Bullying - What's New?



Bully-proof Yourself \| Strategies \| Legals \| OH&S/Industrial D'base \| Links \| What's New? \| JobSeeking \| Feedback

Free Bullying Pictures	What's New?

Thanks to RSS there's no need for me to hunt down bullying news - good old Google does the job for us!

By the way, I am developing some cartoons about bullying on my new(ish) cartoon website, called "Royalty-free cartoons" (and they are free!).

» New information and special searches about school, domestic or sibling bullying.

» New information and special searches about OH&S and workplace bullying.

» New information about OH&S, including workplace bullying.

Old news (olds)

6 August 2003

Highly informative site - the Mental Health Association of NSW. Factsheets and resources include: Anger Management, Anxiety, Depression, Grief and Loss, Schoolyard Bullying, Stigma, Workplace Bullying, Anxiety Kit and Stress Kit.

Article at News.com - Note printers stop work. Woorkers at Australia's money printing facility are expected to vote in favour of continued industrial action at a stopwork meeting today. Staff were not satisfied that issues of intimidation and workplace harassment had been resolved.

25 June 2003

Article today in the SMH: Bullying on job overlooked and costing $13 billion (SMH) To quote: "Research by Griffith University's workplace bullying and violence project found that workplace bullying costs Australian businesses as much as $13 billion a year through absenteeism, loss of productivity and legal fees". A survey of human resources officers at 325 companies found 85 per cent of them had suffered, or seen a colleague suffer, bullying at work". More stats (again, quoted):

Nearly 60 per cent of them had, or know a colleague who had, taken sick leave as a result of bullying by bosses or workmates.
The attacks most often took the form of intimidation, humiliation and ridicule, but included being left out of office lunches, displays of anger such as slamming doors or forcing staff to work long hours for no reason.
In one out of five of the companies surveyed, three or more people could be identified as bullies, with a further one-third of firms having two bullies.
Nearly half of them said their company did not have a policy to stamp out the practice.

1 June 2003

Article: Compulsory aggression training for NSW nurses (ABC Online). "The training is one of a number of measures to reduce violent attacks against staff in the state's hospitals ... An anti-violence task force recommended the aggression management training, along with extra security guards and an awareness campaign that violence will not be tolerated ... as part of the new security plan, bullet-proof security screens are also being installed".

9 May 2003

Article: Work bullies cost $3b (Career One site). If you are an employer, do you need any more motivation to maintain a bullying free workplace? Why not do your business a favour and introduce and enforce strong anti-bulling policies?

10 April 2003

Site revamp! I felt the need to make this page less crowded and easier to find the many useful links within. So now I have split it into more specialised pages:

1. FAQs based on queries from this site's search reports: workplace

2. Queries from this site's search reports: schools and other bullying (domestic and sibling bullying)

Also, OH&S issues raised on this page that don't (directly) relate to bullying are highlighted with this icon:

2 April 2003

More queries from this site's search reports:

"bullying senarios" - see link (also in links page) Workplace bullies: What should be done with them?

"negligence" - Qld Legal Aid

1 April 2003

Women managers `more likely to bully' comes from a Welsh newspaper. Certainly, I've personally received more complaints about women managers. However, women make up the vast majority of bullying complainants per se (perhaps men feel uncomfortable making bullying complaints), and usually they work in female-dominated professions like health, community work and education, where there are far more female managers.

I never received a simgle bullying complaint from anyone in the construction industry, where you would imagine bullying is rife. In macho or high powered jobs like construction, farming, sales and media, bullying is apparently seen as "part of the turf".

20 March 2003

More searches and answers:

1. "nsw construction safety act regulations" - the Construction Safety Regulation 1950 was repealed on September 2001 with the advent of the OHS Regulation 2001, with Chapter 8 covering the construction industry. Other issues that concern construction workers such as working at heights (clause 56) are covered in other parts of the Regulation.
2. "pictures of bullying" - try going to Google image search and typing in bullying. You may need to sift though a lot of logos and diagrams, but you should find something there, but keep copyright issues in mind. If you wish to purchase pictures, you could try searching on stock photography in your favourite search engine. The below links provide a couple of simple, royalty-free bullying sketches that you may find handy at some stage. Pic1 | Pic2. To save just right-click the links and choose "Save Target As".

