What does ABC’s “Revenge” teach us about workplace injustice?

I’ve never been a fan of soap operas, but a very soapy new primetime drama, ABC’s “Revenge,” has been a lock on my DVR this fall.

About “Revenge”

“Revenge” is the title, philosophy, and practice of this weekly guilty pleasure. The story features a young woman, Emily Thorne (played by Emily VanCamp), who mysteriously appears in the Hamptons, New York’s refuge for the ultra wealthy.

Emily is not who she says she is. She’s really Amanda Clarke, and years ago, when Amanda was still a girl, her rich, cutthroat neighbors framed her father for a horrific act of terrorism and essentially destroyed their lives. Emily/Amanda now has returned home to exact revenge on them, in brutally cool and calculated ways. (“Revenge” is said to be loosely patterned after Alexander Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo, but believe me, you don’t have to be familiar with the book to get into the show!)

Each new episode features intrigue, manipulation, and carefully planned acts of payback. It also highlights an ongoing cat fight, nay, death battle of the tigresses, between Emily and leading Hamptons socialite Victoria Grayson (played by Madeleine Stowe), a key operative in her father’s disgrace and demise.

This could be a giant recipe for an early series cancellation but for the pitch perfect performances by the lead actresses. VanCamp is the ideal cold-blooded avenger masquerading as the sharp, pretty, sweetheart-next-door. Stowe pulls off her Ice Queen of the Hamptons role — one that easily could become a caricature in the hands of a less-gifted performer — with just the right touch. And when Emily and Victoria are in the same room, well, if looks could kill…

Revenge vs. schadenfreude

Are fans of “Revenge” frustrated avengers pining for a chance to inflict payback on those who have hurt them? If so, then there are millions of us waiting in the wings.

Fortunately, I don’t think this is the case. It boils down to the difference between exacting revenge — i.e., taking an active part in the retribution — and experiencing schadenfreude, the German loanword defined as deriving joy or satisfaction from another’s misfortune. The former involves planning and participation, while the latter represents an emotional response.

For some, a successful act of revenge can result in schadenfreude. For others, schadenfreude is more comfortably experienced as the result of a misfortune visited upon someone by another party or initiative.

I believe that most viewers enjoy “Revenge” because it allows us to revel in a fictional version of the latter variety. After all, cutting through the soap, “Revenge” reminds us that plotting real-life payback easily becomes an all-consuming and blackhearted passion. It often requires the same overheated emotion as the act that inspired it, not to mention a heckuva lot of care and attention to detail if one does not want to get caught.

Furthermore, the vast majority recognize that carrying an unyielding need for vengeance can be a dark, heavy, and unhealthy burden. Even if we struggle to forgive our trespassers, we nevertheless understand the personal costs of devoting ourselves to visiting retribution upon them.

And yet, “Revenge” may satisfy some inner craving for schadenfreude, which allows us to eat our cake but not have to answer for the calories. When one of Emily’s brilliantly designed acts of payback succeeds, it’s hard not to say, hah hah, gotcha!

Workplace revenge fantasies

No doubt that when some viewers are relishing Emily’s latest success, they’re thinking about specific bosses or co-workers who treated them poorly or unfairly.

Indeed, some of the “bad boss” books that I’ve paged through over the years are full of revenge fantasies, imagined and realized. People construct, and occasionally act out, these fantasies because they lack the power to use organizational resources to make things right. And when institutions do not embrace fairness and accountability, those on the receiving end of perceived injustices are left to their own devices and coping skills.

These are no trifling concerns, as I hope this blog has demonstrated. Perceptions of organizational justice impact productivity and individual well-being. Careers, livelihoods, and paychecks are at stake, not to mention personal health and dignity.

“Revenge” doesn’t get into the institutional ripple effects; it’s all personal, either in-your-face or behind-your-back. Ultimately, it isn’t psychologically deep enough to teach us anything more profound than the costs of being obsessed with retribution. But that in itself is a valuable lesson, and it’s delivered in marvelously entertaining fashion to boot.

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Go here to watch full episodes of “Revenge.”

Work on TV: “Mad Men” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show”

 

I’m about to sound like a geeky professor, but I’d like us to compare and contrast two television programs, one currently airing, the other a vintage classic.

Here are two American television shows portraying early-to-mid 1960s families, featuring a husband who commutes from Long Island to Manhattan every day to a job doing creative, well-compensated work, a beautiful work-at-home housewife, and adorable children.

We’re basically talking about the same programs, several decades apart, right?

Yeah, right.

