The exit interview many employers don’t (want to) hear

This blog post from a Canadian physician is a couple of years old, but it’s a good one about the exit interview many employers don’t hear, or at least don’t want to hear.  In “Why I left the Centre of Excellence,” the doctor explains why he left a large teaching hospital.  Here’s a snippet:

Lack of Respect
There are two types of respect.

The first type of respect is a type you have to earn. I know that I have to earn that respect and I don’t take that as a given.

The second type of respect is the basic respect that everybody is entitled to regardless of their station. I like to think I try to treat everybody with respect. Maybe I haven’t always done that but I always try now.

That second type of respect was totally lacking at the CofE. And for that matter forget about trying to earn the first type of respect.

It was only after working at other hospitals that I learned that I was actually an important member of the team whose input was important.

Of course, many employers don’t bother with exit interviews.  Even those that conduct them may not get truthful responses, especially if the workplace is a dysfunctional one and departing employees fear retaliation or don’t want to burn bridges.  In any event, wouldn’t it be great if organizations conducted exit interviews and actually took the feedback seriously and constructively?

Full post:  http://theblogofbleedingheart.blogspot.com/2007/03/why-i-left-centre-of-excellence.html

Shutting down a discussion

In a thought-provoking post, blogger Lynette Spicer writes about how one person can shut down a discussion:

I’ve had several instances in person and via email lately that I mentally thought….that was a discussion stopper. I wanted to explain how one person can do that–shut down a discussion that had it continued would have had some benefit to solve a problem or move a group on to accomplishments.

Spicer adds that being hypersensitive, argumentative, and/or judgmental are among the ways that one person can kill off a possibly useful exchange.

Having been on the giving and receiving end of such conversational ‘tude, I suggest that this can be a very tricky subject.  There are reasons why people can be difficult in discussions.  They may be grounded in a bad past experience, distrust towards other participants in the present conversation, an undesirable personality trait, or some combination of factors.  Such behaviors could be a form of bullying, or the result of having been bullied.

In short, to understand what’s going on, we need to look at all individuals who are part of the conversation and the surrounding organizational system and culture that form a backdrop for the exchange.

For Spicer’s full post from the Civility in the Workplace blog:  extension.iastate.edu/mt/civility/2009/06/how_does_one_person_shut_down.html

Too much about liability avoidance, not enough about prevention and well being

A terrific presentation at last week’s Congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health in New York served as a stark reminder that in the U.S., we often design “preventive” programs and procedures more to avoid liability than to nurture psychologically healthy organizations.

Nicky McWilliam, an Australian lawyer and doctoral student at the University of Technology at Sydney, presented her research on a school peer mediation program.  Here’s Nicky’s abstract of her presentation:

In the author’s doctoral study, it is proposed that Therapeutic Jurisprudence also underpins school peer mediation programs and the peer mediation process. This study into a school peer mediation program investigates how a school peer mediation program and peer mediation process can be seen to function as therapeutic agents which affect the wellbeing of all constituents in the school environment. The school environment can be seen as a microcosm of larger society and therefore a pure source to study. Insights from this study will have implications for processes within the legal system, in terms of both evaluation and development.

Nicky’s summary of her data along with short film clips of interviews with students and educators (including some remarkable comments from young students) demonstrated the positive effects of a peer mediation program in resolving conflicts, preventing conflicts, and educating students about how to address their differences without resorting to fights or formal procedures.

The comparison to the standard-brand way in which we often view conflict resolution in the U.S. could not have been more stark: In our country, the driving force behind organizational conflict resolution programs is avoidance of liability.  This means that policies, procedures, and educational initiatives are frequently immersed in considerations of the law, often to the neglect of the human side of the equation.  I’ve seen it with school bullying programs, and I’ve seen it with sexual harassment programs.

Indeed, as much as I believe that we need to enact protections against workplace bullying, I know that when this comes to pass, too many employers — taking advice from employment lawyers — will implement policies and programs designed to minimize liability risks rather than to create healthier work environments.

