in all seriousness, this sounds criminal -
did anyone file a complaint with the police?
Hit at work?
NOT !!!
Sorry you had to even see, much less experience, any of this.
-Ben
>Being tied to a chair, yelled at, cursed at, hit, seeing your workmates hit even
>harder, told that you will not be paid unless you work 45 hours a week and
>weekends. I think that's all abuse and that's what I saw (and happened to me) in
>just 1 week at my last job attempt. Anyone getting a NY based job that involves
>real estate, email me first for a warning. That all could happen to you.
>
>
>> When I bang my head against the office wall, would that be workplace abuse?
>> just wondering...
>>
>> -Benny
>>
>>
>> >>From this website:
>> >http://home.netcom.com/~workfam1/
>> >
>> >I was researching something for somebody and came across this website.
>> >Lots of stuff people go through these days and it's a shame sometimes.
>> >Glad I work from home. :/
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >AS WORKPLACE ABUSE ESCALATES WHY DON'T WE WORKING PEOPLE CONFRONT IT
>> >COLLECTIVELY?
>> >
>> >
>> >by Judith L. Wyatt. This recent paper is an extension of Judy Wyatt's
>> >earlier groundbreaking article, Understanding Work Abuse written in
>> >1988.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >I am writing this paper because I am scared by what's now happening to
>> >work in the USA. I am especially frightened because, although we as
>> >working people are all affected, we are not addressing the work issue
>> >collectively as we should or could. I want to talk with you about what I
>> >believe stops us from acting in a collective, collaborative way to stop
>> >emotionally abusive work.
>> >
>> >We are moving into an era where the term "work abuse," that I first
>> >wrote about in 1988, is almost redundant. My clients in therapy come to
>> >me more and more desperate about work; even the ones who are not
>> >personally scapegoated can't find ways to be successful -- or in many
>> >instances, even survive -- in the impossible situations that they face.
>> >Whole departments are scapegoated; bosses tell outright lies in job
>> >interviews in order to trap people into signing on to jobs that are
>> >abusive.
>> >
>> >Yesterday I heard on the news that the Supreme Court made a ruling that
>> >overturned many of the rights of workers with disabilities. George Bush
>> >is removing the ergonomic rules from Osha's purview. This is a blatant
>> >policy trend that mirrors the general deterioration of daily work
>> >processes. Workplaces in the 21st century are more and more driven by
>> >irrational top managers scrambling for control, not only of the market,
>> >but of their own organizations. Driven by profits, they rush from one
>> >unforeseen emergency to another making demands on employees that are so
>> >unreasonable and contradictory that the employees find it impossible to
>> >successfully complete a task--certainly not by deadline.
>> >
>> >As corporate behavior becomes more erratic and less predictable, it is
>> >harder to avoid becoming a target for the irrationality of bosses and
>> >coworkers who are struggling not to go down themselves. Blaming,
>> >bullying and scapegoating become the norm for passing the buck of
>> >failure and saving one's own skin at someone else's expense. Integrity
>> >is a thing of the past, replaced by open idealization of ruthlessness as
>> >necessary to make it in the "real" world.
>> >
>> >In this grim and heartbreaking environment, who among us can even
>> >imagine a non-abusive workplace? Who has experienced one?
>> >
>> >What's happening here in the U.S. says we have to look beyond our
>> >individual work systems to the trans-organizational system to understand
>> >the escalation of work abuse. Looking at the big systems picture, we
>> >have the trappings of democratic institutions and Constitutional rights,
>> >yet our so-called free elections are run by two party machines, rapidly
>> >merging into one political conglomerate that represents a small ruling
>> >elite. This elite is becoming increasingly overt in manipulating the
>> >marketplace and the law to serve the interests of one percent of the
>> >people at the expense of the rest of us. If you doubt the truth of this,
>> >witness the steady loss of wages, job security, and health care for
>> >workers in the U.S. since 1970. A specific example: the U.S. is first in
>> >the world in health care spending but 37th in delivery of services (WHO
>> >1998). Top insurance execs are raking off funds that should go to care
>> >of workers' families. 40 Million Americans go without any health
>> >insurance whatsoever.
>> >
>> >Please read along with me while I address the question, "Why is it so
>> >hard for each of us to wake up to the reality of this danger---even to
>> >see it, let alone act to stop it?"
>> >
>> >We Feel The Lack of "Community," but Can We See It?
>> >
>> >The contradictions we experience at work are a microcosm of a larger
>> >problem. We can't imagine a non-abusive workplace because we don't live
>> >in, and can't imagine, a truly supportive community. The isolation we
>> >feel at work is reenforced by the isolation and fear we feel on the
>> >streets, on freeways or buses, and in our neighborhoods when we get
>> >home.
>> >
>> >For many of my clients this is true of their family lives as well. We're
>> >lucky if we have a partner to live with who is more than a task
>> >companion, more than someone else (outside work) to engage in power
>> >struggles with. We're lucky to have or make the time to have quality
>> >interactions with our kids instead of just managing their lives and
>> >keeping them in line. So many people are on the treadmill of two incomes
>> >with forced overtime and the trauma of jobs that drain, humiliate and
>> >infuriate them, they barely have energy to keep a household running, let
>> >alone relate to partner and kids in ways that are not perfunctory,
>> >superficial, or frustrated. Everyday I hear of this happening to my
>> >clients.
