It may not come as a surprise to anyone that the playground bully you had to worry about as a kid may resurface as a workplace bully.
It appears as though this workplace bully may be the target of new legislation. Specifically, the blog site “Jottings by an Employer’s Lawyer” had a nice posting on possible legislation.
I just found a nice piece written by AHI’s employment law resource center for managers on this same topic, which you can find
here.
The summary of it is:
1. Companies need to develop an awareness of what bullying is;
2. Companies need to provide training and have a policy about bullying;
3. Companies need to be vigilant and aware of bullying that takes place and respond properly to it.
In addition, NIOSH reported on a recent survey of workplace bullying; among the findings were:
Sphere: Related Content24.5 percent of the companies surveyed reported that some degree of bullying had occurred there during the preceding year.
In the most recent incident that had occurred, 39.2 percent involved an employee as the aggressor, 24.5 percent involved a customer, and 14.7 percent involved a supervisor.
In the most recent incident, 55.2 percent involved the employee as the “victim,” 10.5 percent the customer, and 7.7 percent the supervisor.
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So what recourse does a victim who ends up being fired by the bully have?
My fiancee was the victim last month. She was a store manager for the premier brand of a prominent national retailer. Her Region VP has a reputation for bullying, and on a store visit, kept haranguing my fiancee on the store’s sales floor in front of her customers and employees for more than three hours before blowing her top and taking a swing at my fiancee. Cause for her anger? She didn’t feel the holiday floor set had been done the way she wanted to see it done, even though the store staff had followed the company’s brand guide as closely they could.
My fiancee was placed on administrative leave when she complained about the assault, pending investigation by the HR Department. The company has specific policies on assault procedures (leave the store immediately, which my fiancee did) and on workplace violence (any employee who commits or threatens an assault will be fired). The company’s employee manual also specifically states they’re an at will employer and we live in at at will state (Michigan).
The result of the HR investigation was that either no other employee saw the incident, or they are all so afraid for their jobs that they were afraid to tell HR what they had seen. Net result? My fiancee’s word against a Region VP’s, with my fiancee being terminated. Her former employer is even protesting her unemployment insurance claim.
Wrongful termination suits are notoriously difficult. My fiancee now has no money to pay an attorney and no attorney she spoke with has been interested in taking the case on a contingent basis.