An interest in love and nonviolence brings me to the focus in this podcast on the issue of bullying in the workplace. Whatever form bullying takes it is violence and most workplaces have policies backed up by occupational health and safety legislation that makes it unacceptable behaviour. It is about lovelessness as a power strategy to gain favors with the boss, survive in an unsafe workplace and so on. The example of gossiping or back-biting involves often hidden micro-aggressions against an absent colleague. While commonplace, the harm cannot be over stated. For example, reputational harm occurs when a person is repeatedly talked about in negative ways behind their backs. This behaviour is hard to confront but is felt by the absent person when they are typically not included in key events and opportunities. The exclusionary behaviour and judgemental attitudes can cause heartache and serious health impacts for the person.
The podcast brings a lens as well to myself, and you the listener, and asks us to carefully reflect on whether we are complicit in these micro aggressions against another colleague. Good people can bully and be bullied - which is not to say that bullying is ever ok even if you think you are a good person - and this complexity can be further compounded by an unsafe workplace culture. It can be unsafe to call out the back-biting in such situations. A negative halo is created not only around the target of the back-biting, but also around the person doing it. Our professional integrity can be seriously compromised by how we act and also by the reality of having to work in a workplace that is not proactively addressing the issue. Getting safe, preferably external, supervision and in its absence, keeping our own counsel if we need to support others are two ways to begin to resist the harm caused by back-biting.
The YouTube videos I refer to are:
Jordan Petersen (2023) The power of gossip and the cost of reputational damage;
Galen Emannele (2022) How to shut down toxic talk and gossip at work; and
Glenn Rolfsen (2016) How to start changing an unhealthy work environment.
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My book Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice (2023) provides more details on how love and nonviolence can be practised in unsafe contexts and places.
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