The bullied and the button pushers

Earlier this week I received a note from a man who had been terminated from his job after several decades of working for a single employer. He shared with me that he had been in a terribly abusive work environment. His supervisor knew how to push his buttons, and one day he just lost it and acted out. He was fired for violating his employer’s rules of conduct.

He conceded that his actions led to his dismissal. But he did urge that the bullying he was subjected to, and his supervisor’s ability to push his buttons, triggered his behavior. His account, and the words he used, sounded very credible to me.

Furthermore, the scenario is all too common: Workplace bullying targets — stressed out, angry, exasperated, and stuck in classic fight-or-flight mode — may lash out against aggressors who are in a position to turn the tables against them for their supposed misconduct.

Button pushing

Workplace aggressors are often experts at button pushing. They know how to get a rise out of someone, and if it causes the target to say or do something that gives the aggressors even more of an upper hand, then all the better. Under stress, targets can engage in self-defeating behaviors, and crossing the line in responding to abusive work situations is a frequent one.

Of course, we know the advice: Don’t let them push your buttons. Don’t let them get to you. Don’t let them “win.”

It’s all true, and it’s much, much easier said than done.

This is especially the case when the bullying behaviors are covert and indirect, making it more difficult to substantiate them and to persuade anyone else that something very wrong is occurring. It’s also the case when the abuse is in the form of full-blown mobbing by multiple parties. In both situations, the target may feel very isolated, and then one day that button is pushed while the defenses are down. The target’s response — while understandable under the circumstances and perhaps briefly cathartic — is framed by the employer as misconduct, often with witnesses suddenly emerging to support the allegation.

Self-control

Bullying situations have a way of becoming all consuming for targets, as most battles and ordeals have a way of doing. In these situations, exercising self-control is a powerful tool.

Building that self-control in the face of bullying may require drawing support and help from others. Friends and family, mental health providers, personal coaches, and religious advisors are among those possibilities. For some, learning about the dynamics of bullying can validate their experiences and help them to understand that they are not “crazy” for feeling the way they do.

I fully admit that none of this is easy. But it is part of maintaining or reclaiming one’s dignity. It also helps one to make smarter choices among potential options, even in stressful and wrongful circumstances.

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Related posts

When workplace bullies claim victim status: Avoiding the judo flip (2013) — This is an end product of the button-pushing.

Do “almost psychopaths” help to explain the prevalence of workplace bullying and abuse? (2012) — A lot of “almost psychopaths” are among the chief practitioners of button pushing.

Bullied at work? Avoid making these common mistakes (2010; updated 2016) — Additional advice for targets.

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Image courtesy of psdgraphics.com

How to support the Healthy Workplace Bill

We’re moving closer to the day when the Healthy Workplace Bill will become law in states across the nation. Getting that first state to adopt it is the toughest hurdle, but once the dam is broken, many others will follow.

If you want to see workplace anti-bullying legislation enacted in your state, here’s by far the most effective route to take:

Contact your state legislators

Contact your state legislators

Contact your state legislators

Visit them, mail them, call them, or e-mail them. But do press your case. Ask them to sponsor or co-sponsor the Healthy Workplace Bill. Ask them to exercise their influence to move the HWB through the thicket of the legislative process. Thank them when they do so.

Some points to consider:

1. It’s most essential that you contact your own legislators. Legislators listen closely to their constituents, i.e., voters in their district.

2. Share your story. Let them know, in personal terms and in your own words, that workplace bullying is about abusive, hurtful mistreatment at work.

3. If your legislator declines to support the HWB, don’t be angry or disrespectful, but try again on another occasion.

Other measures

Here are some other useful things you can do:

1. If you are a member of an advocacy or professional organization that endorses legislation, ask that group to formally support the HWB.

2. Post supportive online comments to news articles discussing the Healthy Workplace Bill and workplace bullying in general.

3. Write letters to the editor of your local paper expressing support for the Healthy Workplace Bill.

Notice what I didn’t mention: “Liking” or commenting on a Facebook post about workplace bullying is fine, but it doesn’t substitute for direct advocacy. Signing an online petition may create a sense of solidarity, but it pales in effectiveness next to personal contact with your legislators.