6 March 2003

More search report results and responses:

1. "eye wash bath" - often risk assessment. May be specific provisions in some Codes of Practice (eg. hazardous substances). Some useful links:
a. Eye Injuries (Safetyline WA - PDF file)
b. various substance injuries to eyes (Google search results)
c. Guidelines - Eye Injury Prevention (Swan council, WA - example of policy - PDF file)
2. "jack stands" - Example safe work procedures (NOHSC); Car Jack Fatalities (NOHSC)
3. "nsw construction safety act regulations" - repealed, see OHS Act 2000 and OHS Regulation 2001.
4. "safety equipment" - see Machinery / Plant in OHS Database
5. "safety showers" - see codes of practice in Amenities in OHS Database
6. "legal cases" - go to Austlii database and conduct case name search, perhaps searching on the "any of these words" option. Note: due to privacy laws I cannot legally put cases on this site. Austlii is configured so that search engines cannot index it.
7. "ohs policy" - try Six Steps to OH&S (PDF file - WorkCover NSW - I used this as a template to write my organisation's OHS policy. Remember to change the old reference to OHS Act 1983 to OHS Act 2000) or Workplace Safety Kit

2 March 2003

My latest search report included the following:

1. "dangerous goods signs", "danger tags" - Answer: Classes of DGs, Purchasing safety signs
2. "industrial relations act" - Answer: this link
3. "isolation procedures", "lockout" - Answer: Example on CSIRO site
4. "regulation 1996" - These have been superseded by the Regulation 2001. Access old Regs here.
5. "tagout training" - here's a couple of links OJ Holdings, Seton - certainly not conclusive (and comes with no recommendation or endorsement, etc etc).
6. "what happens to bully victims" - I never refer to recipients of bullying as "victims" because to think of yourself as a victim is to disempower yourself, and if you're being bullied you're being disempowered enough without helping the bully along.

The answer, of course, varies. Here are some case histories. In the end one would like to think that a person would use the multitude of information on the internet (including this site) to resolve the problem, if resolvable.

The most intractable cases are, arguably, those with heavy financial commitments who work for a small business in a high unemployment area, especially in small towns where everyone knows everyone else and making official complaints means being blackballed by virtually every employer in the areas.

24 November 2002

Why Boys Don't Report Schoolyard Bullies: is an interesting article in The Age (note: newspaper links only last a short time) based on a study performed by Victoria University which showed that boys "were more reluctant than girls to talk about bullying, and more likely to stay away from school if being bullied". In addition, the boys stated that "telling teachers was a waste of time because they were ineffectual in stopping bullies. They also feared peer retribution, such as being kicked and punched, if they reported bullies".

I have spoken to many people who have been bullied in the workplace, the vast majority of complainants being women, so it's possible that these patterns persist in later life as well. The Royal Berkshire Fire Brigades Union site points out that this is because reporting bullying doesn't fit the "macho image".

7 November 2002

Sydney Morning Herald Forum: "Is your boss the defensive type and always covering his or her backside? Tell us the worst - and the best - about your boss".

1 November 2002

Just a reminder that in NSW, new provisions of the Occupational Health & Safety Regulation 2001 are now enforceable for workplaces with over 20 workers. By "enforceable" I mean the one year transition period provided to larger employers is now over.

This may be of interest to those being bullied at work because clause 9 of the Regulation - "Employers to Identify Hazards", states:

An employer must take reasonable care to identify any foreseeable hazard that may arise from the conduct of the employer's undertaking and that has the potential to harm the health or safety of:
(a) any employee of the employer, or
(b) any other person legally at the employer's place of work, or both.

