Video: Dr Evelyn Field discusses bullying in the workplace
Victoria’s anti-bullying laws have failed to make any difference, a spokeswoman for the State Government’s anti-bullying campaign says.
It has been a year since State Parliament passed legislation making workplace and cyber-bullying a criminal offence.
The law is known as Brodie’s Law after 19-year-old waitress Brodie Panlock, who committed suicide in 2006 following severe harassment at work.
But psychologist Dr Evelyn Field has told ABC News Breakfast that people are still not getting the message.
“It certainly hasn’t made a dent anywhere,” she said.
“A lot of people still see bullying as physical violence. In fact, any form of psychological abuse or violence will cause as much brain damage as a physical assault.
“We have judges saying ‘Oh well, it was just a storm in a teacup,’ instead of saying, ‘Why isn’t this person ever able to work again?’”
Dr Field said while it was not possible to prevent bullying altogether, workplaces needed to do more to stop it.
“The problem really is poor management, that’s all it is,” she said.
“Managers have got to say we know it’s going to happen, let’s take spot checks, let’s keep an eye on our staff, once a month let’s see how staff are feeling.
“If they are feeling threatened, unsafe then it is bad for business and it’s bad for their mental health, let’s make sure and stop it and find a nice collaborative way to do it.”
Source: ABC.net.au
Related: Essential reading for anyone who is being bullied at work
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1 comment
lou
August 14, 2012 at 3:49 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
There will always be workplace bullies. Hopefully less and less as society finally gets the message of how much damage they cause to peoples health and well being. The real problem is how organisations handle the bullying. If you have been bullied, and the HR department, your team members, management, CEO and boards turn a blind eye or dismiss the bullying as not important or even join in with the bullying; this is what causes worse damage.