Virgin Australia and its boss Jayne Hrdlicka hit with bullying claim
 

https://www.theage.com.au/business/c...12-p5ad1p.html


That might be hard to prove, . Not all bullying involves direct threats to a person. The subtle form is "social bullying" - a campaign of deliberate exclusion from the activities of the management group. Invitations dry up, names get left off meeting attendance or document distribution lists, etc. It is very hard to prove such things because they involve sins of omission, not commission.

I read the article and I was curious to see how bullying was defined and Googled my way to horror. Sure put the heebie jeebies up me. At the end of the day, anything that might melt a snowflake can be construed as bullying. Saying the wrong thing or not saying the right thing can be construed as bullying. Thing is, "wrong" and "right" in that context gets to be defined by the victim.

Indeed, will a V1 cut with a 20 knot crosswind component in the sim be defined as bullying? Will taking over a mishandled approach on the line be considered bullying? Will calling for the before landing checklist without appending the word "please" to the request be considered bullying? Its looking like this new age workplace is not for the faint of heart.

I wouldn’t have been hanging around too long post once PS had been given orders to depart. This behaviour is common during these executive transition periods, most of the previous executives left pronto. It was clear she was going to cause havoc amongst anyone from Virgin Mark 1 who remained.

That’s pretty much all incorrect. Read the actual WH&S law:

Workplace bullying and the law

Workplace bullying is repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at an employee or group of employees that creates a risk to health and safety.

No because:

constructive comments which are objective and indicate observable deficiencies in performance or conduct and constructively delivered feedback or counselling intended to help employees to improve their work performance

(Ie feedback comments about on a sim) are not considered bullying.

Again:

genuine and reasonable instructions

are not considered bullying.

You mean not for those who think being a complete knob to your co-workers is OK?

It's relatively straight forward to terminate employment for non performance. So long as you follow procedure. Most important thing is accurate note keeping.

No need for bullying, those who do it usually can't help themselves, leaving themselves open to fair work claims.

A fair work claim is pretty much part of the exit process for any management pilot.

Have a look at what is on offer if one wins a claim…not much.

Maybe Jayne should install a female chief pilot like she did at Jetstar. Problems solved!

Another article from News Corp just released. While typically during executive team changeovers, the ‘cleaning out’ phase or so on, expect a few disagreements along the way, but we are onto the fourth or fifth article now. I’m sorry but get her out and put someone else in the job. It’s a train wreck.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/busines...2b445191de?amp

Having seen Jayne in action these rumours do not surprise me, she speaks about how she appreciates all the staff in the media and then sets about destroying their terms and conditions behind the scenes.

PoppaJo the link is behind a paywall. :bored:

I see. Sorry worked for me, however here is another summary from AA. In other news, it would appear some are jumping ship to Bonza also.

https://australianaviation.com.au/20...ure-questions/

How is any of this surprising? She is known for leaving a path of destruction where ever she turns up.
I wouldn’t mind the “hard arse” attitude if it meant results. More often it doesn’t. Demoralised workforce and people leave in droves.
Maybe she should sit in on a few NTS courses 😂

From the SMH today :

https://amp.smh.com.au/business/comp...27-p5b50r.html

And her hand picked chief pilot appointment at Jetstar to combat the Ansett old boy’s club was a resounding success 😩

Having personally been bullied by a senior female manager, I can attest that the activity is no laughing matter. Women managers do it very subtly through “social bullying” -something they learn, I think, as teenage girls.

‘’Virgins defence sounds plausible on the surface unless you have actually experienced social bullying. It includes a whole series of actions, each in itself apparently trivial, but in totality they produce a devastating result. I do not know if Virgin did any of the things I list below.

‘Examples of tactics:

- whispering campaigns about a persons personal life. (eg: rumors about alcohol use, domestic violence, sexual behaviour , etc)

- “accidental” (not) omission from invitation lists for work related social functions. ( wait till you see your boss take several of your subordinates to lunch without inviting you, etc)

- curtailment of your company representation role at industry seminars, meetings, etc.

- Gaslighting.

- deliberate sabotage of your operational role. (eg/; delays in accessing reports, budgets and other necessary documents)

- “accidental” omission from meeting invitations, distribution lists, etc., followed by blaming you for being “out of touch” with operations.

- unreasonable work related demands, such as impossible reporting deadlines.

​​​​​​…….Those are just a few “mean girl” tactics I and others, have experienced in another industry. They all sound trivial and plausibly deniable by the company if they are taken individually. However humans are very good at discerning patterns of behavior. Your subordinates will know you are marked for removal before you do.

‘’It’s not hard to end up with PTSD from this behaviour.

pot, kettle, black

One doesn’t become the CEO of an entity by being ‘nice’. A high percentage of CEO’s get to that level because they are psychopaths or sociopaths (there are some good books out there that cover these types of people). Either of these personalities don’t make for a ‘nice’ person in the least, and selfish, vindictive, narcissistic and bullying traits usually become manifested and quite obvious as enough time passes by. In short, most CEO’s are complete assholes.

Now, if you have a CEO who is brought in to rebuild a business with the view to the business being sold off or floated in the share market, which in turn will see the CEO receive tens of millions of dollars as the reward for their hard work, well you are going to have a CEO who is likely to be a hard knuckled vicious asswipe who will stop at nothing to receive their large pot of gold awaiting them at the foot of the rainbow.

And it gradually filters down the hierarchical tree. As each level of management is subjected to the bullying from above, so do they apply the same pressures to the employees they oversee simply to ‘survive’. It takes a while but soon you have a quite toxic culture in the organisation; something that was quite evident some years ago at the other airline of significance.

It takes a very strong manager to resist the temptation from above. Thankfully there were a couple in QCC. Hopefully VA have a couple who’ll provide a more appropriate environment.