Beating the Bullies

Last night, I had dinner with a group of friends. Four of the eight or 50% reported that they had been the object of intimidation, threats and bullying in the workplace.

One has been with her employer for three years and each of her evaluations had been stellar until this year. He dropped her in 20 categories not because her performance had changed at all but because he was building a case so he could terminate her higher paying position.

She refused to take it laying down though and politely confronted her employer about the evaluation. She went to the conversation armed with reasons why each demotion was incorrect. Ultimately, he changed ever category back to exemplary, told her that she did not have to attach her rebuttals to her original evaluation, and that their discussion should stay between the two of them. He was clearly going to have to concoct another reason besides incompetence, because despite the fact that she is doing an excellent job, he still terminated her.

My friend has been smart though. Besides making sure her evaluation and ultimately her professional reputation was accurate, she also recorded the conversation, so she has his comment about keeping their conversation hush/hush on tape. By the way, it turns out that it is legal to tape a conversation without your announcing that you're doing so. She has a case now to take to the human resource department, but it is going to be a battle to keep her position as a counselor to children and program director.

A second friend is a teacher. She works with blind children and though the need for those types of teachers is still great, she was also terminated. Because of budget cuts, services to these children are being scaled back or eliminated altogether. Her principal told her that her contract was not going to be renewed but that it had nothing to do with her job performance. To add insult to injury, he told her that he wanted her to resign rather than have it be recorded as a reduction in force, and that if she did, he would make sure she got a good recommendation. He went on to say that if she did not resign, that she would not get a recommendation letter and that her termination would result in not being hired by others. He gave her by the end of the work day to decide.

It turns out that school districts don't want to look bad to their parents and the press. They don't want their records to show the real number of terminations. It is a public relations problem that they want to avoid, so they are intimidating teachers into resigning instead.

My friend chose not to resign. Instead, she wrote a letter saying that she preferred that the truth of her termination be recorded and that she hoped that because he said that it had nothing to do with her performance that he would in deed give her a recommendation letter that she had clearly earned.

The last two stories had to do with abuse from other colleagues. The one that is particularly horrific has been ongoing for over five years. It included public chastisement, public humiliation and private intimidation and threats of job loss unless my friend towed the line. Well my friend, who teaches handicapped children, finally had it and exposed not only the problem but the hierarchy protecting this teacher who usurped authority, terrified her team, and broke every rule of professional conduct that exists.

It turns out that my friend, who really risked everything by making the decision to go public, has not only exposed a collusion and cover-up in her own district, but has exposed the growing problem of bullying and intimidation in the workplace. Her efforts have resulted in both statewide and now national attention to the problem.

It is extraordinary to imagine that in this day of greater enlightenment not to mention work place laws that this kind of thing goes on, but it does and far more often than we like to think.

The lesson is clear but it takes courage. As each of my friends did, we must counter intimidation when it occurs. We must stand up to the bullies, and we must demand our rights. Otherwise, the bullies win and we are doomed to a life of fear.