>> >
>> >If we have little time for immediate family, of course we have none to
>> >spare on neighbors. Even when we do, how many of us are able to imagine
>> >forming deep bonds with those who live on our blocks? Can you imagine
>> >participating in major life decisions with the people next door,
>> >supporting each other when sick, sharing food, shelter, parenting, able
>> >to be honest about differences and conflicts, and skilled enough to
>> >resolve them, and to share from our hearts? Can you imagine that depth
>> >of trust in others, and in yourself, that you wouldn't hold back out of
>> >fear or shame? Can you imagine being able to receive this depth of
>> >caring without feeling inferior and ashamed: can you imagine being
>> >prepared to give support to others without feeling ripped off and
>> >burdened?
>> >
>> >We are trapped in our miserable isolation because we blame ourselves
>> >individually for being in the situation--blame ourselves for failing our
>> >children, for letting friendships go, for not being strong enough to
>> >work abusive jobs with grueling hours and still have high quality
>> >personal lives. The increasingly censored media tells us that the
>> >economy is booming, and bombards us with images of consumerist heaven
>> >that never pan out for most of us. We don't actually realize and know
>> >that the person down the street is as pressed and miserable as we are.
>> >We don't know that the apparently unflappable person in the next cubicle
>> >has the same nightmares about the boss and the deadlines that we do.
>> >
>> >If we insist on seeing fault as located in an individual -- either
>> >ourselves or the other person -- then hope is only in a better
>> >individual, us or the person we are with. So maybe we keep looking for
>> >that person who will solve it all. But then maybe the problem is that
>> >we're too flawed. Then we become preoccupied with making ourselves
>> >better -- whether that means more pay, status, changing our physical
>> >image, measuring up to some ideal. What we say to ourselves over and
>> >over, or to our partners is: gear up, try harder. Either way we are
>> >hooked, addicted, to the hype of one of the American media dream images
>> >just as surely as if it were heroin.
>> >
>> >What is wrong with this picture? One mistake is not to see that we're
>> >locked into a system that dictates these hardships for all of us and
>> >each of us. Another is not to see that we are individually innocent of
>> >fault or blame when what's happening to us is a social systems issue. A
>> >further mistake is being too ashamed to talk to each other, and not to
>> >break the "norm of silence."
>> >
>> >We Workers Are also Consumers Under Siege
>> >
>> >The institutions that serve us in place of community that we do not have
>> >are multi-national or non-profit corporations. They relate to us with
>> >the same usury and irrationality as when we work for them. The myth that
>> >"the customer is always right" has becomes a blatantly obvious lie.
>> >
>> >We have only to look at delivery of health care in the U.S., and the way
>> >managed care and insurance companies have turned hospitals into
>> >factories and doctors into assembly line workers. How much bureaucracy
>> >do you have to go through to ask your doctor a question? How much time
>> >does he or she give you during appointments? Have you been treated like
>> >a criminal by the workers comp system when you were disabled at work,
>> >and had your claim denied or drag on for months and years?
>> >
>> >Just as bosses lie outright to employees, producers of goods and
>> >services lie outright to customers, who are dupes and pawns at their
>> >disposal. Products, often made in China, fall apart too easily; promised
>> >services or conditions are not fulfilled, putting tremendous pressure on
>> >us as consumers as more and more obstacles are thrown in our paths.
>> >
>> >The accelerating irrationality of work systems translates into bank
>> >tellers, customer service reps and government workers who are less and
>> >less informed about their product. They make more mistakes with less
>> >knowledge about how to correct them ---and forced to cover up their
>> >ignorance and blame the customer.
>> >
>> >All of this reinforces us to distrust each other, to be vigilant and on
>> >the defensive even outside work. Where do we get relief? Unfortunately,
>> >the norms of most churches and community support organizations--even
>> >unions--are just as authoritarian and full of contradictions for the
>> >people who work there. Most of us do not yet have the skills and
>> >consciousness to risk creating intimate collaborative community cultures
>> >when we are surrounded by the opposite everywhere else.
>> >
>> >Daily we try not to see homeless people on the streets, not to hear
>> >stories of people treated poorly by the health care system, or assaulted
>> >by the police. We are too terrified of being in their shoes to look at
>> >what's happening. Instead, we draw in our resources and protect
>> >ourselves. We are driven, manipulated and controlled by fear -- which
>> >keeps us from thinking creatively, being open-hearted, or feeling we
>> >have much left to offer each other.
>> >
>> >Lack of Community Support Forces Us to Adopt an Image
>> >
>> >A friend of mine recently joined a group that formed community. The
>> >people in the group helped each person question their assumptions about
>> >themselves, about the power in the group, about their personal limits.
