Here are some of the comments we received in response to our survey on bullying and unacceptable in the workplace.
"Bullying does not have to be overt, it can be low level and subtle but the impact on the victim is the same. The atmosphere of cuts and redundancies has allowed certain managers to put their prejudices into practice under the guise of cuts and efficient working."
"Any case of bullying, harassment and discrimination is taken very seriously by my employer. It is getting people to actually report it, which I think is the barrier."
"It really is the bullying by councillors that now worries me. The national rhetoric of anti local government has given councillors the right to really treat managers in local government in an unacceptable way."
"Bullying occurs as a result of poor quality management structures, weak individuals in positions of authority and poor communications at all levels. As under-resourced public services collapse, the bullying culture gets worse."
"The worst bullying is too subtle for those not in the relationaship to be aware of in many cases. There are people who bully, and there are those who somehow adopt the role of victim. We all have responsibility to monitor our own and others' behaviour to stop bullying becoming normal. More of a problem in my view is the continuing covert sexism which is rife in local government and work generally. From councillors to managers they prefer a man in a position of power."
"Bullying is part of the culture where I work. There are many cliques and the restructures are often targeted to remove certain people. The management are not trained to be good effective managers so resort to bullying. Bullying, publicly humiliating people, is not only ignored by management, they are the worst offenders. Jobs, upgrades, promotion, even training depends not on skills or talent but on who is in the right clique or willing to co operate in unethical behaviours and be yes men."
"We have a very high profile code of conduct in my place of work, but staff including senior staff do not comply with it on a daily basis. Sexism and racism are rife and are generally not even recognised as such, let alone dealt with."
"Many local authorities have clear anti-bullying and anti-descriminatory policies in place but unless the culture within is changed these are unlikely to be effective. People are reluctant to report inccidents and if they do they can seldom 'prove' what's been happening to them because it can often come down to one person's word against another."
"Although I have been bullied at work it had nothing to do with the cuts. However, people are increasingly stressed because there is the same if not more work to do but with increasingly fewer resources - especially staff. Therefore poor behaviour derived from stress and fear of losing your job is the biggest problem. Plus, a 'dog-eat'dog' response is one of the worst issues."
"Bullying is a term often used by people who claim to be the victim especially when being asked to do sometihng they don't want to do. Please note this comes from somebody who was a victim of bullying so do understand the issues around it. However, we need to differentiate between actual bullying and staff objecting to doing things they don't like."
"I think alot of what we once called personality clashes have now been categorized as bullying."
