Bullying by work colleagues - understanding the effects and your postion!

Most experts agree that bullying by work colleagues usually follows a two-phase procedure.  

Phase one is control which is exercised through constant trivial daily nit-picking, criticism and the like. Eventually there's a defining moment when the target realises that the criticisms have no validity and that they constitute bullying; the target asserts their right not to be bullied, perhaps by initiating a grievance, and the bullying moves into phase two. 

 

Phase 2 involves elimination of the target, which is achieved by dismissal on false charges, ill-health retirement, forced resignation, redundancy, or death from suicide or heart attack due to prolonged negative stress.

The reasons why the target of bullying (note the deliberate omission of the word victim) might fail to assert their right not to be bullied are the result of highly complex and justifiable fears - details of these can be found on Tim Field's website Bullying On-line.  

The response that targets are usually encouraged to take is to initiate a grievance.  However, there are a variety of significant reasons why grievance procedures are inappropriate and ineffective in dealing with workplace bullying:

• bullying is equivalent to rape (it is psychological and emotional rape because of its intrusive and violational nature) and grievance procedures force the target of this rape to have to relive the trauma repeatedly - this could be a breach of Article 3 of the Human Rights Act: no one shall be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment
• the person who normally handles the grievance is usually the bully, or a friend of the bully
• if the bully is a co-worker, the manager who would handle the grievance has already failed as a manager for allowing the bullying to occur and for failing to deal with the bullying before it got to the grievance stage
• the bullying manager has lots of friends in Human Resources and management and will blacken the target's reputation before grievance procedures even begin or the results of any investigation have to be implemented
• most bullies will successfully lie, cheat and deceive their way through a grievance
• the bully will make sure the grievance lasts as long a possible, possibly a year or more
• the bully will deny the target access to records, sometimes even rifling the target's desk and stealing notes
• the bully will ban the target from having contact with fellow employees
• the bully will threaten fellow workers into withdrawing support for the target
• the bully and the employer will limit representation to a union representative (unfortunately, many representatives are untrained, unsupported, and some are part of the problem) or co-worker (all of whom may be too frightened to stand up for a fellow worker)
• plus, of course, all the reasons noted at Bullying On-line. 

Have you been bullied? Does this sound familiar?

I welcome any thoughts, ideas or comments you might have. 

*I am indebted to the work of the late Tim Field and the Tim Field Foundation for much of the content of this article.

Bullying of teachers

As I promised in a previous blog, I've been doing some research into this area and found lots of information.  Importantly, there is evidence to suggest that half the working population is/has been bullied in one way or another by a serial bully (see Bully Online) - and by that I mean bullied by colleagues, not by pupils.  Furthermore, most victims only realise that they are bullied when they read up about it.

As a result, I intend to investigate this area and publish some of my findings on this blog in an effort to help those who are unfortunate enough to suffer bullying behaviour from school colleagues. Why? Two reasons.  I would not want anyone to suffer the kind of experience described in a previous blog about the defeat of a good teacher brought about by the bullying behaviour of a colleague and ignoring of it by those in a position to do something about it.  Secondly, the evidence proves that bullying causes ill health and makes people ill with consequent negative effects on the learning of pupils and teachers in schools, something I am deeply committed to.  Please contact me or comment if you wish to add your thoughts to this blog!

There is far too much information about bullying in schools to present it in one blog so I intend to break it down into small, manageable chunks. I'll make a start with looking at some definitions of bullying!

Unite, the union, define it as "Persistent, offensive, abusive, intimidating or insulting behaviour, abuse of power or unfair penal sanctions which makes the recipient feel upset, threatened, humiliated or vulnerable, which undermines their self-confidence and which may cause them to suffer stress".

Tim Field, founder of Bully Online describes bullying as "... a compulsive need to displace aggression and is achieved by the expression of inadequacy (social, personal, interpersonal, behavioural, professional) by projection of that inadequacy onto others through control and subjugation (criticism, exclusion, isolation etc).  He uses a memorable phrase to summarise this view "Those who can, do, those who can't, bully."

So what  does bullying look like in practice.  It is persistent, unwelcome behaviour which can take the form of any one, or combination, of all of the following:

