Saying No to the Culture of Death

One may wonder why I choose to dabble with a subject that is borderline with matters relating to psychology. Perhaps this is just my way of bringing these issues to the surface of my mind, so that I can help others learn by my own mistakes. I freely admit that I am not the most perfect employee. I can be argumentative. I have a temper, and even worse I am easily upset so that I end up crying. This makes me an easy target for someone who loves to pick on someone who is perceived to be weaker.

It would not matter if the environment is the schoolroom, schoolyard or the workplace, because the outcome is the same: the bullies will always pick on those they think of as being weaker than themselves. Bullying is only one of many causes of stress within the workplace. The bully can be one who is in authority - such as a teacher, or a member of senior management - or it can be a co-worker who prefers to use underhanded snide tactics to get at his or her victims.  For at least the last 30 years, men have been blamed for bullying within the workplace, yet, this is not necessarily the case. People tend to associate workplace harrassment with sexual harrassment, but again what lies underneath the surface in the corporate world, as well as in government offices is an entirely different kettle of fish. Most of the bullies in the workplace are female. What I have described already about my own experiences only scratches at the surface of what really goes on within corporate Australia.

Over the years I have read books that cover dealing with difficult people in the workplace. These books outline the various personality types and the authors offer advice on how to deal with such people as "the sad sack", "the wet blanket", "the backstabber" and "the bitch". Sometimes the advice is good, and sometimes is hard to implement the advice that has been given because the American workplace experience does not always match the Australian situation. A real part of the problem is the characterization of people and placing them in these special molds so that their behaviours are divorced from the very heart of the people concerned. People tend to play out the roles that are assigned to them in the minds of others, but how different it might be if the ones who are doing all the pigeonholing just took a step backwards for even a few moments to see what it is that they are creating within the dynamics of the workgroup with these characterizations. Some stressors could be avoided within the management team if they for once remembered that at one time they also occupied the more lowly positions in the workplace. Just as "the bitch" can create havoc amongst fellow workers, so can the management team that delights in throwing a spanner in the works, or who fails to support the victim by favouring the bully.

There are more important matters within the workplace environment than just the amount one is paid every week, fortnight or month. How we deal with people on a day to day basis is much more important. There is a rule that personal home issues are not to be discussed at work. The rule is fair enough, but we are all human beings and we have concerns about parents, children and other family members. Sometimes those concerns are very serious and it is not possible to divorce oneself from those concerns during the day. What if the person is going through a messy separation and divorce? To keep such concerns totally hidden in the workplace is extremely difficult for even the most stoic individual. Also more harm is done by having to keep totally quiet than when the particular concern is shared. One does not have to be a misery guts, who complains about the home front every day but if the person is fretting about a personal issue then there will be little in the way of productivity so long as the problem remains simmering below the surface.

Our relationship with others in the workplace is often more important than any pay packet.  If there is unexpected conflict with other employees, then that conflict will also cause inner stress. It is those stressors that can be so very damaging. Also, if the employer has unrealistic expectations about what the employees are expected to achieve then an added source of stress is created. For example, there are collections roles where the employees are expected to make up to and over 100 calls in a day. Such an expectation almost literally chains the employee to the desk. The situation is made worse when the supervisor is a micro-manager who is constantly interfering in the task of making contact with the customers. 

Employees should not be forced to work more than 8 hours in a day. Unrealistic employer expectations have placed a heavy burden upon those who remain in the workforce. The end result of these demands happens to be the once mild employee who becomes like a driven automaton who is trying to reach impossibly high targets. Whilst budgets are necessary for company health, the setting of unrealistic targets is not necessary and it is not healthy for the company as a whole. People do not like failure, and the failure to meet a target is often met with criticism and censure. An unrealistic target is also self-defeating because the feeling of failure has the detrimental effect of making the person feel inadequate for the task at hand. It is normal that deadlines are made, but it can be impossible to meet a deadline if others are not co-operating with the person. Employees are a part of the team and if one team member is not providing the necessary information. Two-faced attitudes by managers send the wrong message to employees. All employees have the right to their own leisure time, and an employee who becomes totally devoted to work ends up not being able to produce, and could be in danger of seeing a marriage or relationship fall apart as a result of workaholism. In the long term it is not worth being so driven that one is a workaholic. No one appreciates the driven person who puts work above everything else in life. There must be a balance if the effects of stress are to be avoided. 

