible to be fired. And why bother working harder, since the pay raises were based on longevity rather than performance? If you needed to get a job done, you went to one of the three contientious people. Feeling overburdoned, with no chance of a reward for performance, two of the three left. Since then the third probably has left as well. But the slackers needn't worry about the company going out of business due to their lack of performance - they have an endless supply of tax dollars.

Sorry for being so long-winded :) In summary, things would work a lot better with mutual respect. Bullying or giving someone the power to bully by calling the "boss" doesn't work.

Cheers, Franklin

[Arthur]

Exactly Franklin....Well said.

[Arthur]

Unions can be a great thing. That is what helped build our country. Deadwood union members or other employees should be cut out. There are ways to deal w/ this issue in unions. The member could be laid off and not rehired in the future. Gov't is harder to correct.

I despise laziness!

[NicoMoon]

It's a funny thing about unions. I like the idea in theory, and it's been known to be a good thing in practice, but all the unions I've belonged to have been bigger bullies than the employers.


It's like everything, I guess, including democracy. If the members participate responsibly the possibility of corruption is far less than if they don't.

Fundamentally, I guess I'm more of a rugged individualist than I am a supporter of big organizations.