The Sierra Club example (and the New York Times examples) seemed to be targeted bullying of those with different views, or those who had the same views but didn’t pass some kind of test of acquiescence to enthusiam. The behavior is often tolerated because the targeters think themselves to be operating from a state of righteousness. It’s kind of the natural result of “ends justify the means” thinking. Bystanders are probably hoping to get their work done and not get involved. I don’t know how common that is in the Forest Service. Lesa Donnelly, who is very experienced with bullying and other misbehavior in the Forest Service has a comment here.
I found this set of definitions, which was helpful.
Bullying can be subtle. One helpful way to identify bullying is to consider how others might view what’s happening. This can depend, at least partially, on the circumstances. But if most people would see a specific behavior as unreasonable, it’s generally bullying.
Types of bullying
Bullying behaviors might be:
- Verbal. This could include mockery, humiliation, jokes, gossip, or other spoken abuse.
- Intimidating. This might include threats, social exclusion in the workplace, spying, or other invasions of privacy.
- Related to work performance. Examples include wrongful blame, work sabotage or interference, or stealing or taking credit for ideas.
- Retaliatory. In some cases, talking about the bullying can lead to accusations of lying, further exclusion, refused promotions, or other retaliation.
- Institutional. Institutional bullying happens when a workplace accepts, allows, and even encourages bullying to take place. This bullying might include unrealistic production goals, forced overtime, or singling out those who can’t keep up.
Bullying behavior is repeated over time. This sets it apart from harassment, which is often limited to a single instance. Persistent harassment can become bullying, but since harassment refers to actions toward a protected group of people, it’s illegal, unlike bullying.
Early warning signs of bullying can vary:
- Co-workers might become quiet or leave the room when you walk in, or they might simply ignore you.
- You might be left out of office culture, such as chitchat, parties, or team lunches.
- Your supervisor or manager might check on you often or ask you to meet multiple times a week without a clear reason.
- You may be asked to do new tasks or tasks outside your typical duties without training or help, even when you request it.
- It may seem like your work is frequently monitored, to the point where you begin to doubt yourself and have difficulty with your regular tasks.
- You might be asked to do difficult or seemingly pointless tasks and be ridiculed or criticized when you can’t get them done.
- You may notice a pattern of your documents, files, other work-related items, or personal belongings going missing.
These incidents may seem random at first. If they continue, you may worry something you did caused them and fear you’ll be fired or demoted. Thinking about work, even on your time off, may cause anxiety and dread.
Anyone can bully others. According to 2017 research from the Workplace Bullying Institute:
- About 70 percent of bullies are male, and about 30 percent are female.
- Both male and female bullies are more likely to target women.
- Sixty-one percent of bullying comes from bosses or supervisors. Thirty-three percent comes from co-workers. The remaining 6 percent occurs when people at lower employment levels bully their supervisors or others above them.
- Protected groups are bullied more frequently. Only 19 percent of people bullied were white.
Bullying from managers might involve abuse of power, including negative performance reviews that aren’t justified, shouting or threats of firing or demotion, or denying time off or transfer to another department.
People working at the same level often bully through gossip, work sabotage, or criticism. Bullying can occur between people who work closely together, but it also happens across departments.
People who work in different departments may be more likely to bully through email or by spreading rumors.
Lower level employees can bully those working above them. For example, someone might:
- show continued disrespect to their manager
- refuse to complete tasks
- spread rumors about the manager
- do things to make their manager seem incompetent
According to 2014 research from the Workplace Bullying Institute, people believed that targets of bullying were more likely to be kind, compassionate, cooperative, and agreeable.
Bullying may occur more frequently in work environments that:
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are stressful or change frequently
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have heavy workloads
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have unclear policies about employee behavior
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have poor employee communication and relationships
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have more employees who are bored or worried about job security
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Well, now that we’ve got a definition, I have to admit that I have been bullied as well. And possibly employees would accuse me of bullying them (disagreement about what is appropriate criticism. Looking back, I owe a great debt to all my supervisors who created environments where that didn’t or couldn’t happen. Then there was a case of “shunning and hoping they retire,” (not me) which was fairly cruel and may fit the bullying definition. Then there was the person who accused his boss of being racially biased against him when they had a personality conflict (I agree that his boss could be annoying).