For my earlier post on this conference: http://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/towards-good-lawyers-and-good-law/

HR as Grim Reaper

Does the Grim Reaper pay a psychological toll for doing his job?  Jessica Marquez reports in Workforce Management that human resources executives who are charged with facilitating and implementing layoffs are experiencing stress and anxiety over their difficult responsibilities.  Some are responding in unhealthy ways:

The HR Anxiety Survey, conducted May 26-June 3, also elicited some disturbing responses from the 372 respondents: Some say they drink more alcohol or have taken up smoking cigarettes; a large number are considering a career change; still others complain that they are called the company’s “Grim Reaper” behind their backs. What’s worse, few who are feeling stress have followed their own advice to use company-sponsored assistance programs.

Oftentimes HR is merely the foot soldier for carrying out personnel decisions made by higher ups.  This is a stark example of that dynamic.

For Marquez’s full article: http://www.workforce.com/section/09/feature/26/50/85/.

Workplace bullies, jerks, and the recession: Wall Street Journal op-ed gets it wrong

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Joe Queenan, humorist and observer of American life, claims that the recession has freed us of workplace jerks because (1) “in times of high unemployment, most people don’t care if they work with jerks” and (2) “jerks are often the first people fired during recessions.”

Reading Queenan’s entire op-ed piece, it appears he cannot decide whether the jerk phenomenon is a real problem or the product of oversensitive employees who whine about disagreeable co-workers when times are good.

In any event, when it comes to workplace bullying — the repeated, targeted, malicious stuff that wreaks such havoc — he’s wrong to suggest that “jerks” suddenly disappear or magically become less destructive simply because people are stressed out about their job security.

Social psychologist Harvey Hornstein studied patterns and frequency of abusive supervision during the economic downturn of the 1990s and found that bullying activities intensify as times get tough.  The Workplace Bullying Institute’s analysis of survey data on the impact of the current recession indicates that bullying has been on the upswing since September 2008, when the financial meltdown went into overdrive (http://www.workplacebullying.org/2009/07/01/2009-a-survey/).

In addition, when bullying occurs during a recession, targets have fewer options for leaving and finding another job.  They may be less likely to complain about bullying because they fear unemployment, but this means they’re more likely to bottle up the impact of the abusive behavior as it continues to take its toll on their health. 

For Queenan’s “The Fall of the Workplace Jerk”: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124649379765483227.html

Towards Good Lawyers and Good Law: Notes from the Congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health

When I began studying and writing about workplace bullying in 1998, I did so through a mainly legal lens.  I saw the critical matters of stress, anxiety, and trauma as “supporting material” for my legal analysis and suggested legal prescriptions.  During the past 11 years, however, I have become deeply enmeshed in the fascinating, challenging, and often troubling aspects of psychology that surround workplace bullying.  I now understand that legal reform is only one modest component in crafting adequate responses to workplace bullying.

As noted in previous posts, I have cast my lot with the therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) movement (see below for link), which examines the therapeutic and anti-therapeutic qualities of our laws and legal systems.  This new and welcomed association has brought me to the biennial Congress of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health, held this year at New York University School of Law, my legal alma mater.  I presented a paper on Monday on injecting TJ into the law of the workplace, using workplace bullying as an example of why we need to do so.

Because I presented on the first day of this week-long conference, I’ve had the luxury of attending subsequent programs free of butterflies over my own talk.  There are well over a hundred panels at this conference, and 18 of them are devoted to various TJ topics.  I’ve stuck mainly to the TJ programs, and the experience has been like an intense, fascinating graduate and professional seminar.

But here’s a big concern:  At this conference, there are very few panels and presentations related to employment law.  Panels on mental health law, criminal law, and family law (among others) abound.  The law of the workplace, however, has little presence here.

This state of affairs is not the fault of conference organizers.  Rather, it’s a sign of how considerations of psychology and mental health are too disconnected from employment law and policy.  Instead, as I have written in a recent law article (see below for link), a “markets and management” framework has predominated, whereby unfettered markets and unchecked management power are considered to be the most desirable states.  Any incursions — such as protections against discrimination or bullying, or provision of a living wage — must be justified against those presumptions.  We need to change that framework to emphasize the dignity of workers, and TJ insights can help light the way.

That said, it is heartening to be part of a global (42 countries represented!) assemblage of lawyers, law professors, psychologists, mental health workers, and others who are committed to more psychologically healthy law and public policy.  There is a lot of exciting thinking and action going on here.