This clause then goes on to specify particular things the employer must watch out for, including clause 9(2)(b):

... work practices, work systems and shift working arrangements (including hazardous processes, psychological hazards and fatigue related hazards)

It will be interesting to see how this is enforced, given that bullying is notoriously hard to prove. So if you are being bullied it's in your interests to record events in detail and take contact details of witnesses, as per the Strategies page on this site. Of course, if you can work things out in-house, all the better but, if not, Inspectors can act on clause 9.

The clause will apply to small businesses (20 or less workers) from 1 September 2003.

21 September 2002

Overwork and workplace stress: A client recently asked me about overwork and stress and stated that the problem had been raised with the employer, who was unresponsive.
So I sent the client information and some stress & overwork resources on the web, which you may find useful.

18 September 2002

Workplace bullying affects one in four workers and costs employers up to $12 billion a year, according to research by the head of one of the nation's leading employment agencies.

Here is a nice fact sheet from WorkSafe WA about stress and bullying at work, complete with useful links at the bottom.

Another link: this time from Femail.com.au.

16 August 2002

New links:

Workplace Bullying Taskforce (by Queensland Dept of Industrial Relations)
Bullying online (Comprehensive school bullying resource)

16 July 2002

Recently stumbled onto this site in my travels: Bad Bosses and How to Handle Them. Interesting reading!

A presentation & workshop called "Work: A Place of Hurting or Healing", run by Dr Paul Heslin, will be held on Sunday, 4 August 2002 at Moore Park, Sydney. This will cover bullying at work and other themes aimed at empowering workers and trying to put a more positive spin on a subject often marred by negativity, with topics like: Human rights in relationship to work; Experiences of work as a village of gossip or support; When "no" is really "yes"; Tales of integrity and courage, etc. More detail and booking information are covered via the above link.

11 July 2002

ADHOCC: Action and Defence against Harassers Of Call Centres - We all know the frustration of waiting in a call centre queue. But what about the operators? How do they cope when they suffer abuse, aggression and frustration on a regular basis? Client can say what they like with impunity while the call centre operator is accountable for anything s/he says and cannot defend him/herself. Visit this new online forum and add your views or relate your experiences.

20 June 2002

A colleague drew my attention to a useful link - LawAccess - directing people to legal (NSW only) information about: accidents and compensation, banking and finance, business, children and young people, consumers, crime, culture and recreation, employment, environment, family law and relationships, government, health, housing , property and development, human rights, immigration and citizenship, indigenous australians, intellectual property, legal system, media and communications, neighbours, social services, taxation, transport, wills and estates.

7 June 2002
SMH article - "Workplace Disagreements" which claims that workplace romances frequently end in harassment claims.

I just came across the website of Anthea Lowe & Assoc, a consultancy which deals with equity / bullying etc issues. Without making a commercial recommendation (I have never dealt with the organisation), I can say that a few years ago (1999 or 2000) I attended one of Anthea's talks when I was a member of EESA and in some ways her perceptiveness and dynamism reminded me of Jane Elliott ("Blue Eyes Brown Eyes").

30 May 2002
My search report shows that there have been a number of people looking for bullying statistics. To date there have been very few bullying statistics available as they have tended to be included in with harassment studies. Still, here are a few stats on the web:

Analysis of Mental Disorder claims (WorkCover NSW)
ODEOPE 2000 (re: harassment complains in NSW public service)
Statistics on violence (ANU)

27 May 2002
The NSW Dept of Health has launched a campaign called Let Nurses Do Their Jobs, aimed at raising the community's awareness of the inappropriateness of abusive behaviour towards nurses. It really does amaze me how many workers in the health & community services area complain to me about workplace bullying. You really would think (hope) that the perpetrators would know better!

24 May 2002
New link - an interesting article called "Is bullying associated with type?". It's a departure from the usual approaches to be found on the web. Some may disagree with some of the ideas, but bullying really is a case of "diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks" and could be of value in some situations. A little humour never goes astray when times are hard so you may find this link useful too.

