Workplace Bullying

When we talk about bullying in the workplace people can quite often state those obvious inflagrations such as being shouted at in front of others or having credit for their work stolen by a colleague or boss. Actually I think workplace bullying starts in much more subtle ways.

Top of my list comes the implication that if you have time off work for sick you are 'giving in to it'. A phrase that I have heard more than once from manangers and colleagues alike directed at both myself and others. The idea that the common cold is a piffling little matter and that one should adopt an attitude of stoicism, coming in to work ignoring the cough and the red eyes despite the inevitability that you will pass it on to others is ridiculous. The common cold is a high invasive virus that affects many of the organs in the body, along with th mucous membrane, connective tissue, muscle and bone. You'd be amazed at the number of people who have a heart attack while fighting or whilst recovering from a cold. Just because it is common, doesn't mean it's not dangerous. Yet this attitude is sanctioned by law where a person can be sacked for having more days of sick than is stipulated in their contract of employment. We are no talking big numbers here. People have been sacked for taking more than 8 days of sick in any one year. Ridiculous!

The next on my list is discounting of feelings. You know what I mean. When you tell someone you feel you have been treated unjustly and they say "oh, it's only work, don't let it get to you" or telling you that life is too short to talk about it. Nine times out of ten when people preach to you in this way you can be sure that the reason why they are so keen to discount it, is that it is not happening to them, and possibly never has.

Belittleing. This is done in a very subtle way and is similar to the one above. You are given to understand that you are a bit over emotional. Not handling it in a professional way. This happened to me in my place of work. You have to have it in context to really see the full picture. After a period of intense bullying in my work place culminating in my having a disasterious interview with the most senior member of staff in which I was shouted at and told I had no credibility. (A bullying incident in it's own right) I along with some others was informed by email that if I wanted to continue to carry out the duties of my enhanced post that I needed to reapply. I'd had a rough year so I decided not to bother. One morning I arrived at work and there were just two people in the office. One of which had had quite a meteoric rise up the ranks. She asked me how I was and I replied OK. She asked again because she thought I didn't sound ok. I again replied I'm ok. She asked again was I sure I was ok. This time I said, well what do you expect****. I've been told to reapply for my management job, I have been told I have no credibility, I've let the job go because I am not being supported by management. How do you think I should feel? For this I was summonsed back to the office from 20 miles away later that day to be told by my manager that this form of communication was unacceptable. I was being belittled by the first colleague , and when I stuck up for myself I was bullied by my boss
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Leaving out. A little trick going on in the workplace these days are buddy groups. Little cliches of people who 'get on really well together' These people will agree to meet up at certain times, slap each other on the back with their hail fellow well met and then go off together to enjoy a chat and a drink. (Networking) naturally what this tends to do is leave behind a smaller number of people who are not in the cliche.

Witholding knowledge. Little things like not telling you a meeting has been cancelled. Or not letting you know that they date for expenses claims has been changed. Not notifying people that resources have come into stock creating a free for all in which case some people get all the resources and some never get any.

These are just some of the experiences that I had and that I saw happening in the workplace that as far as I'm concerned constitute that low level of bullying. Make no mistake though. Companies that use this kind of bullying have always got higher level stuff going on that is even worse.

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The wolf and the lamb

Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. 'There's my supper,' thought he, 'if only I can find some excuse to seize it.' Then he called out to the Lamb, 'How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?'

'Nay, master, nay,' said Lambikin; 'if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.'

'Well, then,' said the Wolf, 'why did you call me bad names this time last year?'

'That cannot be,' said the Lamb; 'I am only six months old.'

'I don't care,' snarled the Wolf; 'if it was not you it was your father;' and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and 'WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA' ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out

'Any excuse will serve a tyrant.'


Borrowed from Australian story telling. Hope you don't mind guys, it just is very apt at the moment. I will probably take it off later.

Conspiracy Theory - Paper is Power

The distribution of paper is at the very heart of the global economic crisis. IMHO anyway. This morning I received a letter from Lloyds bank telling me that their insurance policy on loans has changed as at 1st of April. Along with this letter came three glossy paged stapled booklets that outlined the new policy. They were called, “your payment protection cover policy document”, “your payment protection cover insurance policy summary”, and “important changes to your protection insurance cover policy document”. Why three pamphlets and why three subtly different subjects I don’t know, and I never will. You see I will never read them. Why? Because I don’t bank with Lloyds anymore, haven’t done for over a month and therefore don’t have the need for any insurances. Is it just me or does it occur to you what a ludicrous situation this is. Here we are in the western world steeped in money and comfort to such a degree that we will give not so much as a second thought to the number of trees we cut down and pulp into paper so that we can send three explanatory documents out to someone who doesn’t need them and won’t read them. Not just one someone, probably many thousands of someones. Is it me…or does this just scream, WASTE WASTE WASTE. Where does these trees come from. Why the third world of course. Where food, wood and water are commodities that are so expensive your average person struggles to afford them. Who’s lives have been irrevocably changed by the chopping down of their forrests, a change that for some has been so devastating, leaving them so displaced that just feeding their children is an all consuming task. It’s not just banks that send out these unecessary documents (many of which are designed to get you to lend money that you cannot afford to buy things which you do not need to impress people that you do not like) but it is way too many organisations. I can attest to this, because on a monthly basis I cart a huge containers down to the recycle bins to re-pulp this unecessary destruction of resources. What about educations. With the advent of the NVQ I can tell you that the wastage of paper is enough to make you cry. Every NVQ gets printed with dozens of modules in a complete pack, although the learner only has to choose a number of them, somewhere between four and ten. The rest get stripped out and thrown away. In additon to that there is all of the handouts, and printouts and many other pieces of paper that get copied and put into ‘portfolio’s’. Is it me….doesn’t anyone worry about this use of paper. When you calculate the hundreds of thousand of tonnes of paper that are generated and then discarded from the production of NVQ’s not to mention the hundred of thousands of certificates that get printed off an a yearly basis this means that we in the western world, with out welfare state, national health, community policed, warm, comfortable and well fed society are educating ourselves at the expense of the third world. Is it me…..I must stop saying that.