Bottom line

I think you get the message. It’s all about persuading those in a position to support and vote on the Healthy Workplace Bill.

Be assured that powerful interests that oppose workplace bullying legislation are quietly spreading their message in state capitols across the country. They have money and power behind them, and they want to ensure that employers will not face liability for this form of abuse.

It’s up to us to say that we, as a society, must do better than that.

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Resources

National website for the Healthy Workplace Bill campaign — Check here to see if your state is actively considering the HWB, and to become part of a network of grassroots activists supporting it.

Massachusetts website for the Healthy Workplace Bill campaign — The HWB has been introduced in the current, 2013-14 session as House No. 1766. At this website you can sign up for updates about what you can do to support it.

Six-minute video explaining the need for the Healthy Workplace Bill — A short, snappy, informative video prepared by Deb Falzoi of the Massachusetts Healthy Workplace Advocates.

How do boredom and technology feed psychological aggression?

What roles do boredom and easy online access play in fueling the waves of incivility, bullying, and just plain meanness that can manifest themselves in the digital world?

Gaby Hinsliff, writing for The Guardian, suggests that boredom is driving a lot of interpersonal hostility in our society, including the online realm. Before anyone accuses Hinsliff of oversimplifying or excusing bad online behaviors, it’s worth reading her full opinion piece, which places boredom in a broader social context:

Boredom is a sickness, a blight on contemporary life, secondary only in its capacity for damage to the self-destructive things we do to relieve it: eating too much, getting hammered, picking fights (virtual or in real life), taking stupid risks, having affairs, mooching mindlessly around the shops buying things we don’t really need.

Hinsliff further explains how boredom may intersect with specific biases to create anti-social behavior. Here’s a snippet:

As for why malicious tweeters so often home in on female, black or gay targets, dumb prejudice obviously plays a big part, but surprisingly so may boredom. In a fascinating experiment at the University of Limerick a few years ago, participants were first bored witless by being made to do a repetitive task and then asked to suggest punishments for an imaginary Englishman convicted of beating up an Irishman. The longer they’d spent on the dull task, the more likely they became to bay for blood.

Snarkiness, and lot more

Indeed, perhaps boredom is a major contributor to trolling behaviors that feed online snarkiness. And with online access being relatively cheap and easy, we have a medium tailor made for the predictable array of oft-anonymous jabs, cheap shots, and innuendo that we see on news sites and blogs.

Incivility is one thing, but we know it can get worse, and sometimes much worse. Sadly, it’s unnecessary for me to round up a sampling of how horrible online exchanges can get, ranging from websites and blogs intended to harass or defame, to angry, hateful comments posted to online articles, columns, and blogs, to vicious e-mails containing outlandish allegations or threats of harm.

These communications may be part of orchestrated bullying and mobbing campaigns in school or work settings, or they may be what some people substitute for rational, thoughtful discussion and debate on events and issues of the day. Regardless of their underlying motivations, it’s safe to say that boredom and the Internet are not the main drivers of these horribly excessive behaviors. Rather, they are enablers and conduits for what is contained within the individuals themselves.

Less physical violence, but more psychological aggression?

In The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (2011), noted psychologist Steven Pinker offers a thoughtful, provocative argument that physical violence in the world has declined over the years. (Go here for the Wikipedia summary.) Even accepting his main thesis, I find myself wondering if human instincts toward physical violence have been supplanted by tendencies to engage in psychological aggression.

This notion became magnified for me after reading Douglas Preston’s Trial By Fury: Internet Savagery and the Amanda Knox Case (2013), published as a “Kindle Single” extended essay. Here is the publisher’s description of the piece:

The Amanda Knox murder case generated one of the most savage outpourings of commentary the Internet has ever seen. There are countless statements calling for the murdering, raping, torturing, throat-cutting, frying, hanging, electrocution, burning, and rotting in hell of Amanda, along with her sisters, family, friends, and supporters.

. . . Trial By Fury explores this dark netherworld, identifying the people involved, and investigating their motives. It documents the real-world damage caused by these anonymous bloggers, including how they managed to get a much decorated ex-FBI agent fired from his
job. . . .

