Learning from the aftermath of workplace violence

Sadly, workplace violence has been in the news a lot lately, with the most prominent story being the horrible killings at Fort Hood in Texas.

Tom Jacobs, writing for the Miller-McCune magazine blog, reports on studies done as a follow up to the Virginia Tech killings in 2007 as possibly providing lessons that may help those who experienced the Fort Hood tragedy:

Psychological trauma among Virginia Tech students in the wake of the 2007 mass shooting was widespread and long-lasting, according to newly published research that suggests such tragedies are communal events with far-reaching ramifications.

The research provides insights that could be helpful to members of the Ford Hood community suffering post-traumatic symptoms in the wake of last week’s mass killing at the Texas military base, as well as to counselors working with that traumatized population.

The article concludes by suggesting that in light of findings in the research on Virginia Tech:

(I)n measuring the psychological impact of traumatic events, we may be overestimating the importance of direct exposure to the tragedy, and underestimating the importance of the person’s underlying life condition — the resources, tangible and intangible, they have to draw upon.

The full Miller-McCune blog post: http://www.miller-mccune.com/news/virginia-tech-study-contains-lessons-for-fort-hood-1603

Workplace bullying and American employment law: The state of research, education, and advocacy

I have posted an early draft version of a forthcoming law review article, “Workplace Bullying and American Employment Law: A Ten-Year Progress Report and Assessment,” which will appear in a symposium collection in the Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, published by the University of Illinois College of Law.  Here’s an abstract of the article:

This article details the early history of efforts to make American employment law more responsive to workplace bullying, covering a period roughly from 2000 to the present day, with much of the commentary grounded in the author’s personal involvement in these initiatives.  It starts by examining research, education, and advocacy efforts concerning workplace bullying and its legal implications.  It then explains the major provisions of the latest version of the Healthy Workplace Bill, model anti-bullying legislation drafted by this author that has been the basis of bills introduced in over a dozen states legislatures since 2003.  The article closes with an assessment of the future of legal and policy initiatives to protect workers against severe workplace bullying in the United States.

As law review articles go, it’s relatively short and attempts to cover a lot of ground.  It’s the most complete summary of legal and policy initiatives related to workplace bullying in the U.S.  The article still needs to go through the journal’s editing process, but the information contained in it should be useful to anyone who wants to know what progress has been made during the past decade and where we have to go from here.

Link to freely downloadable pdf of the article: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1507950

The Role of Unions and Collective Bargaining in Combating Workplace Bullying

Organized labor can play an influential role in preventing and responding to workplace bullying, both as a safeguarding presence for workers and as a political and social force for positive change.  For many years, I have regarded that role as one of unrealized potential.  But recent developments give me considerable hope of ongoing partnerships with unions to address workplace bullying.  In particular, more unions are getting behind the Healthy Workplace Bill, anti-bullying legislation that I authored to fill a significant gap in worker protections. 

The Potential Role of Organized Labor to Combat Workplace Bullying

Unions can play an important role in preventing and responding to workplace bullying in at least four ways:

• Negotiate CBA Provisions — Unions should bargain for collective bargaining agreement provisions that protect their members against abusive supervision.

• Use Existing Contract Provisions — Even in the absence of specific protections against abusive supervision, the general substantive and procedural rights in an agreement may provide legal protections for a bullied union member.

• Educate Members and Resolve Disputes – Effective shop stewards can be trained to help to identify and resolve bullying situations, including those between union members.  Unions can encourage a culture of safety and respect among their members.

• Support Legal Reform – Unions can back the enactment of anti-bullying legislation such as the Healthy Workplace Bill.

A Presentation with Coattails

Here in Massachusetts, I have been delighted over an unfolding collaboration that grew out of a presentation I gave in November 2007 to an assembly of several hundred Massachusetts union activists affiliated with the Service Employees Union International (SEIU) and the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE).  I closed my talk by urging them to inject concerns about workplace bullying and abusive supervision into their contract negotiations.

A few months later, Greg Sorozan, president of one of the union locals and a national vice president of NAGE, informed me that as a follow up to that talk, all of the union locals affiliated with SEIU and NAGE were now bargaining over concerns about workplace bullying in their contract negotiations.  In January 2009, Greg reported that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had agreed to include a “mutual respect” provision in their new contract that covered, among other things, bullying and abusive supervision.  As a result, some 21,000 state workers are covered by a collective bargaining agreement that includes a workplace bullying provision.

