£18 Billion - 20,000 complaints
 

News today about Workplace Bullying in the UK.

£18 billion is quite a lot of money being wasted in our economy, and I am pretty sure this could be put to better use. And 20,000 complaints about bullying - that is just the people who contacted ACAS.

This seems like a big problem in the UK - part of the culture?

Aren't we lucky we are immune from this in the airline sector. Our roles within this safety critical industry are so sensitive to this type of behaviour, any reports of this nasty behaviour would be investigated, the bullies stopped, and reassurances given to staff that bullying is not acceptable.

It is called a "just culture".

:rolleyes:

Tell me I am right, because I want to sleep tonight.

W@@@ers in all Career's I think. Maybe someone thought that about me, I like to hope not, I certainly have met a few in C an T and management roles over the years.
You did ask,

There is bullying in the workplace. Because unfortunately, bullying is a fact of life. Eliminating this practice will takes great deal effort from all parties but mainly the bullied. It's not until they speak up that you realise that there is a problem - and here is the paradox, they feel they are the underdogs and are unable to stand up for themselves.

It's true HR departments have the marvellous ability to recruit the wrong people for any job and fail to monitor employ progress. On the other side, line managers are often forced into supervising inadequate employees and as a result react very badly towards their weeker team members. Eventually HR act like stunned mullets when they realise there is a problem.

But I'm not so sure about the cost of this problem. It's not surprising that this press release comes from ACAS. Call me a cynic but I reckon this guy's budget is coming up for review.

PM

Often begins at grass roots level. It is endemic within GA, world wide. You would thing we would have stamped this out by now considering the safety ramifications. Ah well...

This is something I posted on another thread with regards to a wonderful small airline which was my first flying position, and sadly seems to be having an 'interesting' culture change with a senior management change!

Management in 21st Century UK Airlines, I would add it's only my opinion: There are a number of people promoted to places where ambition greatly outweighs ability on the simple premise that their face fits in the view of those that bestow favours. Nothing wrong with ambition, but it often clouds the thought that might otherwise attach some credence to such ideas as "those you crap on on the way up, are those you'll meet on the way down"

Once you get past the point where you will never get back down to where you started, you begin appointing the ambitious/incapable to your own court. So much easier to surround yourself with muppets to take the heat for you, who are hoping in return, for advancement. My experience now, is the good guys who should be in management, don't touch it with a barge-pole!

I stress my opinion, no offence intended to those working hard for change! But egos, face-fitting, minimal experience/ability coupled with short-termism bonus greed is my experience of the last few years - insecurity coupled with strong desire to reach targets creating a bullying nature?!

It's true HR departments have the marvellous ability to recruit the wrong people for any job and fail to monitor employ progress

When there is a problem identify the source. It is not the wrong people have been recruited by HR: it is the wrong people in HR in the first place. Many of them are empire builders with diddly squat idea of what is involved for which they are recruiting. At least that has been my experience during fatuous interviews.

It is pretty obvious bullying does go on, but it is the headline that amazes me.

Managers, or HR may / may not be incompetent, whatever, and at the end of the day they all have a job to do.

BUT.

The damage that is being done to productivity. It is staggering. Who would want to do this to their own business?? I have no idea how the £18 billion was arrived at, but can only assume it is mixture of paying staff who have been signed off; the cost of re-recruiting replacements, or temporary staff to cover; medical costs .......... lawsuits. Who knows.

How does this help any business. At the end of the day, money sadly is king, so why do they want to lose so much of it.

What do these bullies get out of it, is it a "warm fuzzy feeling"?

An empowering question to ask any bully or anyone else who seeks to hurt you is "What hurts you so much that you think you need to hurt me in order to heal it?"

At the end of the day someone only attacks because of a pain that they have within. Better to help free them than condemn.

Anger, rage etc and their expression are distorted wailings of love. Usually expressed by someone who has lost, or thinks they're going to lose something that is loved. This is also true for nations!

In 25 years of employment, I've come across two bullies. One was not in aviation, but he made it quite clear he didn't respect women. He would go out of his way to belittle female colleagues. I'm not sure he even realised the effect he had: people from other departments would phone ahead to see if he was in the office and make a decision as to whether to visit or not based on his presence. I think that in his case, he felt threatened by the fact that the women doing the same job as him were, in some cases, much better than him.

The other was in aviation. I don't think he did it to compensate for feelings of inadequacy. He did it because he enjoyed making people squirm, he liked needling and prodding and pushing people just to see when and how they would break, just for the sheer pleasure of it. I left that company as soon as I could and was grateful that I had the opportunity to do so. His behaviour was making the flying unsafe, and that is inexcusable in my opinion.

There's bullies in every area, because unfortunately that's life.

I've met a couple in aviation which isn't surprising as it often attracts the narcissistic .

I'll catch up with them eventually