Mad Men

First there’s “Mad Men,” AMC’s one-hour drama about the lives of Manhattan advertising executives in the 1960s, currently one of the most talked-about shows on the small screen.

In “Mad Men” you have the tortured, manipulative Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm) and his troubled, ice princess wife, Betty Draper (January Jones).

In the world of Madison Avenue advertising, Don Draper and his colleagues create ad campaigns, compete with other agencies for accounts, and spend a lot of time drinking, smoking, and carousing.

The Dick Van Dyke Show

And then there’s the “Dick Van Dyke Show,” a classic sitcom from the 1960s centered on the lives of writers for a television comedy/variety hour, “The Alan Brady Show.”

In the “Dick Van Dyke Show” you have the boyish and klutzy Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke) and his wholesome beauty of a wife, Laura Petrie (Mary Tyler Moore).

In the world of producing a network television show, Rob Petrie and his colleagues write comedy sketches, spend time with each other’s families, and sometimes perform at the boss’s parties.

Representations of work and society

Is there an objective truth about the worlds of high-stakes creative work at that time and place, and if so, does either television program accurately reflect it?

“Mad Men” is dark and brooding, both at work and at home. It can be fairly brutal in portraying the experiences of women and other “minorities” (racial, religious, and sexual) in that world of advertising.

The “Dick Van Dyke Show” presents an idyllic world of fun at work and almost picture-perfect suburban bliss at home. Occasionally the show delved into issues of difference, especially the changing roles of women and religious diversity (mainly through the Jewish faith of fellow comedy writer Buddy Sorrell, played by Maury Amsterdam), but almost always with a light touch.

My verdict? Both are brilliant, entertaining shows. But while the world of the “Dick Van Dyke Show” is a happy, fun place to be, the world of “Mad Men” is a lot closer to the truth.

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You can watch both television shows via cable networks, DVD sets, and Netflix subscriptions. For “Mad Men” especially, I recommend starting from the beginning of the series to understand all the story arcs.

Work on TV: CBS’s “The Good Wife” highlights worker abuse

Those who are knowledgeable about workplace bullying and abuse may regard this as ho-hum, but earlier this month a network television drama featured a story line involving a lawsuit against a deliberately abusive employer.

CBS’s “The Good Wife” is one of the better network lawyer shows, featuring Julianna Margulies as a Alicia Florrick, lawyer and wife of unfaithful spouse Peter Florrick, a one-time Chicago state’s attorney who is running to recapture his office after serving time in prison for corruption.

The Good Wife features strong acting and fun plot twists, making for a very watchable series.

“Wrongful Termination”

Earlier this month, in an episode titled “Wrongful Termination,” The Good Wife featured a story line built around a workplace suicide and allegations that the employer deliberately created an abusive work environment in order to push workers into quitting their jobs.

Alicia Florrick is part of the legal team bringing a lawsuit against this employer, with the claims grounded in allegations of psychological mistreatment of the workers.

Why this matters

If we want workplace bullying to be mainstreamed as an employment relations concern, then we need dramatic depictions of abusive work environments in the popular media. Putting these narratives before the general public serves as a powerful validating force for this movement.

In short, stuff like this shows us that workplace bullying is coming out into the open. It’s a seemingly modest but important development.

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For Comcast cable subscribers, the episode is still available via On Demand as of this writing.

Work on TV: American Idol without Simon Cowell

Two years ago I considered the question of whether Simon Cowell, the famously caustic judge on “American Idol,” was a workplace bully (post here):

Because Simon is the toughest judge, contestants often appear apprehensive when it’s his turn to comment.  If Simon praises the performance, the contestant breathes a sigh of relief and beams with delight.  If he pans the performance, the poor contestant tries to take it in stride.

I concluded that while Simon is something of a bully, many have experienced worse:

I’m not endorsing or defending Simon’s style or practice.  He’s a bonafide jerk, and he sometimes abuses the power his role confers upon him.  His Idol fame makes him a workplace bullying poster boy.  But as some readers can certainly attest, there are many, many bosses out there much worse than Simon Cowell.

Exit Simon

Simon is gone now, having moved on to other (equally or more lucrative) projects. Two other judges from last season, Kara DioGuardi and Ellen DeGeneres, were not retained, creating an opportunity to remake the judges panel.

The corps of Idol judges now includes holdover Randy Jackson and newcomers Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler. The addition of two famous performers obviously was designed to bolster ratings, but both Lopez and Tyler have proven to be solid in their roles.

