Bullying
Warning: Bullies at Work
Michael Corry believes that bullying should be regarded as a work-related injury and that bullies should face criminal prosecution
More on Bullying
Bullies in blue
Police
HQ denies there is a problem of bullying within the Gardai.
This account, from a cop with 20 years service, says they are
wrong
READ
MORE>>
When bullies gang
up
Henry was so good at his job he
stepped on many management corns. So they ganged up to get rid
of him, and almost wrecked his life
READ
MORE>>
It's tough dealing
with
a bully
I finally decided to make a formal
complaint against my boss. Then my troubles really
began....
READ MORE>>
Bullying is unlawful
One man who
survived being bullied says the bullies always survive and the
victims get the chop....
READ
MORE>>
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Bully: a
person who hurts, persecutes, or intimidates weaker people
(Collins English Dictionary); a person who uses strength or
power to coerce or intimidate weaker persons
(Oxford).
To harass: to trouble, torment, or confuse
by persistent continual attacks, questions, etc. (Collins);
to trouble by repeated attacks, to subject to constant molesting or
persecution (Oxford).
To intimidate: to make timid or frightened,
to scare; to discourage, restrain, or silence illegally or
unscrupulously, as by threats or blackmail (Collins); to
terrify, overawe, cow; to deter from some action by threats or
violence (Oxford).
Bullying is an act of violence and
abuse. It's a vicious assault on the mind, body and spirit. The
extent of its impact is rarely appreciated. As a criminal act, it
needs to be addressed more seriously by the courts. In my opinion,
bullying is akin to the trauma of sexual abuse, rape, and torture.
It crushes the will, breaks the heart and sends the mind into
turmoil. In its wake it brings shame, guilt, self-loathing,
isolation and seething anger. It can destroy relationships and wreck
family life. It opens a Pandora's box of psychological phenomena:
anxiety, poor concentration, forgetfulness, obsessional ruminations,
flashbacks, insomnia, nightmares, panic attacks, social withdrawal,
loss of libido, mistrust, de-motivation, depression, suicidal
thoughts, loss of hope and even suicide itself.
The
body takes a hammering - fatigue, weight loss, hypertension, chest
pain, asthma, stomach ulceration, irritable bowel, nausea,
diarrhoea, period problems, ligament and joint pains, psoriasis,
eczema, etc. The inevitable suppression of the immune system opens
the way to a multiplicity of infections and the possibility of
cancer cells taking root.
The
longer the individual is exposed to the onslaught, the greater the
damage, and greater still if the bully has enlisted the support of
others to work as a team. Now we have a blood-hungry pack of wolves.
This phenomenon is known as ‘mobbing'. Because of its terrifying
effectiveness, everyone not directly involved runs for cover lest
they also come in for attack. Hence the victim's isolation, and the
terrible feelings of rejection and abandonment.
The
emotion of depression has evolved over aeons of time, stretching
back to our ancient brain. We share this powerful emotional response
with social animals who are bonded through relationship and
attachment. We know that abandonment by their group can cause death.
Lacking the required survival skills for life outside the group,
they experience overwhelming helplessness, and such animals become
depressed, and surrender the will to live.
Similarly in humans, the moment exclusion and
abandonment is experienced, old evolutionary pathways are opened.
Now perceiving themselves to be lacking in control, they experience
powerlessness, hopelessness, inner emptiness, nothing to live for,
and may feel they are of such low status as to be of no use to
anyone.
In my
practice I have sat in front of weeping, crushed, lifeless
individuals who could no longer meet the unbearable cost of living
and so welcomed oblivion. They appeared to be running the chemistry
of death. Since the life they knew had ended, their only viable
option appeared, to them, to be absolute disengagement.
Some
sit around, virtually waiting for death while others take a more
proactive decision. The link between bullying and suicide is now
well established.
Estimates show that one in every seventh suicide is
related to bullying at work.
