- Aug 8, 2010
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- AFL Club
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I read some news this morning that came as no surprise to me - Australia is ranked as one of the worst countries for workplace bullying (Link: http://www.australasianlawyer.com.au/news/lawyers-some-of-australias-worst-bullies-192671.aspx).
Bullying is one of those words that tends to arouse strong emotion when thrown around (not unlike racism, for instance). This is because, for example, it's pretty subjective and is used by some people when they have no decent argument and just want to smear someone. So I want to emphasise here that I'm talking about actual workplace bullying rather than unpleasant performance management (although I acknowledge this can be a fine distinction).
After working in Australia and abroad for a number of years, I think that Australia has a real problem with bullying. Personally I had a horrible supervisor for my first year of work and he pretty much used every tactic in the book on me. To give you a very brief example, this included a) giving me ridiculously hard tasks (that senior staff would struggle with) at 8pm at night and expecting it at 8am the next morning, b) pulling me over the coals for an hour each time I did basic administrative tasks like writing cover letters, c) publicly blaming me to clients and other staff in meetings for tasks I didn't even perform, d) threatening violence on a number of occasions and so on, e) calling me demeaning names. I would feel ill every time I went to the office that year and my GP asked me to quit a number of times for the sake of my health.
Now that I am more senior (although unfortunately not senior enough to intervene), I see similar work relationships appear to follow this pattern over and over again. I say "appear" because bullies are generally pretty smart about their behaviour and won't give away much in public until things have really deteriorated. It doesn't help that senior staff generally only want to hear about results and not get bogged down in "personality conflicts", and HR tends to reluctantly follow their legal obligations while holding a view that complainants are just trouble-makers who are making a career limited move.
The truth is I think this is an ugly part of our culture that needs to be stamped out. People have a right to have their mental health protected at work. I also truly believe that if workplaces aimed to protect mental health as a priority, we would be much more productive in the long term. I'm surprised decent people aren't more angry about it. The reality is the introduction of the anti-bullying tribunal was greeting across the board with widespread cynicism in my office. I understand that the Abbott government has watered down its powers somewhat as well.
Some of you are probably reading up to this point and saying: "So what? We all went through it, suck it up." I think these responses are based on two realities. One is that the workplace is competitive and exhibiting dominance and aggression is often seen as a positive trait (especially in Australia, very much less so in other countries). How juniors cope with bullying/hazing can be seen as a test of manliness and character and almost a rite of passage. Second is that human beings are social creatures who tend to view people in the "in crowd" as better and more trustworthy people compared with outsiders (which is often inaccurate).
I remember hearing a reliable story about a school that held a play which was centred around school bullying, and a "cool kid" was given the role as the bullied kid. After the play was showed, his peers start to treat him like the bullied character he played - to the point he left the school. It was a disaster that was never repeated.
All views are welcome on this topic, and sorry for the long post. Thanks.
Bullying is one of those words that tends to arouse strong emotion when thrown around (not unlike racism, for instance). This is because, for example, it's pretty subjective and is used by some people when they have no decent argument and just want to smear someone. So I want to emphasise here that I'm talking about actual workplace bullying rather than unpleasant performance management (although I acknowledge this can be a fine distinction).
After working in Australia and abroad for a number of years, I think that Australia has a real problem with bullying. Personally I had a horrible supervisor for my first year of work and he pretty much used every tactic in the book on me. To give you a very brief example, this included a) giving me ridiculously hard tasks (that senior staff would struggle with) at 8pm at night and expecting it at 8am the next morning, b) pulling me over the coals for an hour each time I did basic administrative tasks like writing cover letters, c) publicly blaming me to clients and other staff in meetings for tasks I didn't even perform, d) threatening violence on a number of occasions and so on, e) calling me demeaning names. I would feel ill every time I went to the office that year and my GP asked me to quit a number of times for the sake of my health.
Now that I am more senior (although unfortunately not senior enough to intervene), I see similar work relationships appear to follow this pattern over and over again. I say "appear" because bullies are generally pretty smart about their behaviour and won't give away much in public until things have really deteriorated. It doesn't help that senior staff generally only want to hear about results and not get bogged down in "personality conflicts", and HR tends to reluctantly follow their legal obligations while holding a view that complainants are just trouble-makers who are making a career limited move.
The truth is I think this is an ugly part of our culture that needs to be stamped out. People have a right to have their mental health protected at work. I also truly believe that if workplaces aimed to protect mental health as a priority, we would be much more productive in the long term. I'm surprised decent people aren't more angry about it. The reality is the introduction of the anti-bullying tribunal was greeting across the board with widespread cynicism in my office. I understand that the Abbott government has watered down its powers somewhat as well.
Some of you are probably reading up to this point and saying: "So what? We all went through it, suck it up." I think these responses are based on two realities. One is that the workplace is competitive and exhibiting dominance and aggression is often seen as a positive trait (especially in Australia, very much less so in other countries). How juniors cope with bullying/hazing can be seen as a test of manliness and character and almost a rite of passage. Second is that human beings are social creatures who tend to view people in the "in crowd" as better and more trustworthy people compared with outsiders (which is often inaccurate).
I remember hearing a reliable story about a school that held a play which was centred around school bullying, and a "cool kid" was given the role as the bullied kid. After the play was showed, his peers start to treat him like the bullied character he played - to the point he left the school. It was a disaster that was never repeated.
All views are welcome on this topic, and sorry for the long post. Thanks.
