By Caroline Smith
Jack* was excited by the challenge of his new role as an Executive Manager. After some five years in the health sector, he was keen to sink his skills and experience into a role that he could make his own, while also growing in leadership skills.
His new colleagues Karen, the Administration Manager, and James, the CEO were friendly and helpful.
An unfortunate series of personal tragedies in the weeks that followed meant Jack had a lot to deal with. Karen showed signs she was less sympathetic than he had hoped and the deadlines were relentless.
It was then that the negative comments started. Remarks about his culture, family and lifestyle were taking their toll, emotionally, mentally and physically.
Suffering depression and unable to sleep at night, Jack worked all the harder. The company had also experienced significant challenges, forcing Jack to spend large amounts of time away from his family.
Unbeknown to Jack at the time, Karen was tapping his phone calls, as well as sabotaging his email and social media accounts, resulting in a written warning – to Jack – from the company board chairman.
But Karen’s bullying and manipulation didn’t stop with Jack. The CEO, James, Accountant Anna and Administration Assistant, Amanda, were all in her sights. Karen has hacked the IT system and had access to all their email accounts and had become pretty good at destroying evidence of her behaviour.
It was some months later, while Jack was on annual leave, that Karen’s actions lead to the sacking of the CEO by the company board chairman.
Some weeks later, the Administration Assistant resigned because Karen had tried to force her (and Jack) to eat ‘home-made’ chocolate cake in an attempt to ‘gain their trust’ and say sorry.
The company board members ignored repeated calls from Jack for intervention, even when several of them personally visited and met with him to check progress of what had become a highly volatile situation. Some board members even encouraged Karen and authorised her ‘takeover’ of Jack’s role.
So when the new CEO agreed with Karen that Jack was not up for the job either, Jack knew it was either time to take serious legal action or make a quick exit.
And so, after 18 months of tyranny, the CEO finally made Karen redundant.
(*names have been changed to protect identities.)
For many people, a workplace is a fairly innocuous location, where they spend around eight hours a day performing certain functions and getting paid for their efforts.
Geraldton based psychologist Peter Watt, said that workplace bullying needed to be taken seriously, and addressed by management.
With some 25 years of experience in understanding the human condition, Mr Watt says that while human nature is essentially good, people can behave badly and use power or status to take advantage of employee vulnerability.
“Where this reality is denied by the organisation, workplace remediation will be ineffective and bullying will continue.
“While it is important to have an operational definition of bullying to avoid injustice in employment relations, it is equally important for employers to consider the impact of any communication in the workplace, and operate gently with staff.”
As the issue of workplace bullying (and bulling in general) has gained greater prominence in Australia over the past decade or more, the Federal government has responded with calls for a national hotline which would offer advice to workers and employers dealing with workplace bullying.
This was one of 23 recommendations made in a 2012 report by the House of Representatives’ Standing Committee on Education and Employment, entitled Workplace bullying: we just want it to stop.
Public service agencies estimate that around 15 to 25 per cent of their workforce have reported experiencing workplace bullying, and Rod West – Executive Manager of Counselling Services at social services provider Centrecare – says that this is in-line with his own interactions with workers.
“During the 2015-2016 financial year, around 20 percent of individuals who reported accessing Centrecare Corporate’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for counselling due to Workplace Stress, indicated that it was due to allegation of workplace bullying,” he said.
Mr West said a 2010 survey by anti-bullying website No Bull! indicated how serious the impact of workplace bullying could be.
“Four out of five respondents stated they had suffered from, or been diagnosed with sleeping problems and depression after being targeted by a workplace bully – closely followed by 75 percent with anxiety, 59 percent with constant fatigue, and scaringly 6 percent had considered suicide,” he said.
He added that workplaces themselves often suffered, but were beginning to respond with policies tackling the issue.
“Most organisations now know the personal, health and organisational damage that bullying can cause and have a range of policies and guidelines that addresses behaviours including: spreading gossip about others, forwarding on or respond to messages or photos that may be offensive or upsetting, and supporting the person who is being bullied to ask for help,” he said.
Workshops encourage justice and empathy
Approaching relationships from a fresh and empathetic perspective was the goal for staff from several West Australian dioceses – including the Archdiocese of Perth – who recently took part in a program of monthly workshops entitled ‘Discovering Restorative Justice Together’.
The program involved 38 participants split into two groups and met between July and November 2016.
The key activity during each session involved sharing experiences of relationships in a circle formation, with one person speaking at a time while the others listened.
Emmanuel Centre Co-ordinator Barbara Harris, said she had studied and used restorative justice principles in the past.
“I was talking about it to other people, and they showed an interest in learning about it, so the Archdiocese said let’s run a program,” she said.
“We had people attend who were prison chaplains, members of parish councils as well as representatives from schools and agencies.
From page 18 and 19 from Issue 6: ‘Prayer – What does it mean to pray without ceasing?’ of The Record Magazine