While
I have worked with many bullied individuals from different walks of
life, the worst affected have been those from the Garda Siochana,
the Army, and the teaching profession. These hierarchical, closed
structures lend themselves to serial abuse of power, mobbing and
exclusion. An individual who, for whatever reason, becomes a target,
and who may previously have got along famously with his colleagues
both professionally and socially, is now given the cold shoulder by
them, lest they by association attract the bully's attention. For
years they may have regarded these colleagues as ‘family,' and now -
overnight - they are treated as an untouchable.
In
these organisations especially, bullying will only stop when it is
seen as an injury in the workplace and the perpetrators are treated
as criminals.
There are few
survivors of bullying. If your identity as you knew it has been
taken away, it's extremely difficult to build a new one, especially
if it means relocation within the same organisation. Many feel so
betrayed and mistrustful that the will to participate again
evaporates. On their return from sick leave they are confronted by
too many reminders. To their horror, they may find that the bully is
still in place or has even been promoted, so the danger continues.
Why would anyone traumatised risk re-exposure in the same toxic
culture?
Many are so
post-traumatically stressed that total avoidance of anything which
even vaguely represents the trauma site becomes their policy. They
ignore letters and phone-calls from work, avoid socialising in pubs
used by their work colleagues, and even avoid driving past the
workplace. Who wants to experience another panic attack, another
flashback, where mentally, emotional and physically you find
yourself re-experiencing, as if for the first time, the worst
aspects of the bullying trauma? And then, for weeks on end, meet it
in your dreams? This is the territory where day-mares and nightmares
meet.
Those who try to
find alternative employment meet a brick wall. Many report breaking
down at interviews, if they are lucky to get one, as they struggle
to explain why they left their previous employment. Lacking good
references doesn't help.
The more one comes
to understand the catastrophic effects of bullying on the victim and
their families, and the odds against ever getting restorative
justice, the more it becomes clear how their feelings of grief,
anger, bitterness, desolation, hypersensitivity, dread, and
life-threatening depression take on their own legitimacy. So deep
are the wounds that professional interventions are difficult, since
so many layers are involved.
The therapist has
to take a credulous attitude and take each symptom at face
value. Any air of ‘I know best' or ‘I'm the expert' will instantly
be interpreted as having a flavour similar to that of the bully.
Many victims feel re-traumatised when it's inferred that their
problems are the result of twisted, distorted thinking, which can be
straightened out with a programme of ‘cognitive behavioural
therapy'.
Statements from a
therapist such as ‘Your symptoms are not based on an accurate
perception of reality, because you are - over-personalising,
over-generalising, mislabelling, jumping to conclusions,
disqualifying the positive, etc, etc.' are unhelpful, damming,
judgmental and dangerous, as they are designed to shift blame,
making the victim feel counterfeit and at fault for being the way
they are.
The now
fashionable practice of combining anti -depressant medication with
cognitive behavioural therapy, with a view to keeping these highly
distressed individuals at work and firmly in the line of fire of the
bully, beggars belief and is another layer of trauma. Too often,
members of caring professions, such as psychiatrists, psychologists,
and occupational health physicians, unwittingly end up taking
referrals from dysfunctional organisations which will not remove
their bullies from the ranks. Those same professionals would
immediately report the actions of a sexual abuser. So what's the
difference?
Victims also,
paradoxically, report that they find themselves traumatised by the
attitude of members of the legal profession from whom they seek
support. They feel they have not been listened to, and are nothing
more than a number and a meal ticket. I have come across individuals
who were forced into re-mortgaging their homes to meet mounting
legal fees. Worst still, when push comes to shove, in an atmosphere
of time urgency, high drama, half-truths and wheeling and dealing,
they find themselves rushed into making unsatisfactory
settlements.
It is my opinion
that victims of bullying have a certain vulnerability which can
attract additional trauma, intimidation and exploitation. The same
is true of the sexually abused. There is a black hole in
consciousness with respect to the early identification and unique
needs of the bullied, both psychologically and legally.
Initially, we intend to deal only with bullying in the
workplace. Dr Corry's article is the first element of the material
we will make available, which will include the voices of victims of
bullying <see Voices or use links
below>, a first aid kit,
resources, links to support organisations, and
more.
Dublin, Ireland: February 2005
