This is workplace bullying gone too far. According to an article by ABC News, a man named Kevin Morrissey was deeply bullied by his boss and suffered from depression. Kevin had repeated meetings with people in human resources, the office of the university ombudsman and the president about how he was being bullied and in a very bad work situation. His phone records showed that he placed at least 18 calls to university officials in the final two weeks before he chose to end his life.
An hour before he committed suicide, his boss forwarded a harsh email to Kevin asking him why it took him so long to forward a message. This is a lesson we can learn from this unfortunate situation. Sometimes when you send an email, you never know how the person reading it is going to take it. If you are mad about something, you have to try to work things out face to face or over the phone rather than through an email that can so easily be taken the wrong way.
Have You Witnessed Workplace Bullying?
The Stats
The definition of bullying is the act of intimidating a weaker person to make them do something.
According to Gary Namie, a social psychologist and founder of the Washington-based Workplace Bullying Institute, “Workplace bullying may be getting worse with the recession. In good times, abused workers simply walk out. But with high unemployment, many employees feel they must stay put.” Here are some surprising statistics about workplace bullying from the 2007 U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey.
-Most bullies are bosses (72%)
-More perpetrators are men (60%) than are women(40%)
-Most targets are women (57%)
-Women bullies target women (71%); men target men (54%)
-62% of employers ignore the problem
-45% of targets suffer stress-related health problems
-40% of bullied individuals never tell their employers
-Only 3% of bullied people file lawsuits
[RELATED: 4 Ways to Handle a Mean Co-worker]