What then are the long term effects of stress? Alcoholism, workaholism, drug addiction, the taking of unnecessary risks, gambling, heart attacks, strokes and mental illness can all be attributed in some way to unhealthy workplaces.  One might it strange that I have included drug addiction in this mix, but from my experience, drug taking can start in an unhealthy workplace, and this can escalate rapidly into addiction, especially if the person has an addictive personality in the first place. The fast food outlets are places that I would target as being a nest for drug taking habits to start and then get out of hand. I have not personally been addicted to recreational drugs, and have never taken recreational drugs, but I do know of people who have been affected in this way. It is a situation that is rampant amongst young people in their teens and early twenties. It only takes one other employee to introduce drugs of addiction into the workplace. 

There are many reasons for a heart attack and stroke, or even cancer, and one common reason for these diseases is the way in which stress is handled in the workplace. A person who internalizes work conflict is more likely to have a heart attack or a stroke than someone who is able to let out the emotions. The internalizing of conflict can lead to complications such as high blood pressure, and eventually it can also contribute to someone having a nervous breakdown. Conflict in the workplace can also lead to the unstable to commit suicide, especially when the person seems to feel that he or she is losing control over the situation. This is an unhappy consequence of workplace stress, and the culpable are those who are backbiters and backstabbers, who delight in bringing others down to their own level. 

There are many of my own stories that I could tell about what goes on in the workplace. However, I want to concentrate upon one aspect of workplace harrassment and issues that I believe needs to be given attention - the managerial endorsement of the spreading of lies about fellow workers. I have already told a part of Julie's story and I must respect her privacy but not revealing all of the details surrounding her final weeks at this international company. Instead I want to concentrate upon the actions of one of the players who had a role in what happened to Julie as well as to myself.

This is one of the few men who rates as far as harrassment in the workplace is concerned. His role with Julie's demise is that he was the one who spread lies about her and these lies were repeated in a way that saw her in hot water - although the allegation was withdrawn because of lack of evidence (and a witness who could prove that what had been written down was a lie). The nature of the allegation involved a claim that Julie was drinking before she came to work and this sleazy male went as far as calling her an alcoholic to other members of the workplace.

He also features in my own story because he helped Goldie to concoct the story that there had been an argument and that I had been arguing with her when we were being noisy. This story was nothing more than a bare-faced lie, and it was sufficient for me to make the decision to throw in the towel. I did not have to leave, and I was not told to leave by my supervisors, howver, I alone made that decision, based upon my own gut feeling about the situation that had arisen and about the other personalities involved. There was no point cotinuining in that workplace if there was going to be an escalation of trouble. My gut told me that Goldie was out to make mischief because she was desperate to ensure that she had work in the coming months. I was a rival to Goldie because my particular role was being funded in a different way from her own, and therefore I was a direct threat to Goldie's future prospects with the company. Personally, I think that they are stupid for not seeing through this woman, and not being able to see that she really did not have a clue about what she was doing.

On the day of the noise, I was expecting some facsimiles from a man in Queensland. I received one page only of the fax, and yet another fax went missing. Mr Sleazy Paparazzi was delivering the faxes and when I asked where were the other pages, he behaved very rudely towards me. He did not dare do the same thing on the Tuesday when my supervisor was present. His failure to deliver the faxes was enough to cause me some delays in finalising the account I had been trying so hard to reconcile. I had to reconcile one of his accounts, and he had given wrong information to his supervisor about something to do with that account. I was getting nowhere because noone seemed to understand that his information had been wrong in the first place - more blame against me!! He had interfered to the point that I had refused to contact the customer for myself because he had been asking for copies of the claims. The sleazebag informed his supervisor that the reconciliation was only at 70% when it had been completed. He had done this deliberately in order to get me into trouble.

