November 8,
2006
Workplace
Bullies, Workplace Wimps
Biff Tannen
had a pointed question for George McFly:
“Where’s my
reports?”
OK. Not a
sound grammatical question. But a question nonetheless, and the last
thing George wanted was more noogies.
“Well, you
know, I haven’t finished those up yet, but I figured since they weren’t
due until Monday . . .”
Not the
right answer!
“Hello! Is
anybody home, huh? Think, McFly! Think! I gotta have time to get ’em
retyped! Can you imagine what would happen if I turned in my reports in
your handwriting? I’d get fired! You wouldn’t want that to happen, would
ya?”
George
thinks about that one for a second.
“Would ya?”
George is a
victim of workplace bullying. Of course, George is a complete wimp, so
this is hardly a shocking development. But who would have thought in
1985, when Back to the Future was released, that 21 years later
we would be treated to a study – yes , an actual study – of the
phenomenon of workplace bullying?
Spare us no
scholarship, Arizona State University! What have you discovered?
“Many
Americans are familiar with sexual and racial harassment, but not
generalized workplace bullying,” said study team member Sarah Tracy. She
explains that bullying can come in the form of “screaming, cursing,
spreading vicious rumors, destroying the target’s property or work
product, excessive criticism and sometimes hitting, slapping and
shoving” and that subtle behaviors, such as silent treatment, disregard
of requests and exclusion from meetings, count as bullying.
This
required a study? So what do the studious Sun Devils suggest we do about
workplace bullying?
“An
important first step of changing workplace bullying, is helping people
to understand that it's more than just kid stuff,” Tracy told
LiveScience. So, like, when someone hacks into your computer, opens up
your reports and changes all references to the boss to The Dark Lord of
the Netherworld, we need to make people understand that this is really
really serious and frowned upon?
OK. Good
chat starter for the next shift meeting.
The
problem, apparently, is that the bully victims don’t like to talk
about their ordeal. Instead, LiveScience reports, they “whisper their
horrid experiences to close friends rather than higher-ups.”
I suppose
you can’t blame them. Would you want to tell the boss that you’re a
complete wimp who lets Biff push you around and make you write his
reports? Not only that, but you need to get them done early so he can
get them retyped!
I don’t
want bullies working for me, except in collections. But I want wimps
even less. So how can I, a caring, conscientious CEO, address the
serious problem of workplace bullying within my own company? How can I
be sure that everyone can work in a comfortable, safe environment in
which no one can be bullied, slapped, shoved or noogied?
George
McFly didn’t get Biff off his case until he punched him out at the
Enchantment Under the Sea Dance (which actually happened 30 years before
the dialogue presented above, thus altering the space/time continuum . .
. this gets complicated), so I think, the next time a wimp comes to me
to complain about a bully, I will just tell the wimp to clock the jerk.
It worked
for George McFly, and he got the girl. Biff ended up waxing George’s
car. In the end, George seemed to understand that you can’t shake off a
bully unless you’re willing to stand up to him – and not expect anyone
else to fight your battles for you.
Then again,
that was just a movie, which is almost as far removed from real life as
a university that conducts studies to find out things we already know.
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