Heard a call this week to ban bullying in the workplace. Sounds like a good idea. No one likes being bullied. It’s a noxious and repulsive practice. Yet enough people seem to get some sort of sick enjoyment out of the misery of others. Especially the misery that is of their creation.
Unsurprisingly this call came from a legal firm that just happens to specialise in workplace law. Sounds like they are trying to drum up some extra business. They know better than most that it’s difficult to define bullying. There would be so much left to interpretation and nothing will be black or white. What might have been a fair but negative performance review could potentially be misconstrued as bullying.
It would open the floodgates to litigation. It will be considered the ‘easy’ route to help fix a poor situation.
To a degree people do need to have more resilience instead of being quick to jump on the legal action train. There are long-term ramifications, not just the short term ones. Will legal action actually fix the problem or just create different problems?
Perhaps one tough situation is teaching you resilience. Maybe having the courage to find another job is a better course of action. What a relief it will be once you find that your experience is not the norm.
Bullying says more about them than it does you anyway. We could do without it and any action that leads to the promotion of healthy workplace practices is a good thing. It takes some leadership and guts. Bullies are hard to budge. Acts of bullying should be out in the open and persistent bullies outed and dealt with. But to call for a blanket ban is just plain ridiculous.
Unsurprisingly this call came from a legal firm that just happens to specialise in workplace law. Sounds like they are trying to drum up some extra business. They know better than most that it’s difficult to define bullying. There would be so much left to interpretation and nothing will be black or white. What might have been a fair but negative performance review could potentially be misconstrued as bullying.
It would open the floodgates to litigation. It will be considered the ‘easy’ route to help fix a poor situation.
To a degree people do need to have more resilience instead of being quick to jump on the legal action train. There are long-term ramifications, not just the short term ones. Will legal action actually fix the problem or just create different problems?
Perhaps one tough situation is teaching you resilience. Maybe having the courage to find another job is a better course of action. What a relief it will be once you find that your experience is not the norm.
Bullying says more about them than it does you anyway. We could do without it and any action that leads to the promotion of healthy workplace practices is a good thing. It takes some leadership and guts. Bullies are hard to budge. Acts of bullying should be out in the open and persistent bullies outed and dealt with. But to call for a blanket ban is just plain ridiculous.
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