Without a doubt, it was this sleazy Paparazzi who had been the one who had given the false story about an argument that had not taken place. It is his style to bear false witness against others, and this brings me to the point that I want to make about this particular aspect of workplace relations. Backstabbers are normally liars who are out to cause harm to their fellow workers.

Goldie rates a special mention as a backstabber and a cheat, and yes her cheating backstabbing behaviour puts her in the same category as Jennifer, Robin and Mr Sleazy Paparazzi.

The kind of people that I have described so far are people who have earned their place as a part of the culture of death. I see death as being about more than the taking of a life. In some of the instances that I have outlined, these culprits have killed the reputation of another person. The besmirching of another person's reputation has the effect of killing a part of that person in the eyes of others, and so they have all been guilty of destroying something that is precious to another human being. People need to think about the harm that they cause others as a result of their behaviour. I have outlined situations where others have lost their jobs because of the spread of lies. Sometimes I have been the one to lose a position as a result of the lie of another person, or the lie has cost me work with an agency (I will detail this story at some other time).  I know how soul destroying these lies can be and how reputations can be destroyed as the result of the lies of others. It is the destruction of that reputation that puts these workplace liars on a par with those who are in the abortion industry, or who take the lives of others via euthanasia.

When there is disharmony in the workplace the level of stress of an individual can rise dramatically. When the disharmony is the result of workplace harrassment, then the detrimental effect upon the victim is not so easily measured. If the victim is very sensitive, there is always the possibility that he or she could end up committing suicide as a way out of the harrassment. This form of harrassment does not have to be sexual, and in fact work place harrassment is rarely of a sexual nature. It is more than likely that the person who is doing the harrassing is of the same sex as the victim.

I have experienced this kind of victimization on more than one occasion and the scenario that was played out for my friend Julie is further proof that work place harrassment is a situation that is well hidden within the workplace, and it is also proof that management will often support those who are doing the harrassment at the expense of the victim. The way in which Julie's story played out, the accusations that were made against her had led to her being on what the HR called a PIP or personal improvement program. This PIP meant that Julie had to be at work on time and she was not allowed personal phone calls, plus a variety of other restrictions. It also meant that the women in her team had a perfect opportunity to continue their harrassment up to the point when she finally lost control and let her temper fly against the team leader. The note taking on Julie's every move was really appalling. If Julie was not a woman with some strength then she would have ended up quite a mess because of the management approved workplace harrassment.

In the past I have either been the victim of workplace harrassment, or I had witnessed what happened to others. In one particular case in the Australian Public Service we were forbidden to talk to a man who was marked as one who was no longer required within the registry area of the department where I had been working. The man was isolated from the rest of the workers, and when I ended up working in the same area as this man, I was cautioned about talking to him. No worker should be subjected to such tactics as being sent into coventry in an attempt to force the person to resign. That kind of treatment has a devastating effect upon the psychological well-being of the worker. When this happens to someonw who is mentally fragile, there is always the risk that the person will crack and end up committing suicide rather than continuing within the situation.

 The woman responsible for that particular tactic believed in isolating the workers that she did not personally like. She thought of herself as a good manager, even though the majority who worked under her, hated her guts. The stories that were being spread about this woman were an indication of the level of hostility that existed within the area. She was oblivious of the way in which most of the others saw her as a manager. I was one who was subjected to her nastiness as she exiled me to the store to do work that was simply a waste of time. The way in which she exiled and attacked those who worked under her was truly disgusting. Robin was responsible for much of the disharmony in the workplace. She also encouraged certain forms of behaviour amongst the people who staffed the Registry. She allowed the people to harrass a woman who was partially deaf, and she caused a problem for another man who was also responsible in part for his own exit from the public service. 