The author, Douglas Preston, is one of the foremost authorities on the Amanda Knox case. He lived in Italy for many years and is an expert on the Italian criminal justice system. He has spoken about the case on the Today show, Anderson Cooper, 48 Hours, Dateline NBC, and Fox.

Trial By Fury is a disturbing read that will push the buttons of anyone who has been concerned about the tenor of our online discourse. It left me feeling unsettled, wondering how so many people could devote enormous time and emotional energy into such angry, twisted commentary.

Surely we need to address these behaviors, but frankly I don’t have any easy answers. Although Internet culture and online bullying and harassment have received a lot of attention in recent years, I think we need to dig deeper to fully comprehend the phenomenon.

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Hat tip to Dr. Ruth Namie for recommending Trial By Fury.

APA launches new webpage on workplace bullying

The American Psychological Association’s Center for Organizational Excellence has just launched its new webpage of resources for employers and individuals who want to learn more about preventing and responding to workplace bullying:

On this page, you’ll find a collection of workplace bullying resources, including articles and research abstracts, book recommendations, useful statistics and links to other high-quality resources. Check out the short video about workplace bullying, below, and share it with the HR staff and managers in your organization to help get the conversation started.

It was my privilege to serve as a pro bono subject matter expert to the Center and its director, Dr. David Ballard, in developing this page and the accompanying video (see above). Many of these resources will be familiar to long-time readers of this blog, and the APA’s new initiative will highlight them for a far wider range of organizations and workers.

Mental health in the academic workplace

Because mental health issues remain a neglected aspect of the academic workplace, I thought I’d do a quick roundup of websites and blog posts that may be helpful resources for those interested in learning more.

I’ve already written a number of blog posts on workplace bullying in academe, so I won’t revisit that specific topic here. However, I will be pulling together an update on it soon.

Extensive list of resources

Bravo to The Professor Is In blog for assembling this excellent, extensive list of articles, essays, and resources about mental health in the academy last February:

This week I received an email from a reader who had recently been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.  She was asking for resources I might know of to help her navigate her Ph.D. program in light of her mental illness.  I didn’t know of any, so I put out a request on Facebook and Twitter.  The response was instantaneous and big.

I compiled all the recommendations into the following list. As you can see I just cut and pasted directly from the comments on Twitter and Facebook, without elaboration.  They are in no particular order, and I have not yet read most of these and can’t vouch for them.  But many responders also asked to be sent any list of resources I might develop, and I wanted to share the list for the benefit of those who asked.  It seems clear to me that this topic is close to the heart of many.

U.K. site on mental health and higher education

The Mental Health in Higher Education Hub blog is about both mental health in higher education and higher education addressing mental health issues:

Mental Health in Higher Education aims to increase networking and the sharing of approaches to learning and teaching about mental health and distress – across the disciplines in higher education. We have members from across the world.

mhhe is open to educators (including service user and career educators), practice mentors, students, practitioners, educational researchers and all with an interest in enhancing learning and teaching about mental health. Read about our first ten years, on storify.

In the aftermath of a tragedy

In 2010, the Chronicle of Higher Education ran a piece on mental health in academe by Jennifer Ruark, following the tragic multiple homicide at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. I was among those interviewed for the piece.

In conversations on The Chronicle’s Web site and elsewhere, people have seized on the killings as evidence that academic life today is a petri dish for madness: The high stress of the tenure process, the pressures to be brilliant at research and teaching, the cloistered environment, the extent to which internal politics affects people’s careers—it’s a combination that could damage even psychologically healthy people.

Therapy and counseling

The blog Academic Jungle discusses the potential value of therapy and counseling for faculty members:

The book [about mental health] I am reading and the patient cases described therein made me think of all the people whom I have met through the years, mostly in academia, who have had mental or behavioral health issues. I don’t know if academia is rife with mental health problems or whether it is better or worse than any other industry, but I know I have met quite a few people who might have or actually have benefited from some form of therapy.

