First Written on August 20, 2008 Revised and Updated Thursday, August 21, 2008 Bullying at Workplace – 2 I published an article on workplace bullying yesterday based on a dispatch from WSJ. I remembered that in the year 2000, a British lady had got in touch with me on the subject and I gave some recommendations to her as she was representing her union. On July 16, 2000, a Ms. GW, a union rep from an organization in UK, got in touch with me and explained the predicament she and some of her colleagues were facing at their workplace. After obtaining more details, it was amply clear that, what was happening was beyond decency in a modern, civilized and that too in a developed country like United Kingdom. The conflict, that was building up finally ended up, by some workers resorting to strike, in some parts of the organization. I am giving below parts of the correspondence exchanged: Quote: "GW wrote:  Dear Sir > > I have really enjoyed your pages and they have helped me a lot. I am a full time union rep in the UK. I am working in partnership with Senior Managers in our Company to try and eradicate a bad management style and attitude which has grown up mainly because the managers who were promoted were thrown into things without any adequate back-up or role models, which has resulted in a bullying culture. Have you any tips, or papers, i.e. how good managers should behave and how bad managers should not. This type of management style seems to becoming the norm in the call centers environment which I am working on. Kindest regards > > GW  Reply:  Dear GW > Thank you for getting in touch. The problem you have mentioned is because of inadequacies of managers. Only weak people bully subordinates. A bully is generally a coward. Many managers try to overcome their inadequacies by terrorizing their subordinates. When such things happen, the best solution is to stand up and tell them to back off firmly and if necessary take it up with senior management. What is your HRD doing? I have not heard of such complaints earlier and I will try to give you some idea. However it will help if you give me some real life experience so that I can expand on it. Regards  Madhavan"  "Dear Madhavan Thank you for being so quick in your response. The following are things that have happened:  · Competent people being constantly criticized · Shouting at people and using inappropriate language · Using threatening behavior or persistently picking on people in front of  others or in private · Regularly and deliberately ignoring or excluding people from work activities · Consistently attacking a person in terms of their professional or personal  standing · Regularly making the same person the butt of jokes   Examples: · Telling someone they would 'manage them out of the Company · Refusing to let a sales person who was 7 months pregnant go to the toilet because her selling time wasn't good enough · Threatening to 'batter' someone · Sticking 'post its' on people foreheads because they hadn't made a sale · Making people stand up until they have made a sale plus all of the above. · It seems to be a fear culture which is prominent in the call center environment. · I did a presentation to the MD of the Unit who was appalled and immediately issued an integrity statement, followed by rigorous training courses, which is where we are now. Management wants me to do a presentation on the course to managers. The company has the following integrity statement: "We are committed to developing a working culture that is fair and inclusive enabling all employees, to make their distinctive contributions to the benefit of the business. We are also determined to ensure that we extend this same openness to our suppliers, business partners and all our customers. We expect our Managers to exercise leadership in this field by discouraging prejudice and by role modeling appropriate behavior." However these managers were brought in from outside and just told to 'get on with it' many of them are very young, most of them are inexperienced, some of them are incompetent. From research I have done it seems to be the normal behavior of managers in the call center environment in this country. They are referred to as the 'sweatshops of the future'.  Many thanks GW" Unquote. Now it is for the law makers to decide whether bullying is illegal or not. Note: The ID of GW or any other readers is never revealed by us as per our policy. Summarized and Written  by Madhavan T Gopalachary The views, opinions and interpretations are personal. Sponsorship does not mean that the sponsors endorse them. Editorial Policy © Copyright, Aug-08 . www.madgopes.com . Without prejudice. All rights reserved www.mmgindia.com is the official website of Madras Management Group, Chennai, India. www.madgopes.com and www.mmg.name are personal websites and all editorials are published under their banner to retain editorial independence. We would highly appreciate feedback from readers and it may be sent to ipr@mmg.name.