You big bully

I wrote this for a work newsletter...and yes I agree...it's the greatest thing ever written. Thank you.

Workplace Bullying and Harassment

What a strange sounding phrase! Here you have the combination of two quite different ideas...the workplace, an adult environment where people are grouped together to work towards some common aim...and bullying and harassment, two words usually relegated to the schoolyard or the antics of the jealous and unintelligent. But here they are...combined. Strange, isn't it? It's like...a marshmallow gun...or money actually growing on trees...but how strange is it?

There comes a time in a person's life when they are somehow deemed to be an 'adult'. When does this happen? What magical change takes place that distinguishes the child from the adult? Is there a change at all or is it merely society saying, 'You know what, you're probably old enough now...here's the key's to your Dad's car...you're an adult!' Of course this is usually followed by quite un-adult like shenanigans...usually accompanied by cheap alcohol, spirits or turpentine...depending on their availability...then regrets, rinse, and repeat.

It's true that some people are mature beyond their years...I myself am often referred to as a wise old 35 year old...mainly based on the premature weathering of my once baby face and my penchant for getting on high horses for long rides in the low country. So...obviously...some people must therefore be immature beyond their years...the Peter Pans, those men who refuse to grow old...the 70 year olds dressing like 40 year olds trying vainly to recapture lost youth by peppering their conversations with now outdated words like dreamboat or neat or Great Depression...the 20 year olds who never really advanced past high school still trading in gossip and basically behaving badly…there are all types…and they are literally everywhere.

And by everywhere I also mean right here…the workplace.

I’m not saying that’s a good thing or a bad thing…some of my best friends are adults masquerading as adolescents and I think they’re a crack up…but there is a time and a place…and the workplace is not that place and definitely not that time.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t have fun and act a little immature…laugh and enjoy their day…joke and pass the time…they should…I know I do!

But bullying and harassment in the workplace is where the line in the sand is drawn…between adult and adolescent…Victor Mature and Victor Immature…I’m reminded of the quote “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.” We are not and never will be children again and this is the ever present reminder…like the reflection in the mirror…this is the truth. Do not take part in it. Do not tolerate it.


Here endeth the lesson. :)