Graduate student blogs about her experience with depression

Jacqui Shine, a columnist at Chronicle Vitae, writes about her own struggles with depression as a graduate student:

…[A]cademic institutions don’t respond effectively to chronic and invisible disabilities. Folks in my department discouraged me from registering with the university’s disability-services program. They said outright that they couldn’t imagine what kinds of accommodations would actually be useful for me; they implied that registering could potentially stigmatize me.

Past reflections on workplace bullying and worker dignity

Especially with over 1,000 articles now posted to this blog, periodically I like to go back and bring to readers’ attentions past pieces that raised common themes. Here are five for your consideration, and you can read each full post by clicking on the title.

1. How workplace bullying bears similarities to domestic abuse (2011)

When people ask me if workplace bullying is a lot like schoolyard bullying, I typically respond, yes, in a way, but that domestic abuse is the more apt comparison. These are among the reasons why.

2. Can workplace incivility ever be healthy? (2011)

I still find myself having to explain this point in the face of inevitable and understandable pushback:

Those of us who study workplaces generally assume that incivility is a bad thing. . . .

. . . However, there are times when incivility may be an understandable consequence of a disagreement or difference of opinion. Such exchanges — often marked by the use of otherwise rude, harsh, or offensive words – can clear the air, hopefully paving the way toward a healthy resolution.

3. Hope for worker dignity comes out of a union meeting in Massachusetts (2011)

On Thursday, it was my good fortune to be a guest speaker at the monthly Joint Executive Committee meeting of SEIU/NAGE in Massachusetts. . . .

. . . I realize that not all supporters of the Healthy Workplace Bill are fans of unions. Some may have had unpleasant personal experiences with them.

True, unions are fallible organizations, like any other kind of group endeavor. And a bad union is just that. But these imperfections render the labor movement no less necessary. A world without organized labor is a world that has declared open season on everyday workers.

4. Helping targets of workplace bullying: The need for an integrated counseling approach (2010)

Many years of talking to targets of severe workplace bullying have reinforced my belief that we need to fashion multifaceted counseling approaches for people who are dealing with this form of abuse.  At least three categories continually intersect . . .

5. Work and Workplaces of a New Decade: Notes on a “Dignitarian” Agenda (2010)

I think we’ve still got a long way to go on the seven points I raised in this piece.

As we turn to a new decade, permit me to set out some notes on a “dignitarian” (to borrow Robert Fuller’s wonderful term) agenda for work and workplaces for the next 10 years.  Obviously this is far from the last word on the subject, but establishing some basic themes may be helpful . . .

WGBH’s “Greater Boston” on workplace bullying and the Healthy Workplace Bill

On Tuesday I was a guest on WGBH’s “Greater Boston” nightly news program, talking about workplace bullying and the Healthy Workplace Bill. I joined program host Emily Rooney, reporter Adam Reilly, and developmental psychologist and consultant Sharon O’Connor for the studio discussion, complemented by interview footage featuring organizational consultant Paula Parnagian, workplace bullying target Shelton Prince, and small business policy advocate Bill Vernon.

It’s about a 12-minute segment.

Working Notes: Boston Globe on unpaid internships, Marketplace on terminations gone viral, and more

Good morning! Here are a few items that I’ve been connected with:

Boston Globe Magazine cover story on unpaid internships

Sunday’s Boston Globe Magazine ran a substantial cover story on unpaid internships by Melissa Schorr. She did her homework and then some for this piece, interviewing a wide range of individuals and incorporating a span of viewpoints. Here are two snippets:

In what activists envision as a nascent social movement — and some bosses see as ungrateful whippersnappers unwilling to pay their dues — a slew of unpaid interns have filed suit against their former employers, including high-profile companies such as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Hearst Magazines, Gawker Media, NBCUniversal, Sony, and Conde Nast, claiming they were, in fact, employees under federal labor laws and demanding back pay.

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THE UNPAID INTERN is a longstanding figure on the bottom of the corporate ladder, particularly in so-called “glamour industries” such as media and showbiz, where multiple applicants jockey for each spot and have even been known to pay thousands of dollars for the privilege.

