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When Bullies Grow Up
What happens to playground bullies who grow up to be workplace bullies? And what happens to the companies where they work?
This is the focus of an article entitled “Workplace Bullying Suits on the Horizon.”
Successful Bullying Lawsuit and Proposed Legislation
According to the article, a workplace bully was forced to pay $325,000 after the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the jury verdict in one case that involved facts sufficiently severe to qualify as an assault.
Indianapolis attorney Kevin Betz, who represented the plaintiff in that case, is quoted as saying that he thinks workplace bullying is becoming more common.
“‘In my father’s day, there was cradle to grave employment with one company, which doesn’t exist anymore. And it’s a lot easier to treat people harshly when you don’t have to worry about working with them for the next 60 years,’ Betz said.”
The problem is considered so severe that there’s even an organization, the Workplace Bullying Institute, to address it, and model legislation about workplace bullying has been written and introduced (but not yet enacted) in 13 states.
What’s The Legal Theory (Cause of Action)?
Unless and until new legislation is passed, workplace bullying is an injury searching for a legal remedy. There is no legal basis for a bullying lawsuit, as such.
As noted above, in the Indiana case, the claim was for assault. Generally speaking (state laws may vary) civil recovery for assault does not require physical contact, contrary to popular belief, but does require an act intended to cause apprehension of harmful or offensive contact that causes such apprehension. Words alone are insufficient, but may create an assault if coupled with some action indicating ability to carry out a verbal threat.
Another possibility is discrimination law, if the bullying can be characterized as picking on the person because of their protected characteristic (e.g., race, sex, age, disability, etc.)
Finally, intentional infliction of emotional distress is an impressive-sounding tort that could fit workplace bullying in principle. In practice, I have very rarely encountered a successful case using this tort, as applied to bullying or otherwise. Most courts apply a strict standard, requiring extreme and outrageous conduct beyond the standards of civilized decency or utterly intolerable in a civilized society.
In sum, legally challenging garden-variety workplace bullying is difficult, notwithstanding the success of the Indiana case. Telling in this regard is the comment of Betz, the plaintiff’s attorney in that case, that “he has consulted on several other bullying cases, but hasn’t filed any others to date.”
So What to Do About the Problem?
Granted, children who are bullied either verbally or physically are often traumatized by the experience, though most grow up quite normally (and maybe even gain some life skills from the experience).
As noted, some poor behavior in the workplace raises legitimate causes of action, from sexual harassment to (in an increasing number of states) discrimination against sexual minorities. Assault can always be the basis for a claim as well.
But one would hope that before we rush off creating new causes of action through legislation, we would consider whether we shouldn’t just as well expect adults to be able to brush off most workplace bullying as a case of “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me.”
Not every unpleasant human interaction requires a legal remedy; indeed, litigation may often merely make matters worse.
On the other hand, management should recognize that bullying can drain productivity, kill morale, and cause turnover. It can also be a precursor to serious workplace violence.
So while bullying is not cause for huge concern as a legal matter at the moment — unless it targets employees based on protected characteristics or rises to the extremes of assault or intentional infliction of emotional distress — it should be taken very seriously as a management and HR matter, and complaints about it should be thoroughly investigated, with appropriate discipline, up to and including discharge, meted out as deemed appropriate.
Also, an economic downturn is a great time to clean house of employees prone to bullying and other negative attitudes and behaviors, as the pool of potentially better replacements should be large, due to layoffs.
What do you think — is workplace bullying a problem in need of a law (and lawsuits)?
Photo credit: Eddie~S via flickr
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Comments
Yes, workplace bullying is in need of a law. Laws are what prevent sociopaths from committing other violent crimes. Since they …”never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors as permissible” (http://www.mcafee.cc/Bin/sb.html) knowing they’ll to jail or be sued is what stops them. Laws will prevent workplace bullying! Some will still happen sure, but if rape were legal can you imagine how common it’d be? As common as workplace bullying. Please sign the petition to pass the anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/anti-bullying-healthy-workplace-bill.html . Thank you!
I am a firmly believer the we need the law in order to prevent socialize sociopaths, and other individuals with personality disorder to disrupt the workplace.
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