This “mutual respect” provision is believed to be one of the first major American collective bargaining agreements to include express protections against bullying at work.  It isn’t perfect:  An alleged violation of the provision may be grieved, but it may not proceed to arbitration.  This is a real limitation; it means that unresolved bullying charges will not proceed to arbitration, thus precluding a worker from obtaining an enforceable order to stop the behavior or to make an award.  Nevertheless, it is a huge step forward to have a collective bargaining agreement that covers bullying and allows grievances to be filed when the behavior arises.

But wait, there’s more!  Greg also joined a working group to lobby for introduction and passage of the Healthy Workplace Bill.  He assigned the union’s lobbyist to seek a sponsor in the Massachusetts legislature, and the result was that the State Senate assistant majority leader, Senator Joan Menard, agreed to be the lead sponsor.  The bill is filed for the 2009-2010 session of the legislature as Senate Bill No. 699.

In sum, the promise of the labor movement rising up against workplace bullying is starting to become a reality.  Let us hope this trend continues.

Previous post on Labor Notes report: Bullying and harassment of rank-and-file workers is on the upswing during this recession.  See  http://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2009/08/10/management-harassment-and-bullying-up-reports-labor-notes/.

 Collective bargaining language: Unions that are interested in bargaining over an abusive supervision provision are invited to contact me at dyamada@suffolk.edu for suggested contract language.  Please include your affiliation and other verifiable contact information.

Healthy Workplace Bill:  The Healthy Workplace Bill provides a legal claim for severely bullied workers who can prove they were harmed by malicious behavior at work.  It also provides legal incentives for employers to act preventively and responsively toward workplace bullying and includes provisions that discourage weak and frivolous lawsuits.  For more information about efforts to enact the Healthy Workplace Bill, visit http://www.workplacebullyinglaw.org.

For more about the Healthy Workplace Bill in Massachusetts: http://www.mahealthyworkplace.com/

Gen Wars: Boomers vs. Xers in the Labor Market

Martha Irvine, reporting for the Associated Press, writes about intensifying conflict between up-and-coming Gen Xers and more entrenched Baby Boomers in the workplace:

They’re antsy and edgy, tired of waiting for promotion opportunities at work as their elders put off retirement. A good number of them are just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can hop to the next job, find something more fulfilling and get what they think they deserve. Oh, and they want work-life balance, too.

Unfortunately, this is only the proverbial tip of the iceberg in terms of worsening generational tensions over job opportunities, especially the likelihood that many Boomers will remain in their jobs longer than anticipated due to low savings rates toward retirement and the impact of last year’s stock market crash on 401k and pension funds.  I’ll have more to say about this later, but it’s going to be a big topic in the years to come.

For Irvine’s full article, “Recession intensifies GenX discontent at work”:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091115/ap_on_bi_ge/us_antsy_gen_xers

Bullying starts early: 9 of 10 autistic kids bullied, reports Mass. study

Laura Crimaldi reports for the Boston Herald on a Massachusetts-based survey indicating that 90 percent of autistic kids are bullied in school:

A shocking new online survey has found that nearly 90 percent of autistic children in the Bay State have been targeted by bullying so violent and ruthless that a state lawmaker says teachers and school systems must be held accountable.

The survey conducted by the Massachusetts Advocates for Children includes painful testimony from parents of autistic children who felt so tortured they stayed home from school for extended periods and even considered suicide.

The costs of being different can start to run very early in life, and the practices of excluding the “other” are modeled for us during those same formative years.  Is it any wonder that we see so much bullying at work?

Full article in Boston Herald: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20091113survey_finds_90_of_autistic_kids_bullied/

Delaware Woman Files Workplace Bullying Complaint

CBS News in Philadelphia reports on Carol Castillo, a former USA 3000 flight attendant, who has filed a complaint with the Philadelphia Human Rights Commission saying she was severely bullied at work:

You think of bullying in a schoolyard. But what about at work?

A Delaware woman says she has been the victim of tormenting at work. The taunt? That she really is a man. Now she has filed complaints with the city and state, saying it was illegal. Dave Huddleston has the story.

…Carol was a Philadelphia-based flight attendant for USA 3000. Among the comments Carol said she heard: A first officer said she looked like a man. Another flight attendant said there was a penis sticking out of Carol’s skirt. A pilot said Carol was “growing a beard.”

Because direct legal protections against workplace bullying are so few and far between, it appears that this claim has been legally framed as a sexual harassment complaint grounded in bullying-type behaviors.