• constant nit-picking, fault-finding and criticism of a trivial nature - the triviality, regularity and frequency betray bullying; often there is a grain of truth (but only a grain) in the criticism to fool you into believing the criticism has validity, which it does not; often, the criticism is based on distortion, misrepresentation or fabrication
• simultaneous with the criticism, a constant refusal to acknowledge you and your contributions and achievements or to recognise your existence and value
• constant attempts to undermine you and your position, status, worth, value and potential
• where you are in a group (eg at work), being singled out and treated differently; for instance, everyone else can get away with murder but the moment you put a foot wrong - however trivial - action is taken against you
• being isolated and separated from colleagues, excluded from what's going on, marginalized, overruled, ignored, sidelined, frozen out, sent to Coventry
• being belittled, demeaned and patronised, especially in front of others
• being humiliated, shouted at and threatened, often in front of others
• being overloaded with work, or having all your work taken away and replaced with either menial tasks (filing, photocopying, minute taking) or with no work at all
• finding that your work - and the credit for it - is stolen and plagiarised
• having your responsibility increased but your authority taken away
• having annual leave, sickness leave, and - especially - compassionate leave refused
• being denied training necessary for you to fulfil your duties
• having unrealistic goals set, which change as you approach them
• having deadlines which are changed at short notice - or no notice - and without you being informed until it's too late
• finding that everything you say and do is twisted, distorted and misrepresented
• being subjected to disciplinary procedures with verbal or written warnings imposed for trivial or fabricated reasons and without proper investigation
• being coerced into leaving through no fault of your own, constructive dismissal, early or ill-health retirement, etc

Furthermore, and what is particularly worrying is that bullying is sustained by the abdication of responsibility by those in a position to do something about it and "... perpetuated by a climate of fear, ignorance, indifference, silence, denial, disbelief, deception, evasion of accountability, tolerance and reward (eg promotion) for the bully."  (Tim Field, 1999)

Does any of this sound familiar?  Let me know and keep an eye on the blog for the next instalment.

Bullying in the workplace

Lots of interesting stuff out there.  I'm busily wading through it and intend to present my findings here.  I wouldn't want anyone else to have to experience the treatment meted out to the senior teacher which I reported in my previous post - Harassment and Bullying: A Teacher's Story, October 2010. Keep checking back here for new posts on this subject.

Harassment and Bullying: A Teacher’s Story

This is a disturbing story of the defeat of a good and successful school teacher and senior manager. It began when a junior member of staff threatened the senior teacher with physical violence when he attempted to discuss with him, his treatment of another member of staff.  The incident was reported to the Headteacher but it was ignored and not dealt with by him. 

For the next 18 months the senior teacher was subjected to a series of harassing and bullying behaviours by his junior, each of which was reported to the Headteacher who took no action to put a stop to what was happening. One incident involved the ignoring of the teacher’s report, when the person who was bullying the teacher was observed by the teacher and a colleague bullying a pupil.  The teacher felt undermined.  His ability to do his job, his relationships with pupils and staff and the opportunities for accreditation he wished to provide for pupils were seriously damaged. 

After 9 months, he discussed what was happening with his union representative who advised him to go back to his Headteacher and request action to be taken.  He did so, but there was no change and further incidents occurred. 

The teacher began a grievance against the member of staff concerned, but suffered a nervous breakdown when the Headteacher’s response to his latest request for action accused the teacher of unfairly putting the Headteacher under pressure.  The teacher began a long term absence from work due to stress.  He began to take medication prescribed by his general practitioner.

During this time, the Headteacher continued to take no action.  In a meeting between the teacher and his Headteacher, the latter asked the teacher’s professional representative for advice for dealing with the bully while, at the same time, claiming that the difficulties experienced by the teacher were the result of a clash of personalities.  The Headteacher admitted that pupil examination chances could have been affected by the difficulties caused by the bully and claimed that he had taken action against the bully but refused to say what it was.

The teacher eventually took his case to the School Governing Body who apologized for the way he had been treated and the way his case had been managed.  They reassured him that such behaviour would not be tolerated in future and he returned to work. 

However, many of the recommendations of the Governing Body were not implemented or followed up and he experienced further unprofessional behaviour when he attempted to fulfill his responsibilities as a senior manager – an incident involving racist comments to a pupil was deliberately overlooked by the Headteacher and another member of staff.  

The teacher’s requests to seek a resolution under the procedures agreed with the Headteacher and the Governing Body were ignored and he suffered another breakdown.  He began a second period of absence during which time there was no attempt by his employers to contact him.  His attempts, and those by his professional association, to resolve the situation and establish contact were met with the removal of his only means of communicating with the school and keeping in touch with school developments. This was described as discriminatory action by his union.  He was then threatened with a disciplinary procedure based on spurious claims.  He was told that if he resigned the disciplinary action would not be followed up.  After all that he had gone through over three and a half years and the subsequent damage to his health he could not face once again having to fight injustice.  He felt completely beaten. 

In order to preserve what was left of his sanity and in the interests of the reputation of the school, he left the job he was good at, enjoyed doing and the children he cared deeply for.  His successful career was brought to a premature end. 

Furthermore, the secrecy surrounding his case and its eventual outcome has considerably shaken his faith in the education system to protect and support him and exacerbated the injustice that he was exposed to over a prolonged and painful period of time.  He is now trying to rebuild his professional life! 

How can such treatment be tolerated and apparently condoned by those in a position to do something about it?