Here’s a part of what I had to say:

Yamada has come to view [unpaid internships] as not just a legal but also a moral issue, informally advising a group of New York activists who have formed an intern labor-rights network. “I think in the for-profit sphere, most of these unpaid internships are not only against the law but are exploitative,” he says. “We now have this intermediate stage between classroom education and entry-level full-time employment. We’re adding another level of training and education that involves real work, slapping this label of ‘intern’ on it, and assuming one has to donate their time instead of being paid.”

American Public Radio Marketplace on “Burning bridges while going viral”

Last week I wrote about non-disparagement clauses in separation agreements, and it led to a short interview with Marketplace’s Carmen Wong Ulrich on job terminations in the digital age and options for laid-off workers:

“I think what you’ve seen over the recent years is the internet becoming that megaphone,” says David Yamada, Professor of Law at Suffolk University in Boston. “You’ve got sites like eBosswatch and Glassdoor, and general sites such as YouTube and Yelp, where people are posting about their workplace experiences.”

You can catch the full interview (5 minutes) here.

Boston program on therapeutic jurisprudence, Friday, April 11

Therapeutic jurisprudence (or “TJ”) is a school of legal thought that examines the therapeutic and anti-therapeutic properties of law, legal systems, and legal practice. On Friday, April 11, the New Workplace Institute will host a free morning-to-afternoon workshop for lawyers, law faculty, and law students, “The Study and Practice of Law in a Therapeutic Key: An Introduction to Therapeutic Jurisprudence.” It will be held at Suffolk University Law School in downtown Boston.

The workshop will feature two panels and a luncheon, covering applications of TJ to legal writing & drafting and various practice areas. It will feature, among other notables, law professor David Wexler, one of the co-founders of therapeutic jurisprudence.

I’ll be posting full information and registration info on this blog. In the meantime, if you’d like to explore the vast TJ literature, please go to the website of the International Network on Therapeutic Jurisprudence. I’ve written about TJ in many blog posts; go here to read more.

The first issue of Bearing Witness is now available online

And speaking of good works and the law, during the past year, I’ve been serving as faculty advisor to a terrific group of Suffolk law students who are starting a new, non-traditional journal, Bearing Witness: A Journal on Law and Social Responsibility. In a departure from the law journal norm, Bearing Witness features short articles & essays, art & photography, short stories, and poetry.

The inaugural issue has been published, and I couldn’t be more pleased and proud of these students. For a flip book of the first issue, go here. And if submitting an article or artistic work for possible publication appeals to you, go to the journal webpage for more information.

I contributed an essay to the inaugural issue, “If It Matters, Write About It: Using Legal Scholarship to Effect Social Change.” You may download a pdf copy here.

Subscribe to this blog

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Working Notes: Folks who don’t get ahead, executive narcissists, and more

Hello dear readers, here are some items that may be of interest:

People who never get ahead at work?

According to Taylor Dupuy of Monster, in this mini-feature on Boston.com, there are five types of people who don’t get ahead at work: The self-doubter, the gossip, the person who doesn’t care, the hypersensitive worker, and the follower.

Yeah, there’s probably some truth in her list. But too bad that narcissists and bullies aren’t on it, because…..

Executive narcissism

Business psychology professor Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (University College London) wrote this snappy Huffington Post piece on narcissistic CEOs:

CEO compensation has risen by 725 percent in the past three decades — that’s 127 times more than worker pay. In 1978, the average CEO earned 26 times more than the average worker — it’s now 210 times more. CEOs of S&P index companies make 354 times more than the average employee. Furthermore, two recent scientific studies confirm what we have always known: Narcissistic CEOs ruin companies by demoralizing and alienating employees — effectively repelling talent — and by committing corporate fraud.

Workplace mobbing is “bullying on steroids”

Sophie Henshaw, writing for PsychCentral.com, offers an insightful piece on workplace bullying and mobbing:

Mobbing is “bullying on steroids,” a horrifying new trend whereby a bully enlists co-workers to collude in a relentless campaign of psychological terror against a hapless target.

. . . Mobbing is more likely to occur when a number of workplace factors are present. Understanding what they are can help to protect yourself from staying in, or taking a job in a toxic organization. For example, certain industries facing increased financial pressure because market demand is on the wane are more mobbing-prone. These organizations are driven by the dollar and accountable only to shareholders and directors. This creates toxic environments where managers turn a blind eye to bullying and mobbing and may even encourage it (Duffy & Sperry, 2013).