NVQ - Is it worth the paper it's written on?

Let us think logically about an NVQ. The purpose of an NVQ was to widen participation in education. It came to light that not everybody learns well in an environment where information is to be taken on board and then regurgitated in exam format. Thus and NVQ gets born, a format in which the learner can be observed in the workplace, can produce evidence of works completed and can obtain testimony from those people who are in a position to make judgements about the quality of the work.

One of the questions that I often got asked when I was a trainer assesor is “what is it worth to me”? In other words, if the student passes an NVQ what is that certificate worth. The answer to the question certainly in my mind is that an NVQ acts as a kind of currency. The purpose of the NVQ is to help the government achieve it’s target of raising the standard of competence in the workplace to give us a better place in the global market place. An NVQ opens doors for the person who holds it. Because it places a benchmark upon the workforce that says that someone has achieved a certain level of competence and understanding over a range of circumstances that will occur in the workplace. Simple.

But hang on a minute. If you flood the market place with thousands of NVQ certificates that supposedly benchmark these qualities what have you actually achieved? Have you actually input any more knowledge and understand into the student. Has the level of competence actually been raised. Or can it be said that some of those colleges and learning providers that have cottoned on to the large amounts of government funding that can be drawn down to help provide staffing for such purposes have become much more interested in developing their assets and improving their land and property stakes. If this is so then this is at the cost of the credibility of an NVQ. The fact is that if everybody in the country has an NVQ level 2, what then has been gained. You cannot improve the economy of a country simply by printing more money. The country has to have reserves of gold against which this money is to be printed. Likewise an NVQ certificate. Unless the student actually learns something, improves competences and understanding then nothing has been achieved. All too often now greedy training providers are targetting NVQ’s at such a voracious rate it calls into question just who exactly is being served by this wholesale handing out of certificates. Not the learner certainly, handing out certificates with gay abandonment does in fact devalue its currency. If everyone has one, how then does the holder have an advantage in the job procurement stakes. If you are thinking of doing and NVQ, or you are an employer who has been told they can avail themselves of NVQ qualifications for their staff then let me appraise you of some questions you should ask.
• Who is funding this
• How much money is the training provider getting into their coffers
• What training is the provider supposed to offer. (You can garuantee that Learning and Skills Councils, through which the funding is reached will have requirements about the hours and level of training to be provided)
• How much of the training is actually class room based
• Can the provide define the on the job training that will be available
• How much of an actual involved will significant others have in the work place (Known as expert witnesses)
• How many hours face to face meetings will the provider provide
• What are the Guided Learning Hours.
• What is the workload of the individual assessor
• How many certificates on a yearly basis does the department hand out.

Armed with this information you will be able to avoid some of the pitfalls of the Train 2 Gain wave of training currently being offered.

Things to avoid.

• If your assessor tells you that the qualification should take about 12 weeks to complete. Most NVQ’s carry with them GLH of 70 or more. 12 weeks in what the individual provider would like to have because they can achieve more thereby draw down more funding
• If you see your assessor once a fortnight for 40 minutes or so
• If you are not offered any class room based training.
• If you are asked to fill in a booklet as a method of ‘training’
• If your assessor comes and ticks a few boxes and then asks you to sign something
• If you assessor gives out pre printed Witness Testimonies, or asks you to get a Witness Testimony from someone without first discussing with them the reasons for the testimony and what it should include.
• If your staff tell you that they have no idea what it is they are doing for their qualification or why?
• If the assessor frequently re-arranges appointments due to illness or pressures of work.

What you want from and NVQ

• You want to know what work you had to put into it, and what you have achieved in terms of personal development.
• You want it to upskill you in those areas that you or others have identified as needing upskilling.
• You should feel as though you have ownership of the qualification
• You want to have a personal relatilonship with your assessor.
• Your assessor visits regularly. Explains what the visit it for, conducts
the assessment and then explains very clearly what has been achieved so far.
• You will have an up to date and ongoing action plan
• Your learning is reviewed at regular intervals.

Happy learning!

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