Link to full CBS story: http://cbs3.com/local/bullying.delaware.workplace.2.1304734.html

Hat tip: Carol Arao, California Healthy Workplace Advocates

From Work, Stress, and Health 2009: New Voices, Old(er) Voices, and Inclusion

Readers, please forgive me for repeated posts about the just concluded Work, Stress, and Health conference in San Juan, but it really was a remarkable learning event for anyone interested in psychologically healthier workplaces.  I will be blogging about more of the presentations in the weeks to come, because the topics and discussions were so compelling.  For now, here are some final thoughts on the gathering:

New Voices

One of the best things about the conference was the presence of many young and new faces, as participants and attendees alike.  For example, in the realm of workplace bullying and incivility, I attended a terrific panel on incivility research.  In addition to presentations and comments from professors Olga Clark (U. Hartford), Kathi Miner-Rubino (Texas A&M), and Julian Barling (Queen’s U., Canada), the panel featured presentations by two doctoral students.

Ben Walsh (U. Connecticut) co-chaired the panel with advisor Vicki Magley.  He also presented a paper they co-authored on how workgroup climate for civility impacts workgroup performance.  Tara Reich (U. Manitoba, Canada) presented a paper co-authored with advisor Sandy Hershcovis that analyzes Web-posted comments to a piece about workplace bullying by Tara Parker-Pope in the New York Times.

Current graduate students doing work on bullying and incivility are jumping in at a great time.  There already is a body of research available to them, which means they don’t have to invent the wheel.  But there are plenty of interesting, compelling questions that need answering, and they can be at the forefront of this work. 

To request the paper on workgroup civility climates, contact Ben Walsh at: benjamin.walsh@uconn.edu.

To request the paper on the New York Times Web comments, contact Tara Reich at: umreich@cc.umanitoba.ca.

And here’s a link to the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/health/25well.html.

Old(er) Voices: A Community of Tumbleweeds

This conference also serves as a periodic reunion of researchers and educators who are interested in workplace bullying and related topics.  We are becoming a community of tumbleweeds, blowing together and apart for these conferences and gatherings, and forging warm associations in the process.  These people are valued members of my professional cohort, and friends to boot.  Individually and collectively, they have taught me a ton over the years we have worked together.

Among the recidivist presenters on workplace bullying were long-time comrades in arms Gary & Ruth Namie (Workplace Bullying Institute), Suzy Fox (Loyola-Chicago), Joel Neuman (SUNY-New Paltz), Kathy Rospenda (U. Illinois-Chicago), and Paula Grubb (NIOSH).  On one panel I was on, we were joined by Sabir Giga (U. Bradford, U.K.), who flew across the pond to deliver an excellent paper on employer costs of bullying.

Kudos to APA, NIOSH, and SOHP

The American Psychological Association, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and Society for Occupational Health Psychology are the primary sponsors of the conference, joined by the host institution, which this year was the University of Puerto Rico.  In addition to thanking UPR for being such a warm host, let me extend my appreciation to the sponsoring organizations for assembling such an inclusive gathering.

Although many of the speakers are psychologists of one stripe or another, the conference is welcoming of presentations from folks with backgrounds in labor, management, HR, medicine — and even a few legal types! — from all over the world.  It makes for a wonderful learning environment.

What are the Best Jobs in America?

Money magazine’s November issue features its survey of the Best Jobs in America.  It’s an interesting compilation, and despite the magazine’s title it delves way beyond compensation to identify the most desirable positions.  Here’s a sampling:

Best Jobs according to Money survey

1. Systems Engineer
2. Physician Assistant
3. College Professor
4. Nurse Practitioner
5. IT Project Manager
6. CPA
7. Physical Therapist
8. Network Security Consultant
9. Intelligence Analyst
10. Sales Director

Link to full list: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2009/full_list/index.html

Low Stress Jobs, according to self-reporting (with “best job” ranking in parentheses)

1. Education/Training Consultant (35)
2. Physical Therapist (7)
3. College Professor (3) 
4. Software Developer (12)
5. Technical Writer (28)
6. Telecommunications Network Engineer (30)
7. Speech-Language Pathologist (27)
8. Software Architect (not ranked)
9. Occupational Therapist (14)
10. Civil Engineer (not ranked)

Link: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2009/qualitylife/index.html

Most Benefit to Society, according to self-assessment (with “best job” ranking in parentheses)