For the main Therapeutic Jurisprudence website: http://therapeuticjurisprudence.org

For a PDF of my article “Human Dignity and American Employment Law”: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1299176

How to create good jobs that enrich society: Hire artists

Finance writer Felix Salmon, writing in the July-August issue of The Atlantic, proposes that we create good jobs and reinvigorate the economy by beefing up funding for the arts.  It’ll put creative people to work, stimulate spending, and enhance our culture:

If the Obama administration is serious about stimulating the economy and creating as many new jobs as possible, one choice is clear: it should announce a massive increase in federal arts funding. Artists are among the very poorest citizens. When they get cash, they spend it both quickly and carefully. That’s not what most recipients of federal largesse do, but it happens to be exactly what economists look for in any stimulus package. Arts spending is fantastic at creating employment: for every $30,000 or so spent on the arts, one more person gets a job, compared with about $1 million if you’re building a road or hospital.

It’s a refreshing, enriching alternative to the bailout craze that has gripped us since September.

For Salmon’s short article, “Pay the Artists”: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/ideas-artists.  It’s part of a package of short features collectively titled “15 Ways to Fix the World,” well worth a look: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/ideas-index.

Tired Doctors = Patients at Risk

Here’s a less publicized concern in the quest for quality health care: Recently Liz Kowalczyk, a health reporter at the Boston Globe, wrote about surgical residents at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston (one of the nation’s leading hospitals) working too many hours, in violation of medical education accreditation standards:

Junior surgeons at Massachusetts General Hospital have been working too many hours, in violation of patient safety rules, according to a national accrediting organization that is threatening to put the hospital’s surgery training program on probation.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education cited the hospital because a significant number of its surgeons in training, known as residents, were exceeding hour limits and working seven days straight. The organization believes these workloads contribute to fatigue-related mistakes, and has given the hospital until Aug. 15 to fix the problem.

When I get a chance, I’ll be writing a more extensive post about the relationship of working conditions in healthcare fields and increased risk of patient errors.  There’s a lot to say on this topic, making healthcare an important focal point for consideration of how we can create healthier workplaces.

For Kowalczyk’s article: boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/06/22/accreditation_group_cites_mgh_on_resident_surgeons_workload/

Can the term “bullying” be overused?

Can terms such as “workplace bullying” be overused to the point of actually impeding the effective resolution of conflicts at work?  Yes, says Coreen Nugent, writing in the British-based Personneltoday.com:

Using this term to describe inappropriate behaviour such as poor management, unwanted personal comments and jokes that go too far, can cause situations to rapidly escalate into a total breakdown of the workplace relationship. Once an allegation of bullying has been made, workers will immediately adopt unhelpful and defensive positions, with less room for rebuilding the relationship.

Nugent’s observations deserve our attention.  If allegations of bullying are made every time people exchange angry words or believe they are on the receiving end of bad management practices and decisions, then we run the risk of elevating tensions and disagreements in the workplace.  In addition, overuse of the term has the effect of obscuring the truly abusive, malicious, and harmful behaviors that constitute genuine workplace bullying.

It’s true that, at the margins, it can be difficult to distinguish lousy management or human relations skills from bullying, but we should be careful not to use bullying as a generic term for workplace discord and dysfunction.  Here is where terms such as workplace incivility come into play.  Of course, bad management can reveal itself in ways that exploit power relationships at work, raising scenarios that fall short of bullying while nevertheless causing stress and anxiety.  It’s also possible to have a manager who is so screwed up that s/he maliciously targets a lot of people, so here again we run into tricky situations at the border.

That said, bullying, as this blog has emphasized over and again, tends to be targeted, malicious, and health-dangering.  When it reaches this level, it should be named as such, notwithstanding Nugent’s valid concerns.

For Coreen Nugent’s “Workplace bullying: top tips for tackling the problem”:  http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2009/06/26/51204/workplace-bullying-top-tips-for-tackling-the-problem.html

Website of the Week: European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology

The European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology is a great example of how our friends across the pond have been setting the standard for taking seriously the importance of psychologically healthy workplaces.

On issues ranging from occupational stress to workplace bullying to work-life balance and many others, the Europeans have been a great inspiration to those of us in the United States with their social vision and intellectual leadership.

Check out the Academy’s website at: http://eaohp.org/default.aspx.