I’d also like to give a shout-out to the Civil Rights and Employee Relations folks (and the folks who reviewed my grievance) for helping me get through. Those folks are truly unsung heroes, and I wonder if it would have been the same if they had not been located in our office.
I’m interested in others’ experiences, and mostly what can be done keep it from happening or stop it. What can supervisors do? What can coworkers do? What can employees do?
If you would like to share your story and don’t feel comfortable sharing in the comments, you can send to me at sharon at forestpolicypub.com and I can post.
It is interesting that no one has plowed forward with any insights or personal experience in the topic. I saw the effects from the inside (working as a grunt), but mostly in the supervisory role as a Forest Sup where all the juicy stuff floated up to my purview. Most of this kind of bad behavior can be dealt with at the lowest level, most successfully; most of the time!
When it elevates, it gets convoluted into a system that spins out of control quite readily. Investigations, grievances, EEO’s and Whistleblower complaints; all take an inordinate amount of time and expense. Sometimes, delegation by the Deputy Chief is about the only way to clean them up, and that gets ugly in a hurry!
It’s best to behave, but sometimes those who can’t just need to find another occupation!
What do you mean by “delegation by the Deputy Chief”? Do you have a story to share?
Termination of employees was carried out (in my cases anyway) by the delegation to me, by the Deputy Chief of NFS. There are times when nothing works and the only solution is termination. Oh the stories I could tell, but it’s one of those things protected from discussion.
I’d weather talk about travel management…..🤣
OK, thanks.. I never terminated anyone so didn’t know what authorities were required.:)
I, a white cis-gendered male, have been bullied by a man in a management position. I have also been sexually harassed by a female employee in a management position (a different topic, I know, but I wanted to show this stuff happens to men too). I’ve also been witness to bullying where I filed an affidavit for a civil suit – the plaintiff won. But I have no desire to discuss these incidents in a public forum. I’m guessing I’m not alone, thus the lack of comments here.
Yup, I was mostly looking for stories that focused on helpful interventions. And I still don’t understand the dynamics of how workplaces turn into Lord of the Flies situations. Probably if I did I could make a great deal of money consulting.
I did not see that much “bullying” in the Forest Service, except by management. BUT I guess the question is “are directed reassignments, forced retirements, and other management techniques are considered “bullying””.
The more serious problem in the Forest Service is why so many employees are unhappy.
We hired a former DOD employee and his comment to me was “why are Forest Service employees so unhappy”. By that time, I had spent so much time with the agency that I just accepted it as normal.
His comment was “Forest Service employees get to go into the woods, anytime you want. Forest Service employees work and live in pretty nice towns and settings. Forest Service employees have little adult supervision compared to most jobs. Yet, most Forest Service employees are unhappy with their jobs”.
Even worse, as the retirements piled up in the early aoughts it was sobering to see how many dedicated, good Forest Service employees wanted NOTHING to do with the agency once they retired.
At one time, I thought it was because FS employees were so blessed that they invented grievances and raised their stress levels to level their “good fortune”.
I did work for private, BLM, and NPS as well. They were much happier employees.
I did go to the Supervisor’s Office yesterday and once I got passed the several sets of security doors was given a tour of the office space.
The inside cubicles and rooms looked like a call center. It was really depressing. I really saw nothing that made me think I was inside a Forest Service office instead of a call center.
I would have been unhappy to work in that environment.
I experienced bullying in the Forest Service and I went through all the processes and acronym committees and got zero results, so I left. The Forest Service talks a good game during the new employee orientation, but when you are actually bullied and harassed, you are left on an island with no one in HR/ER having your back.