10 May 2002
I heard a report last night on ABC Radio 2BL (702) about a Manager in a New Zealand bank who committed suicide at age 40. It seems the bank was posting the results of each area for every employee to see as a means of providing "incentive" for employees to outdo each other. The coroner's report stated that this was a major factor.
This tragedy serves as a lesson for organisations to be more understanding of the stresses that each worker feels. Risk assessments made as per the OHS Regulation 2001 require employers to take individual differences into account. What may seem okay to some employees can be impossible to deal with for others. This can vary as well, depending on a person's current life circumstances.

20 April 2002
Addition to this site - OH&S and Industrial Database in recognition that workplace bullying often stems from workplace disputes. There is often a sub-agenda, being it an OH&S issue, professional or personal jealousy or a personality clash. This database may prove useful for NSW workers and employers.

14 March 2002
A one-day forum on work/life issues called "Making a Difference to People and the Bottom Line" to be held in Sydney on 14 March 2002. This is being advertised on the Latest News of a useful site called "Flexibility at Work". At the time of writing that site also has a link to an article in The Age newspaper written last year about workplace bullying.

22 February 2002
Adelaide International Workplace Bullying Conference. I'm hoping to obtain a briefing on this. I do like the look of the section: "Targets Taking Action", which follows the principle that I think is so important - bully-proofing yourself.

9 February 2002
WorkCover Victoria will hold two public seminars about the proposed Code of Practice for the Prevention of Bullying and Violence in the Workplace.

5 February 2002
"Stressed Workers Lose Payouts" - BBC News (UK) which provides interesting analysis of of courtroom decision regarding a stress claim for UK teachers.

14 January 2002
Interview on 702 ABC with Peter Anderson, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, about the legitimacy of stress in workers compensation claims.

Anderson is concerned about the growing inability to discriminate between using the term "stressed" for busy periods or serious medical conditions which qualify for compensation. He calls for further regulation and analysis of Worker Compensation legislation to avoid excessive payouts for employers. He believes the ACTU are acting inappropriately to bring "OH&S issues" and restricted working hours into debate over the definition of stress in the workplace.

5 January 2002
Article in the Sydney Morning Herald - "Pressure turns boss into a bully". Quote: "Bosses yelling at workers, making unrealistic requests, demanding longer working hours and resorting to intimidation were cited by 18 per cent of 5000 Australian employees surveyed".

1 January 2002
Commencement of amendments to workers compensation legislation comes into effect. Information about these at www.workcover.nsw.gov.au.

10 December 2001
Article in the Sydney Morning Herald about a traumatised strike breaker, attacked while crossing strike picket lines due to insufficient protection who was awarded a large lump sum payment.

21 November 2001
Article in the Sydney Morning Herald: "The girlie poster's gone but not the office groper, says Goward".

24 October 2001
ACIRRT (Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training), together with the progressive law firm, Cutler Hughes and Harris, will present a breakfast briefing on the latest legal developments and practices relating to "Bullying and Harassment at Work" on 24 October 2001.

22 October 2001
The October 2001 update of the Occupational Violence Prevention Strategies Database at the Australian Institute of Criminology: www.aic.gov.au/research/cvp/occupational/index.html. You will find numerous links to other sites about workplace bullying and violence on the AIC site.

17 October 2001
New link added to the links page from the ACTU website: "Being Bossed Around is Bad for Your Health". The "True Stories" section demonstrates a range of bullying behaviours.

11 October 2001
"What's New?" section added to this website. As well, if you submit your experience with bullying and how you dealt with it, to me by email, I will devote a subsection of this site to people's experiences with bullying. Anonymity is assured.

10 October 2001
Some new links to quality websites about bullying have been added to the links page:
Workplace - Bullies Down Under, Beyond Bullying (Aust); Workplace Bullying.com, Stress Magazine - Stress at Work (USA)
Schools - Reach Out - Advice and Help for Young People (Aust)

10 September 2001
"Bullying - What can be done about it?" website uploaded.

Top of Page | Home Page | Disclaimer | Report Broken Link