by Susan Dunn, MA
Clinical Psychology, The EQ Coach
Bullying, mobbing and hostile
workplace are not currently illegal in the US. However according
to The Workplace Bullying and Trauma Institute (WBTI), the first legislation
on bullying went
to the California legislature
(AB 1582) in February of this year.
The WBTI urges individuals to
sign their on-site petition form (http://bullying institute.org/home/otherstates.html
) to lobby
in other states.
“Until there is a law,” they
say, “employers will not care about bullying.”
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
“Preventing on-the-job violence
is difficult,” says Peter Freiberg, writing on bullying in the APA Monitor
(American Psychological Association), “because it often involves changing
the very
culture of the workplaces.”
There are no statistics on the
extent of workplace bullying (mobbing, harassment, etc.) in the US, but
consultants affirm it’s “endemic” in some organizations, self-perpetuating
and viral.
If your company has a culture
that’s leaving you open to risk, here’s what an EQ program can do for you.
An EQ program trains your employees
to avoid situations that can cost your business money. It trains
employees and staff to avoid behaviors that create or perpetuate situations
that can cost
you thousands of dollars in
unnecessary legal fees and settlements.
EQ training for managers and
HR personnel increases the likelihood of choosing the best candidate in
the first place, and then managing them properly, so you save the money
and risk
involved in dismissal, rehiring
and retraining.
This applies at all levels. Studies
have shown that cardiologists with high EQ (particularly in one competency)
get sued less than cardiologists with low EQ.
An EQ program addresses most
potentially litigious issues -- sexual harassment, fraud, discrimination,
multicultural and diversity issues, mobbing, bullying, constructive discontent,
communication and hostility.
Studies of jurors in employment
litigation show the jury will treat the company more kindly if you have
a program in place. They expect you to act on complaints, meaning
your managers must be
trained to evaluate complaints
and handle them properly.
Jurors expect you to put a program
in place if there has been a complaint, and a "complaint" can mean an offhand
remark at the company picnic. They don’t like if you put a program in place
only after a lawsuit was filed,
and they have a chance to express their “dislike” in the punishment phase
of the trial.
Jurors think a superior who inappropriately
touches an employee should be fired immediately. They’re especially incensed
if the company looks the other way for monetary reasons, i.e.,
letting the rainmaker get away
with something the receptionist couldn’t. They hold senior staff
to a higher standard of conduct, and don’t like it when the victim “goes
on trial” – either at your office or during proceedings, i.e., "Then why
did you dress
that way?"
Polled jurors not only “believe”
the victim, they are sure that harassment and discrimination are frequent.
Note this current appeal on the website of the Workplace and Bullying trauma
Institute (http://bullyinginstitute.org
):
“If you are a
bullied target living in or
near NEW YORK, NY we
have an immediate need to have
you go On Record
for a newspaper story.”
42% of people surveyed reported
having witnessed others being targeted for bullying. You may consider
this “part of working,” but jurors do not.
An EQ program is fair and equal
treatment for all employees. It's non-invasive, non-discriminatory,
singles out no one, is positive,
proactive, everyone can learn
it, and it gets results.
An EQ culture can change "the
way things are done around here," and if "the way things are done around
here" is exposing you to liability, you need to act.
An EQ program raises the average
EQ in your office which has proven to increase the bottom line. According
to research by Reuven Bar-on, Ph.D., raising the overall average emotional
intelligence in your office
affects the bottom line positively, while increasing one person's EQ does
not. In other words, train everyone for best results.
Managers with high EQ can keep
you out of trouble. They are often the first point of contact and
how they handle a complaint makes a difference. Managers and supervisors
with low EQ are easily "hijacked" by emotion and react to employees and
situations without thinking it through and using good judgment.
LACK OF 'SOFT’ SKILLS BRINGS
‘HARD’ CONSEQUENCES DURING THE PUNISHMENT PHASE OF THE TRIAL.
And what’s the trend? There
is corporate manslaughter on the continent, and bullying is already illegal
in the UK.
Cases are being won in Europe
by employees (see my article, “What’s Going on with Mobbing, Bullying,
and Work Harassment
Internationally” ( http://www.ideamarketers.com/library/article.cfm?articleid=19430&where
from=LOGIN ) and European Union
(EU) members are lobbying for an EU-wide statute against mobbing.
A study by Spain's University
of Alcal de Henares reports that 15% of workers in the EU “suffer psychological
harassment or mobbing on the job.”
Belgium has a law on harassment
in the pipeline, and Germany is considering legislating to tackle the problems
there. The German Ministry of Labour reports the problem costs the
state £100 million a year in medical costs, plus lost working days.
The Mobbing Report, a survey
of 4,400 workers, estimated that 800,000 people were suffering "intolerable"
abuse every day and that 1.
5 million workers suffered sickness
caused by bullying.
Lobbying is moving forward in
the US. Get a training program in place now and reduce your risk.
For more about mobbing, go here:
http://www.webstrategies.cc/mobbing.htm
. For more
on bullying, go here: http://bullyinginstitute.org.
