By Tali Arbel, WashingtonPost.com

BULLY WATCH: The recession is creating a “blank check” for office bullies, said one employee advocate.

The downturn’s layoffs – job rolls have shrunk by 6 million since the recession’s start – may make a bad situation worse for victims, said Gary Namie, director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group.

Namie is the author of the “The Bully at Work.” It was originally published in 2000, with an updated version released this June.

The “absolute control of an employer is more apparent in a recession,” he said. That means workers are feeling the heat, as the bulk of workplace harassment cases involve superiors taunting their employees, he said.

“People are more stressed because there’s no escape,” he said. While previously employees could jump to another job when the verbal abuse, humiliation, career sabotage or intimidation he defines as bullying got to be too much, a new job is harder to find during a recession.

Namie’s institute is pushing states to adopt legislation defining abusive conduct in the workplace and setting guidelines for employee behavior and possible litigation. The federal government currently prohibits harassment based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability and age.

His advice for those who feel harassed:

- Understand that abusive behavior – invading someone’s space with intent to intimidate or calling the person names – isn’t just rude. “It’s not inadvertent, it’s not accidental,” Namie said. Recognize someone else’s actions as a problem that’s hurting you.

- Try to get sick leave time, he said. Often workplace bullying goes on for a long time, and can even cause stress disorders for targets.

- Build an economic case against the bully. Has there been high turnover or absenteeism? Is there low morale? Has productivity sagged due to a tense, inefficient atmosphere?

“You have to make the argument that the bully’s too expensive to keep,” Namie said. Take this case to the highest-level person in your company that doesn’t have a personal connection to the source of harassment.

- If you can, look for another job. Getting away from the bully might be the easiest way to resolve the problem.

RECESSION & THE MBA: The collapse in global financial markets is skewing where one prominent business school expects its graduates are going to wind up as companies cut hiring.

London Business School said it expects a big drop in the number of this year’s crop of graduates who will go into financial services. More students this year are interested in working for start-ups, starting their own businesses as entrepreneurs, or working for pharmaceutical or consumer goods companies, said the school’s career services director, Diane Morgan.

That comes amid higher interest from students in business education and fewer openings in companies that have traditionally pursued b-school grads.

Consultancies and private equity firms, in particular, have curtailed recruiting on campus, she said. The school’s data on employment show that last year’s graduates had a slightly tougher time finding work than did the 2007 grads. This July’s class could have it even rougher.

Meanwhile, applications for the school’s full-time MBA program rose 17 percent for the class starting in August.

Business school students have traditionally looked at the MBA as a way to make a career transition. However, banks and other financial companies now want to hire those with prior experience, Morgan said.

In 2008 the financial services sector – investment banking, asset management, commercial banking, private equity – hired 44 percent of its class. This year LBS expects about 30 to 35 percent of its 300 graduates will go into finance, Morgan said.

She has some advice for those interested in an MBA:

- Leverage your summer before you even start school. Begin networking prior to classes. Offer to stay with your company as long as they need you until classes start, and keep in touch – your former employer is one of your best resources for jobs in the future, Morgan said, whether through references or an opening held for you.

- Be flexible. You can change your industry, your company function and your geographic base, but not all at once. Transitions can take years, and you need to be excited for what you’re doing in the meantime, Morgan said.

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