>> >My friend told me of the great relief she felt when she was able to come
>> >to trust the group to take on the responsibility of her life with her --
>> >that she no longer felt the burden of having to live up to her own ideal
>> >to feel good about herself. Her good feelings about herself came from
>> >the vitality of the group, of sharing problems and solutions, and from
>> >giving up worrying about her image (how she appeared to others in order
>> >to be accepted).
>> >
>> >After I spoke with her, I had a major realization. I have long known and
>> >often heard that Americans live in a "narcissistic" culture, addicted to
>> >image, and that this addiction separates people from real connection to
>> >themselves and to each other. Now I see clearly that systemic lack of
>> >community and real connection forces people into an addiction to image.
>> >I see that people, all of us, are forced to inflate our sense of
>> >self-importance as a compensation for the lack of meaningful connection
>> >to others. We are obsessively self-involved with our image because we
>> >have no one to relate to in a real way, including ourselves.
>> >
>> >What is "narcissism" and what do I mean by image? In our book, Work
>> >Abuse, we talk about managers who create an ideal self, and they won't
>> >tolerate feedback that challenges that ideal. Their subordinates become
>> >good at lying to protect bosses from the pain they'd feel if they had to
>> >face facts that contradicted their self-image -- and the rage and blame
>> >they'd direct at us if we were the messengers of the real facts.
>> >
>> >Why is the manager so caught in this ideal image of himself? He is
>> >avoiding the emptiness he feels inside, which is the absence of
>> >self-worth that's not based on performance. He developed this empty
>> >worthless feeling as a child when he learned from his parents and/or at
>> >school that his real unique self, his own needs and feelings were
>> >useless and unacceptable. Only his performance mattered.
>> >
>> >We have all met such managers; we have all seen politicians and movie
>> >stars who fit the same description. They are in love with their image,
>> >because they have nothing but shame for what's inside. The key to their
>> >condition is the lack of genuine connection and relatedness when they
>> >were kids.
>> >
>> >Do we all live in a narcissistic culture because of our childhoods? The
>> >systemic answer is that we are forced into a narcissistic solution to
>> >the lack of relatedness we feel at every stage of our development
>> >socially. Even if our caretakers were able to connect with our feelings
>> >in a supportive way, we lost that support in school, where we were
>> >taught to perform, to buckle to authority, to learn to be helpless, to
>> >become acclimatized to the conditions of the workplace waiting for us.
>> >The lack of community support for us and our parents caused us all to
>> >feel competitive, isolated, struggling for worth growing up.
>> >
>> >Look at the ideology, propaganda, myth about American self-reliance and
>> >individualism that surrounds us. We are taught to place value on going
>> >it alone, to deprecate need and vulnerability, to idealize status and
>> >performance, to romanticize the tragic hero or anti-hero, to worship
>> >competition, and to denigrate group membership. Groups in the U.S. are
>> >seen as faceless masses, mobs and mediocrity. Most of my clients feel
>> >more worthless about being "ordinary" than about being "bad." Everything
>> >is about excelling and standing out from the group; nothing about
>> >belonging and sharing.
>> >
>> >To turn isolation into something heroic fits the "black is white"
>> >disinformation code of the currently censored media, to keep us
>> >believing in and hooked on a phony ideal which we can only succeed at by
>> >eradicating our hearts completely. Many in my profession of
>> >psychotherapy feed the myth by tacitly blaming the individual,
>> >especially the individual's childhood, for problems which are systemic
>> >and current -- and our social isolation is as much part of everyone's
>> >mental health problems as our abusive workplaces.
>> >
>> >We Have to Breakthrough A Fantasy of Psychotic Proportions
>> >
>> >Our current trans-organizational situation is deadly because the
>> >narcissistic denial of our leaders, top managers, and those of us who
>> >emulate them and want to be like them. Psychosis is the inability to
>> >differentiate fantasy from reality. American society now lives a fantasy
>> >so extreme that it threatens our very lives.
>> >
>> >Top managers are in psychotic denial when they allow their companies to
>> >go under because it is too threatening to their rigidly protected
>> >self-image of control and their dream of success to hear from
>> >subordinates what the problems are and address them in time to save the
>> >situation.
>> >
>> >We are all in psychotic denial when due to speed up on the treadmill of
>> >daily life we don't confront the assaults on our freedoms, and we don't
>> >admit how bad work abuse is getting. Presently, as things get worse, we
>> >hang on tighter to whatever we've been doing -- we do it harder, even
>> >though it isn't working, rather than to stop, look at the situation and
>> >take action to prevent what's inevitable.
>> >
>> >It will take great courage for each of us to come down from the dream
>> >image of status, power, and the consumerist escape of credit card debt
>> >to deal with the pain of real life losses and limits we live with. We
>> >have to face the fear of disintegration, the disappointment,
>> >disillusionment and emptiness that comes from giving up a drug -- even
>> >when the drug is the myth of the American dream. The more discrepant the
>> >dream fantasy becomes from harsh reality, the harder will be our fall.
>> >If we are willing to take this step together, if we are willing to break
>> >the silence, we have a chance of beginning the hard work of building
>> >community and bringing back into our lives a sanity that we have to
>> >become willing to fight for.
>> >
>>
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