The lack of harmony that I witnessed at the time was not in the least bit necessary. If Robin had treated her staff properly and had used better work place principles in order to produce the best from the staff then she would not have been hated with so much vigor. I can remember when I came into the area she made it very clear that she did not want me to be there. She was extremely rude towards me, and she even attended a seminar on "dealing with difficult people". After she had attended this seminar she began to make life hell for several people in that section of the department. If someone failed to perform, usually due to her own incompetence at making sure that people understood what they were meant to be doing, then she either isolated them in some way, or she made their lives so miserable that they made the decision to take a redundancy.

Being a target for redundancy that is not wanted is a very unpleasant experience. I can remember how I fought with Robin at times because of the way that she treated me. I can remember how she plotted against certain people, including my friend Helen "She has to go", according to what Robin had said on the telephone to the woman who had been responsible for harrassing Helen in the workplace.

There is a real theme here, for every time I have come up against workplace harrassment, the perpetrator has been a woman. In most cases the woman has been the one who has deviously devised ways of attempting to get rid of staff by trying to force them to resign - voluntary resignation means that there will be no payout from redundancy. Women in the workplace can be mean and spiteful, and they can also do other mean things after the person has been forced out. On the other hand, the harrasser, if she is forced out, can then turn on the victim in other ways.

Jennifer was employed by an American multinational within the Pharmaceutical industry. When I joined the company, Jennifer already had the reputation of one who was in the habit of being nasty to others. She used to have goes at me for no particular reason. It was usually something that was said under the breath so others did not hear or see what she was doing. Then there were the false accusations about use of the printer - I was blamed for holding up the printer even when I was not printing. Jennifer used to get paranoid if I was even looking in her direction. Without a doubt Jennifer was jealous because my husband arranged to send me flowers for my birthday at the workplace. The real harrassment from Jennifer happened after I received the flowers.  This happened at the time when my father had another stroke and he was dying. In this kind of case the sniping is usually something that is low key. Jennifer did little things, such as deliberately pushing my work off the printer and deliberately allowing it to drop to the floor. She would say things very quietly so that she was not heard. Eventually, things got out of hand, and Jennifer had come sneaking up behind me, for I was unaware that she had gotten up from her desk and was behind me until she began digging her fingers into my back and pushed me. I had gotten up from my desk, and was making my way upstairs, when I stopped to let my supervisor know of my movements. I was not aware that Jennifer was behind me, and suddenly she was confronting me, so as she went past and was out of the way I called her a stupid bitch under my breath. I can hardly credit that the bitch heard what I had said. She turned and challenged and then threatened me for saying something under my breath. She was acting in a very menacing way. I complained to the HR about what had happened. During the afternoon there was a further incident, and Jennifer was following me, such that I was spooked over her actions. Whilst I was away attending my father's funeral, Jennifer was informed that she was redundant. Somehow or other she blamed me for this state of affairs, but I was about the 4th person who had complained about her behaviour, and she was marked. 

My nightmare began when Jennifer had used her final weeks in the company to plant poison in the minds of my co-workers. The members of my team began to ignore me, and one Irish woman actually turned her head away so that she did not greet me as usual in the morning. This behaviour was totally shocking. My co-workers had placed me in Coventry, causing me stress, and dystress within the workplace. In the end, I began to behave irresponsibly within the workplace, not even caring about doing my work, and finally the time came to part the ways. I took the earliest opportunity to depart such nastiness. The three young women who were my co-workers in that workplace and behaved in an appalling way. They should have been counselled about what they were doing. I was left feeling isolated from the team members, but other staff members gave me support until I finally left the workplace.

(to be continued) 

My latest assignment finished last week with a mutual agreement to disagree. There is nothing worse than being a contractor in the workplace and being made to feel as though one is not a part of the corporate culture. The international company where I was working is very well known around the world for its photographic equipment as well as peripherals for the computer. When I went into the workplace I realized immediately that some very unreal expectations had been set and the targets that one was expected to achieve were not within reach. However, I did my level best to meet these unrealistic expectations. I was personally dissatisfied because I constantly felt that I was not able to give what was required. However, there is a lot more to the story and my growing dissatisfaction than my own failure to meet the goals set by the management of the company.