Kinder, gentler, and still entertaining

The remodeled Idol judging panel also shows the dramatic effect of removing a bully from the workplace. Although I’ve missed several episodes, I feel comfortable saying that the 2011 edition of American Idol is a kinder place, even when the judges issue pointed critiques of less-than-stellar performances.

Both Lopez and Tyler bring a natural sympathy and respect for those who are auditioning and performing.

Tyler, surprisingly, also happens to be a bit of a class clown. Lopez has shed her diva personality and at times plays the role of maternal softie when it comes to dealing with the young performers.

What’s missing is the gratuitous meanness that Cowell often brought to reviewing performances he didn’t like. The palpable apprehension on the faces of contestants awaiting his critique and the deer-in-the-headlights looks as some struggled to react to one of his heavily barbed criticisms are no longer standard parts of each episode.

The effect of Simon Cowell’s departure on ratings is harder to determine. Ratings have been down, but they have been on the decline during the past few seasons, and this may be only a continuation of that trend.

Back to focusing on the talent

This appears to be a talented group of finalists, with a few of the contestants showing real star qualities early in the season. Think what you may about the talent show format, but during its 10 years, “American Idol” has unearthed some genuine stars. Perhaps the focus away from Simon Cowell’s bullying reviews will help to shine a more proper light on the young folks who are trying to make a splash on the Idol stage.

Work on TV: Cop dramas

I love good cop dramas on TV, not only for their entertainment value, but also because they do a great job of portraying the ups and downs of working for a living.  Here are some of the underlying themes that are prominent in many these shows:

1. Pursuing one’s passion (the bad and good of it)

2. Career advancement (triumph and disappointment)

3. Diversity and inclusion (often not a lot of it)

4. Work-life balance (mainly lack thereof)

5. Incivility and bullying (often lots of both)

6. Politics (both in-house and electoral)

7. Ethics (good cop, bad cop)

8. Dispute resolution (from informal chats to murder)

My favorites (alphabetical order)

I’ve written about two of these shows before (The Wire and Prime Suspect), but here’s a longer list of my favorite police dramas:

Blue Bloods — A brand new weekly, it’s among a minority of cop shows built around a non-dysfunctional family. Tom Selleck is excellent as the New York City police commissioner.

Foyle’s War — A treat from PBS, this ongoing series is set in small town England during World War Two, featuring Michael Kitchen as Inspector Christopher Foyle.

Hill Street Blues (*) — Pathbreaking 80s classic set in an unspecified American big city. Hey, let’s be careful out there.

Homicide: Life on the Street (*) — David Simon’s earthy Baltimore, Take 1. Addictive.

Prime Suspect (*) — A gift from across the pond, Helen Mirren is astoundingly good as British police inspector Jane Tennison. Start with Prime Suspect 1 and follow her career and life. Brilliant stuff.

The Shield (*) — You’ll feel guilty for hoping that LA cop Vic Mackey doesn’t get caught.

The Wire (*) — David Simon’s earthier Baltimore, Take 2. Widely acclaimed for its portrayal of life in inner city urban America.

(*) = has completed series run; episodes available on DVD.

But where’s the union?

Even the best cop dramas miss on the realities of being in unionized work settings. Most rank-and-file police officers and detectives are unionized, and collective bargaining negotiations over salaries and benefits have a significant impact on their lives. In most cop shows, however, the union presence is practically invisible, usually limited to calling in a union rep when an officer gets in trouble.

Need tips for coping with work? Watch “Survivor,” says Bay State writer

I remember a conversation from 2000 with Gary Namie, during the early stages of my affiliation with the Campaign Against Workplace Bullying (now the Workplace Bullying Institute). He told me that he had done a radio talk show program devoted to workplace bullying, and callers kept comparing their experiences at work to a new TV reality show called “Survivor.”

Neither of us knew that the show would become something of a small-screen phenomenon, but the parallels that these callers had drawn to work were striking to us.

Fast forward

“Survivor” apparently retains its ability to connect with the experience of work. In a piece for the Southwest Airlines magazine (link here), Massachusetts writer Nathaniel Reade draws upon the lessons of “Survivor” to offer these pieces of advice for coping with the modern workplace:

1. Align yourself with the power person

2. Don’t fight the power—work it

3. Blend in with the crowd .

4. Charm but don’t intimidate your bosses

5. Make it look like you’re working hard  

6. Gripe to your dog

7. Trust no one

8. Choose good over evil

I don’t want to steal Reade’s thunder, so you’ll have to read the full article for his entertaining and insightful explanations on each point. I suggest checking it out, as this guy understands what it’s like to be stuck in a lousy workplace:

Several years ago, I toiled in the most dysfunctional office on Earth. The boss berated and criticized virtually every member of her staff to the point of tears. . . . And No. 2 was even worse: A master of smiley charm and managing up, she undermined anyone who threatened her, which meant most of the best people there.

