NZ: Bullies found in workplace as well

By Steve Mason, The Southland Times

The final two pages of The Southland Times’ special anti-bullying campaign run today, looking at bullying in the workplace.

Employment lawyer Mary-Jane Thomas reminds us that workplace bullying is quite different from the boss telling us what to do, but it is still a significant problem in many businesses.

It’s not just the youngest and newest staff who are bullied. Sometimes it is experienced staff, senior people maybe even the boss.

But the message from the anti-bullying specialists is still the same no matter where is happens: don’t react to the bully, talk to someone about what’s happening and do something about it.

We had some excellent feedback during the first five days of the campaign, including calls from people who said after reading the pages that they finally accepted they had been a victim and no longer needed to feel bad about it.

When they read that people such as Ms Thomas, a Crown prosecutor, had been bullied and shut out at school they finally felt able to talk to someone about their experiences. Several of those examples are included in today’s articles.

Schools have told us they are using the pages to reinforce the anti-bullying message with their pupils, which was a main thrust if the project.

Five organisations H&J Smith, the Southern Institute of Technology, the Invercargill Licensing Trust, the Mataura Licensing Trust and NTN Couriers joined us to help get the project pages into all schools throughout the south.

We live in one of the safest communities in the world and the campaign was not intended to scare, but we do need to know what to do when we see any bullying.

While the campaign ends today, we plan to keep the focus on bullying and we’re keen for more feedback.

GET IN TOUCH
Have you been bullied? We would like to hear about your experience. Send an email to issues@stl.co.nz or fax us at 032149905 and give us a short explanation about how you were bullied, what you did about it and how you feel now.

You might also have some advice to share that could help someone being bullied. You can keep it anonymous, but we’re keen to expand our anti-bullying campaign with more genuine stories of how people have been hurt by bullies.