Nearly 45% say they've worked for an abusive boss

The grade school bully may have grown up to become the office oppressor, according to a new nationwide poll by the Employment Law Alliance released on March 21, which found that nearly 45 percent of American workers say they have experienced workplace abuse.

Stephen J. Hirschfeld, ELA'S chief executive officer and an employment lawyer with the California-based law firm of Curiale Dellaverson Hirschfeld & Kraemer LLP, said the poll results reflect a growing recognition that abusive bosses are more than just an annoyance, but a very real problem and that employees will increasingly demand protection, if not from employers then the courts.

The poll addressed abusive behavior by supervisors not typically regarded as serious enough to warrant special legal protections afforded to racial, religious, or gender discrimination, commented Hirschfeld.

"But when almost one-half of the workers surveyed say they have personally been the victim of, seen or heard about some form of abusive behavior by bosses, such as being rudely interrupted or taunted about job performance in front of co-workers, it is not surprising that 64 percent say there should be specific legal recourse for the victims," said Hirschfeld.

He noted that the survey comes at a time when nearly one dozen state legislatures are considering laws to specifically prohibit bullying in the workplace, when a management book, "The No ------- Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't," by Stanford Professor Robert Sutton, Ph.D, is a best seller, when the word "mobbing" is gaining currency in the American workplace as a form of employee abuse by co-workers, and a non-profit think tank, The Workplace Bullying Institute (http://www.bullybusters.org/), is regularly featured in national and global media as it promotes workplace victims rights.

In reacting to the poll results, Sutton, professor of Management Science and Engineering, and co-founder of the Center for Work, Technology and Organization said, "This national survey adds to the growing mountain of evidence showing that abuse of power is a rampant problem in the American workplace. It is time for senior management to realize that this conduct damages their people and is costing them a fortune. Demeaned workers respond with a reduced commitment and loss of productivity, and they run for the exits to find more humane bosses. And these costs will keep escalating as more victims realize that they can fight back in court."

Hirschfeld, whose members comprise the largest international network of employment lawyers, said that an aware employer is a prepared employer when it comes to focusing on preventing incidents and avoiding costly litigation.

"Only an employer in a state of denial would ignore the poll results and not re-examine their personnel policies, supervisor-employee relations and management training", he said. "One of our Canadian members, Montreal-based lawyer Manon Savard from Ogilvy Renault, reports a recent case, still under review, where an employer was ordered to pay $5,000 as moral damages for inflicting psychological abuse under Quebec's anti-psychological harassment law. That law provides a right to recover damages for "any vexatious behavior" that affects an employee's dignity or psychological or physical integrity."

The poll, conducted under the supervision of Dr. Theodore Reed, president of the Philadelphia-based Reed Group, was based on a survey of a representative sample of 1,000 American adults within the past two weeks. Detailed interviews were conducted with 534 full or part time workers. The confidence interval for this sample size is +/- 4.24 percent.

Complete poll results are posted on the ELA Web site, http://www.employmentlawalliance.com/. Highlights of the poll include:

• 44 percent said they have worked for a supervisor or employer who they consider abusive.

• More than half of American workers have been the victim of, or heard about supervisors/employers behaving abusively by making sarcastic jokes/teasing remarks, rudely interrupting, publicly criticizing, giving dirty looks to, or yelling at subordinates, or ignoring them as if they were invisible.

• 64 percent said that they believe an abused worker should have the right to sue to recover damages

• Southern workers (34 percent) are less likely to have experience with an abusive boss than are their Northeastern (56 percent) and Midwestern (48 percent) counterparts.