OK, it’s one thing to hold your tongue in the midst of an intense difference of opinion, and quite another to tolerate “bullying.” Cripes! What’s this world coming to?
Scotsman.com Most of us associate bullies with the cruel taunts of the school playground, but for a growing number of people, putting up with bullying behaviour is a harsh reality of adult life. More and more, workers are becoming victims of verbal and sometimes physical abuse in the workplace.
Bullying is now estimated to affect as many as four out of five workers in the UK, according to some recent surveys, and it is argued that unless all employers start to take the issue more seriously the situation will only get worse.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development estimates that bullying and harassment in the workplace costs businesses dear, leading to an annual loss of 80 million working days and the equivalent of £2 billion in lost revenue.
So does this mean that workers are staying home from work to escape bullying co-workers? Double cripes!!
If everybody is making a lot of money, things go smoother. I worked at a number of half assed companies and everybody was going at it. This one said that and he was mad about that. She said, he said etc… Management encouraged this sort of thing in some cases and ignored it in others. The problems seemed worse at businesses where men and women were doing the same type of work. The office at one company was all girls and was like the calm Swiss village. Hire one guy as a secretary and the whole office turns into a big mess. Give a mans job to a lady and watch the whole place turn upside down. Web work is great because it keeps the sexes a safe distance apart while working. If you want a professional blog, hire women. If you want pigs fed or barges loaded hire the guys. Kitchen work can go either way. I’ve worked in kitchens and the guys always did the dishes. It an unequal world. It’s unfair, so what.
80 million working days = £2 billion in lost revenue? That’s £3 per lost hour. Sounds to me like there is alot of bullying among the minimum wage earners….
How much revenue is lost by hiring thousands of people to do unproductive government jobs and bully taxpayers into paying more fees and following ever more regulations?
…bullying and harassment in the workplace costs businesses dear, leading to an annual loss of 80 million working days…
80 million annually?! That would mean about 22,000 workers a day would being staying home, or be so cowered that they could not perform their jobs. Seems high to me.
Ok, now this blog is just becoming a trash heap. Is the language in the title of this article acceptable for ANY reason?
John Dvorak… your name is on this blog, and whatever is posted as an article directly represents you and your character.
The f-bomb might offend some readers. This could cause a loss of readers or attract more readers. In our culture, it should help attract new readers. Change the name to Dvorak Unfuckingcensored 2.0 and the whole blog seems edgy. Serve up soft porn ads and watch revenues jump by triple digits.
The f-bomb might offend some readers. This could cause a loss of readers or attract more readers. In our culture, it should help attract new readers. Change the name to Dvorak Unfukingcensored 2.0 and the whole blog seems edgy. Serve up soft porn ads and watch revenues jump by triple digits.
I’ve never worked in a large business environment but, I’d be willing to bet that a large number of the aggressors in question are in management or in some other position where they are in charge of other people, or some other situation in which telling them off isn’t what occurs to the victim for fear of it getting worse. Still, if it’s *not* that kind of case I’d have to agree with the title of the post – tell em off.
Bullying is now estimated to affect as many as four out of five workers in the UK,
4 out of 5??
Whose butt are they pulling such statistics from?
Every bully can have as many as 4 victims?
… now estimated to be as few as 0 out of 5?
Keep in mind that your dealing with a country that has basically given up all their rights to free speech. If a worker is bullied and responds to the bully, they can be brought up on one of many speech laws that pervade Britain now.
And the term *bully* is misleading as well…..simply asking a co-worker to turn in a report on time is considered as being a *bully*.
Also, I would like to see the breakdown of those time loss figures. Since the largest employer in Britain is now the goverment, I’m betting thats where most of the time loss is. In Scotland and Northern England the goverment is so pervasive in the work force that private employers can’t find enough people to fill non-goverment jobs. Just asking a goverment employee what they do to earn their salery is considered *bullying*.
Heh…
Knowledge is power. I don’t intimidate or bully, but if people want their computers or other issues fixed quicker, I make ’em bring in snacks or something. One gal would bake a cake-pan full of peanut rice krispie special k bars, with chocolate frosting. She thought I wanted them all, but I took two and put the rest in the cafeteria for everybody else to enjoy. She became the darling cooker of the group, and made better friendships with everybody. I was seen as a saint, although a gluttonous one, heh.
As for real bullying? It’s bosses versus subordinates. I’ve worked many places, and that’s about the only thing I’ve seen. Sure, there is the occasional sexual harassment, but I’ve seen that go both ways. The people who are in a position of authority, whether or not they are competent or deserving of the position, are usually the worst problem. Nepotism can be bad, too – but I’ve worked for relatives, and they’ve actually demanded a higher level of performance from me than from my peers.
That was a little winded for 2 cents. Inflation.
P.S. & BTW: Only close-minded sheep are offended by the word ‘fuck’. Here are some truly offensive words, because of what they represent: rape, war, hunger, homelessness, overcompensation, ignorance. Eye on the ball, people, eye on the ball.
I’m not offended by the “F” word, but I happened to have read this at work and my co-workers saw it and they beat me up….the bullies….
What was the topic about again?
#11–Fantastic video! Kudos! Thanks. I’ll blog it soon with commentary, probably.
#11, ROTFLOL!! This is F***ing hilarious!!!
Concerning the word FUCK. Has anybody noticed the title to this website. Look above and notice the second word.
Back on topic. I’ve worked for several blue collar jobs and the one thing you need to do, is stick up for yourself and “give it back”. I recently had confrontation with the second in command at work about a topic won’t go into and he came back the next day and aplogized.
We now respect each more and there are no more problems (so far).
Re 15 (Domc)-
Uncensored doesn’t mean that it has to be vulgar and classless, specially at the “top level’. If this is trhe standard being set by the blog owner, so be it, but it certainly reflects on him as a person.
Damc, if you can’t see the difference between swearing in the title of a blog article and the ‘uncensored’ response section, you yourself are obviously an ignorant fuck. Obviously that word is acceptable here, so I am using it as a valid replacement for ‘idiot’.
#11…..thank you….that was inspiring. 🙂
I worked with a guy who killed himself. The boss was fucking his wife. It pushed the poor guy over the edge and he hung himself. It’s best to keep your employees out of your personal life and focus on business. A lot of people would of killed the boss, the wife or both before they checked out. I guess the guy didn’t want to be remembered as a murderer. The wife will always be the widow of the guy who killed himself because she betrayed him. A real black widow and bad business story.
The guy who killed himself has a son, so maybe when the son gets old and figures out what happened he will kill the boss. I’m sure he’ll have plenty of help. The good you do for yourself dies with you. The good you do for others lives on after you die.