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You also can link to a pdf of the magazine version here.

Hat tip: Lisa-Marie Mulkern

FOX on the workplace: 24, Glee, and American Idol

If you want entertaining TV insights into work, school, and the American culture of popularity and success, three shows on the FOX network are worth watching: 24, Glee, and American Idol.  I’ve blogged about all three of them previously, but they deserve encore mentions.

24

The clock is ticking on 24, as Jack Bauer and Co. are in their final season of a successful nine-year run.  Kiefer Sutherland has enjoyed a career-defining role as agent Jack Bauer, whose on-again, off-again employment relationship with the (thankfully fictional) Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU) is the centerpiece of the series.

Why “thankfully fictional”?  Though treated by Presidents as part of America’s national security bulwark, over the years CTU has proven to be one of the most inept agencies imaginable,  often led by feckless, indecisive directors and hiring individuals who later turn out to be in cahoots with the bad guys.  (So much for the CTU HR office!)  This season’s foul-ups included (1) hiring a data analyst who had changed her name to escape a sordid past and been recruited by Russian terrorists to spy on CTU, and (2) allowing a car planted with an explosive device to drive right into CTU’s pick-up-and-go lane, resulting in an explosion that temporarily shut down the agency.

Ultimately, it’s often up to take-charge renegades like Bauer and attitudinal technology geeks like Chloe O’Brian (brilliantly played by Mary Lynn Rajskub) to save America’s backside while navigating around the bureaucratic bumblings of their bosses.  CTU may be fighting terrorist plots around the U.S. and the world, but if it reminds you of the absurdities of your own workplace, then you have discovered 24‘s most significant sub-theme.

Glee

Set in the fictional William McKinley High School in Ohio, the musical comedy/drama Glee has become a phenomenon in less than a full season.  Lead characters include teacher and glee club director Will Schuester (Broadway actor Matthew Morrison),  ruthless cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (the scene-stealing Jane Lynch), glee club diva Rachel Berry (emerging star Lea Michele), and clueless jock/singer Finn Hudson (Canadian film actor Cory Monteith), but overall it’s an ensemble cast with many characters getting their occasional star turns.

For those of us who study bullying and organizational behaviors, Glee is a weekly casebook.  You see bullying of the glee club members by fellow students, and bullying of the glee club by Sue Sylvester and the school administration.  You see peer pressure, office relationships, and family baggage.  You see issues of race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation handled with a mix of irreverence and sensitivity.

In sum, the show captures the culture of many a modern American high school.  Glee is still discovering and shaping its voice, so to speak, but already it has demonstrated moments of pure brilliance.

American Idol

If media commentary is any indication, American Idol is struggling a bit, but it continues to deliver a weekly dose of making and breaking dreams of hitting the big time.  The early season episodes are built around snippets of promising and not-so-promising auditions, crowd shots and interviews, and heart-tugging stories of rags-to-riches and overcoming adversity.  The heart of the season is devoted to weekly performances by finalists before the panel of judges, led by the oft-caustic and sometimes bullying Simon Cowell.

Once the group is narrowed down to 12 finalists, the viewers get to vote on who stays and goes.  Here we also see the results of too much democracy and pure market opinion, with viewers sometimes making some truly bad choices.  This season, the young “tween” vote apparently has saved a couple of young male performers who probably should never have been finalists in the first place.

American Idol serves up a post-modern Horatio Alger story, promoting the idea that a combination of undiscovered talent, hard work, and the right breaks can lift someone into fame and fortune.  But it also buys into our winner-takes-all culture, not unlike a drawn out collegiate basketball tournament where one team is crowned the champion.  The better reality, perhaps, is that performing a song, just like playing basketball, can be a source of fulfillment for the artist and one of pleasure for an audience.

Work on TV: Prime Suspect

Okay, so it’s not quite “Work on TV” — it’s more in the way of a rental or a boxed-set DVD purchase, but however you get it, the British detective series “Prime Suspect” is a simply brilliant portrayal of work life in a metropolitan London police department.

“Prime Suspect” stars the remarkable Helen Mirren in the lead role as Jane Tennison, who takes over a detective squad in Season 1 and serves in a variety of positions during the roughly 16-year life of the series. Tennison is tough, resilient, vulnerable, and imperfect, and over the years we become witness to her personal and professional successes and struggles.  