1. Physician/General Practice (19)
2. Physician/Obstetrician/Gynecologist (22)
3. Intelligence Analyst (9)
4. Veterinarian (25)
5. Human Resources Manager (20)
6. Clinical Psychologist (23)
7. Physician Assistant (2)
8. Anesthesiologist (11)
9. Nurse Practitioner (4)
10. Speech-Language Pathologist (27)

Link: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2009/qualitylife/benefit.html

My Observations

I like the fact that Money’s survey design takes quality of work issues seriously.  Missing is a separate category for work-life balance, which might be folded into “flexibility,” but I think it merits its own assessment.  I can understand the health care folks rating their jobs high on the social benefit scale, but I had to chuckle that human resources did so as well!  I’d be quicker to put schoolteachers, social workers, pastors/preachers/rabbis/etc., and legal aid lawyers on the list.

From Work, Stress, and Health 2009: Is there a “business case” for workplace bullying legislation?

During one of today’s sessions at the 2009 Work, Stress, and Health conference, I presented a short paper titled Is There a “Business Case” for Workplace Bullying Legislation?  I offered four basic propositions:

1.  From an employer’s standpoint, there is a strong business case for taking workplace bullying seriously as an employment relations problem.  Mounting evidence indicates that workplace bullying results in reduced productivity and employee loyalty, increased absenteeism and related costs, increased attrition and related costs, and greater risk of employee lawsuits even in the absence of a workplace bullying law.

2.  From an employer’s standpoint, workplace bullying legislation creates undesirable liability exposure.  Enactment of bullying legislation would indeed increase employer costs for defending and preventing lawsuits.

3.  Nevertheless, absent significant liability exposure, few employers take workplace bullying seriously.  Few employers voluntarily provide enforceable protections against bullying to their employees.  In the 2007 Workplace Bullying Institute/Zogby public opinion survey on workplace bullying, respondents reported that when employers were made aware of alleged bullying behaviors, 62 percent either ignored the problem or made it worse.

In addition, recent history is rife with examples of how employers have been complicit in blatant, brazen worker mistreatment in the absence of liability exposure: Racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation for whistle blowing are but a few examples.

4.  Advocates for legal reform must build a civil rights case positing that workplace bullying is a malicious violation of human dignity that denies people a right to earn a living free of psychological abuse.  Workplace bullying threatens mental health, physical health, personal and family relationships, careers, and livelihoods.  No other such common and destructive form of worker mistreatment so escapes the protective reach of modern American employment law.

The Healthy Workplace Bill, model anti-bullying legislation that I authored, provides severely bullied employees with a legal claim for malicious harm. It also provides incentives for employers to act preventively and responsively toward workplace bullying and includes provisions that preclude or discourage frivolous litigation.

To get involved in efforts to enact the Healthy Workplace Bill, go to: http://workplacebullyinglaw.org/.

From Work, Stress, and Health 2009: Steven Greenhouse on Stressors at Work

I’m attending and participating in the 8th Work, Stress, and Health Conference, held this year in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The conference kicked off today with a keynote address by Steven Greenhouse, New York Times labor and work reporter and author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker (2008).

Greenhouse identified a cluster of reasons why the American workplace is becoming more stressed out:

• Wage stagnation;
• Lack of health insurance coverage;
• More hours at work (at least until the meltdown);
• Computers and technology in the workplace;
• Constant demands to increase productivity and profits;
• Downsizing and reduced job security;
• Short-term, performance-based job compensation;
• More self-funding of retirement;
• Globalization of labor markets;
• Increased income inequality;
• Greater use of temporary workers and independent contractors who are not provided with job security or benefits;
• Greater use of vulnerable immigrant workers, especially undocumented workers;
• Reduced enforcement of labor protections, such as wage laws and workplace safety regulations; and,
• Weakening of labor unions.

Although he was running out of time, he also identified a cluster of “big-picture” responses to get us back on track toward less stressed-out workers and workplaces:

• Reduce unemployment;
• Increase enforcement of labor protections;
• Ease the unionization process;
• Provide universal health care coverage;
• Rebuild retirement security measures; and,
• “Revalorize” workers by restoring their importance and dignity.

Whereas many keynote addresses are meant to be uplifting and inspirational, this was sobering and specific, sprinkled with disturbing facts, figures, and stories drawn from his book.  It was a reminder — especially to those of us in the U.S. — of just how much work we have to do to create healthier workplaces.

(My recent law review article, “Human Dignity and American Employment Law,” echoes many of these themes and cites Greenhouse’s book with approval.  For a pdf copy, free of charge: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1299176.)