 Temporary contract staff are expected not to get involved in office politics, and technically, that is precisely what happened during my stay at this company. It happened because I offered to help another young woman who was left without transport in getting to and from work. This woman lives very close to myself and it was not a hassle to take her since I was not going out of my way to help. On that first evening when we took off together, I learned that we had a lot in common. At the same time she also told me her story and what was happening within her own team. This young woman was the victim of workplace harrassment, and as usual the perpetrator was another woman. In the end this woman was fired on the same day that I departed the company. I personally felt a lot of distress over the treatment that had been dished out, as it served as a reminder of situations that I had faced in other workplaces in the past. Her sacking was the catalyst of my own decision to leave the company. This was a decision that was spurred by a different series of events.

The two stories here are more or less interwoven, for I was not subjected to workplace harrassment this time around. There is a common denominator since the male who played a major role in my friend's final demise was also responsible for some very underhanded behaviour where my own circumstances were concerned. This particular man in my mind was nothing more than a very sleazy male who was always looking for an opportunity to crack onto the women in the workplace. From my own personal point of view, I never did like this particular male. There was something about him that I did not trust. However, he was the darling of the team because he was considered to be very good with his job. Never mind that he used to spend a lot of time walking around and sticking his nose into the conversations of others. There is also another player, a woman that I first met in another workplace. This woman was also the darling of the workplace, and was seen as an "expert", when in reality she should not have been trusted with reconciliation work. She was one who was in the habit of allocating payments without taking full attention to the wishes of the customer. She had a habit of covering up her errors in that regard. I will have a lot more to say about this woman's behaviour and the way in which she cheated me, and then stabbed me in the back.

My young friend's story began to unfold as a tale where she was being harrassed on a daily basis by most of the women in her team - a group who were very vindictive and nasty towards any newcomers to their team. What was really amazing is that the one who laid most of the complaints made a lot of her own errors, yet again she was seen as being the darling of the workplace and an expert in what she was doing. Quite frankly, I could not understand most of what she had written down regarding her uploads and why there were variances. I was directed to use a reconciliation that had been started by the other woman who turned out to be a backstabber, and I found that she had not completed the task but had put information in the spreadsheet - great, because that lack in doing the work contributed to the horrendous situation that had been generated and was causing angst amongst the company's customers. Yet she was regarded as an excellent reconciler and an expert - balderdash is what I say about such a belief. The women in the admin team had a reputation of being lazy and not getting the work done as requested. I had personal experience with this laziness, and yes it impacted upon my own output.

This is a very long story, for Julie's story was unfolding as my own was unfolding. I had trouble with an Indian woman by the name of Goldie. She drove me nuts because she used to listen into the conversation of others, whilst they were talking in Hindi. In fact I used to see her deliberately cocking her head as she was listening in to personal conversation. In other words, not only did Goldie cheat me, but she was guilty of a double standard. I will explain this unfolding story and why I reacted by telling my supervisor that I preferred to leave rather than staying and abiding by the request that had been made.

Julie's story had sparked off something within me that caused me a lot of distress, and the situation was not helped with Goldie serving as a reminder of one of my blackest work experiences in Sydney. The two things combined brought the unwanted memories to the surface. I tried to offer Julie advice and comfort over what she was experiencing, whilst at the same time I continued to struggle with my own frustration at having to work so close with such an incompetent and untrustworthy woman like Goldie. What is worse I had to keep quiet whilst she was busy taking it upon herself to instruct the two males in the room. They did not need her instruction, especially when she was giving them "duff gen".  She was constantly telling them to short pay the invoices, and other information that was not correct. It was so bloody annoying to have to sit and listen to her doing all of those things. Also, as soon as the supervisor was out of the room, Goldie was on the telephone, either talking to car dealers or to her doctor, or ringing her dentist trying to get an appointment. It would be a double standard if I did not state that yes, I made a few calls, but they were few and far between. I am not in the habit of ringing family or making other personal calls at work, but there are times when I needed to make a call.

(to be continued)