The podcast brings a focus to indications that a workplace culture may be creating conditions of unsafety and unfair behaviours. The example of scapegoating is about one worker being targeted in the team at any point in time. They will be bullied by usually the supervisor or manager, and this builds into a pattern of other workers mobbing with persistent micro-aggressions until the person is sacked or resigns or goes on sick leave. If this is happening it is a serious indication that the workplace is not working. Typically once one person has been bullied out of the team, another person becomes the target and thus the pattern can repeat.
By recognising this issue we can be proactive to avoid actions and words that add to the problem. Further, we can enable collective, team efforts to understand the underlying factors creating these unsafe work conditions. Part of this involves identifying who is responsible for occupational health and safety matters, down the hierarchy of roles and responsibilities. Failures of responsibility can be spread across many workers and lead to a compounding lack of actions to ensure the workplace is safe and any issues are addressed respectfully and adequately.
Once we understand the nature of our workplace culture we can find positive ways to contribute to any needed changes. This culture building work must not just be left to the person being bullied, it needs to be a shared and a team effort to be most effective.
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https://www.dyannross.com/
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