“Prime Suspect” addresses gender, race, and class issues with a gritty realism.  There’s plenty of intramural posturing, conniving, bullying, thuggery, and politicking within the department, one of the things I love most about good cop shows.  Tennison is not unique among her co-workers in sacrificing her personal life to the demands and obsessions of her job.

The episodes are rich in character and plot.  This is emotionally intelligent television, miles ahead of comparable fare on network and cable stations. HBO’s “The Wire,” also praised by this blog, is the only American counterpart that reaches this level of excellence.

For American viewers, “Prime Suspect” was originally a gift from public television.  It premiered here in 1992, and finished in 2008.

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Here’s the Wikipedia entry about “Prime Suspect”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Suspect

Inspired and ReWIRED: How a TV star is becoming a change agent

Many months ago I blogged about my affinity for the HBO series The Wire, which portrays gritty urban life on the streets of Baltimore, with an ongoing focus on the city’s drug wars.  The series has won deserved critical acclaim, and now it appears to be sparking positive social change.

The Boston Globe reports that Sonja Sohn, the actress who played Detective Shakima Greggs on the series, has founded a non-profit organization, ReWIRED for Change, that “tries to help youths in underserved communities.”  Sohn is working with a local activist to create a school curriculum that uses episodes of The Wire:

For almost a year, one of the show’s stars has been working with a Boston community activist to create a curriculum based on “The Wire’’. The program would gather a group of young people already involved in the criminal system or at risk of being drawn in, and for at least five hours a week for at least six weeks, show them episodes.

In an interview with the Globe, Sohn talks about how her own background has fueled her desire to take this path:

I think my own experiences inform me more than anything … My family loved me and if you have love that’s the difference between someone becoming a sociopath and someone having a shot at the end of the day. I was loved, but there were bases that weren’t covered. There was a certain amount of emotional neglect outside of the home, there were abuses which led me to [experiment] with the drug life. When the idea for this organization came up and when the idea for the program came up and when I started to facilitate the program every step of the way it became more and more obvious that I was basically born to do this … This was one of the most profound purposes of my existence.

People discover their missions in life through a variety of circumstances.  Here, an individual’s own life experiences and her dramatic portrayal of a Baltimore detective combined to inspire a brand of grassroots social entrepreneurship that addresses the very despair and hopelessness reflected in some of the most gut-wrenching episodes of the TV series.

Maria Cramer’s article in the Globe about ReWIRED: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/10/29/the_wire_sparks_a_connection/

Globe’s interview with Sohn: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/10/qa_actor_see_th.html

Work on TV: Glee-ful portrayals of bullying at school and work

Glee, Fox TV’s musical comedy-drama about a high school glee club in Ohio, has been tagged the new “feel good” hit of the Fall season.  With an ensemble cast recruited largely from the Broadway stage, it mixes sharp humor, the pathos of high school life, and plenty of song & dance numbers.

Glee also gives us a big helping of school and workplace bullying.  The glee club members are bullied mercilessly by some of the “in” kids at school.  Members of the football team routinely give “slushie facials” (dumping or tossing Big Gulp-ish frozen drinks) to glee club kids, including to teammates who joined the club because they happen to like both football and singing.

There’s more bullying at the faculty level, where a messed up cheerleading coach obsessively plots the demise of the glee club and their director.  Just like many real workplace bullies, the coach’s destructive activities at work are fueled by dysfunctional aspects of her life in general.

Mainly through humor (some of it hilariously over the top), Glee gently tackles topics such as peer pressure, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and disability.  And because the glee kids happen to be pretty talented, they ultimately become the stars, performing with enthusiasm, skill, and heart.

On occasion Glee takes a time out to make a point.  In the most recent episode, the football team’s quarterback, who also is in the glee club, has been given an ultimatum by his coach:  It’s either football or glee, but you can’t do both.  The young man approaches his coach and says:

I see a future where it’s cool to be in glee club.  Where you can play football and sing & dance and no one gets down on you for it.  Where the more different you are, the better.

It’s a nice scene, delivered in an understated way.  If you’re long past high school but remember what it was like, it may make you wince to think how many kids have been pressured into making choices that ultimately denied them a chance to explore all of their intellectual, artistic, and athletic interests.

In the real world, life is not a musical; bullying at school and at work cannot be brushed off with a rousing closing number.  But that’s no reason to dismiss the feel-good messages of Glee, including the importance of pursuing one’s passion even if others aren’t into it.  Now there’s a lesson for kids and adults alike.

(Perhaps art does indeed reflect life: New episodes of Glee will return following the World Series on Fox.  Go Yankees!)