Workforce on workplace bullying and the Healthy Workplace Bill

Frank Kalman, associate editor for Workforce magazine, wrote a piece on workplace bullying in light of the Miami Dolphins situation and included interview remarks with me about the Healthy Workplace Bill. Citing loopholes in current law concerning bullying at work, he wrote:

David Yamada, a law professor and director of the New Workplace Institute at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, is working to change that. As the primary author of the Healthy Workplace Bill, Yamada aims to set a framework for legal action on workplace bullying outside of the protected classes.

Ten infamous terminations

Chad Brooks, writing for BusinessNewsDaily (via Yahoo! News), highlights 10 infamous worker terminations, including this one by Walmart:

In October, the retail giant fired a 30-year-old Michigan man after he tried to help a woman who was being attacked by a former boyfriend in the store’s parking lot.

The company fired Kristopher Oswald, who had been sitting in his car on break at the time of the incident. According to Walmart, Oswald broke the company’s workplace violence rules by fighting with the attacker after he witnessed the incident. At the time of the firing, Walmart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie told the Associated Press that while the company understood Oswald’s intentions, his actions of jumping into the situation violated company policy.

Labor resources

For those looking for helpful information on labor unions and collective bargaining, here are two great portals to free information:

• Collective Bargaining, Labor Relations, and Unions is hosted by the Catherwood Library of Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations School.
• Labor Unions: A Guide to Information Resources is hosted by librarian and economist Bob Lucore.

U.S. Army’s investigation of toxic leadership may yield valuable insights on bullying/suicide links

The United States Army is taking a hard look at the effects of toxic leaders on the mental health of soldiers, and the results may yield valuable insights on linkages between bullying behaviors and suicidal tendencies.

Daniel Zwerdling reports for National Public Radio:

Top commanders in the U.S. Army have announced publicly that they have a problem: They have too many “toxic leaders” — the kind of bosses who make their employees miserable. Many corporations share a similar problem, but in the Army’s case, destructive leadership can potentially have life or death consequences. So, some Army researchers are wondering if toxic officers have contributed to soldiers’ mental health problems.

One of those researchers is Dave Matsuda. In 2010, then-Brig. Gen. Pete Bayer, who was supervising the Army’s drawdown in Iraq, asked Matsuda to study why almost 30 soldiers in Iraq had committed or attempted suicides in the past year.

Before Matsuda began his investigation, the suicides had been largely attributed to personal problems such as childhood experiences, family issues, and financial pressures. However:

A more complicated story began to emerge, he says. In addition to major problems in their personal lives, the victims also had a leader who made their lives hell — sometimes a couple of leaders — Matsuda says. The officers would “smoke” them, as soldiers call it.

“Oftentimes platoon leaders will take turns seeing who can smoke this guy the worst. Seeing who can dream up the worst torture, seeing who can dream up the worst duties, seeing who can make this guy’s life the most miserable,” says Matusda.

You can listen to Zwerdling’s 13-minute segment and access a transcript of it here.

Significant implications for understanding the workplace bullying/suicide link

Suicide is a very difficult and painful subject, not to mention a complicated one to understand. Those who have been studying workplace bullying and its effects are well aware, however, of growing anecdotal evidence linking severe bullying behaviors at work to suicidal ideation. Furthermore, we know from clinical psychology that bullying can trigger or exacerbate depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, two conditions associated with suicide.

All too often, targets of workplace bullying are dismissed as being “weak” or “overly sensitive.” Perhaps the Army’s study of toxic leadership will help to refute this wrongful presumption. Here are soldiers who have survived boot camp and experienced life-threatening combat conditions, yet their deaths have been associated with targeted, ongoing, malicious mistreatment by their superiors.

Weaklings? No. Human? Yes.

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For more

Workplace bullying and the military (2011)

Please go here for additional posts on this blog discussing workplace bullying, suicide, and related topics.

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Hat tip to Susan Thomas for NPR piece.