Bullying culture runs rife, from the top to the weekly walk
BULLYING was on my mind as I puffed my way up the hill in the North Otago murk.
My companion, whose enthusiasm for the morning forced march never waivers, told me for the umpteenth time that the reason officers were issued with side arms was to shoot the stragglers.
When I suggested I would stop near the top at a spot he has dubbed Dud Corner, he urged me on. (Dud Corner was the place where I once conked out and refused to go any further, resulting in his announcement ‘‘I’ve got myself a dud’’ — a thought which should have remained inside his head. It’s what you might say about a cheap kitchen appliance, which fails after a few hours’ use.)
On a good day at Dud Corner I feel I could reach out and touch blue sky, but on this morning it was a depressing grey.
He told me I needed to go further to see the mountains to the north. My protestations that they would be swathed in cloud and invisible were ignored. I was right, of course.
Speaker Trevor Mallard has been thinking about bullying, announcing last week there will be an independent review into bullying and harassment of parliamentary staff since October 2014.
Its reach will cover about 3000 people, those working within the Parliament or around the country in electorate offices.
The review is designed to find out the extent of bullying and harassment, how previous complaints have been handled, whether processes for dealing with bullying and harassment are effective or best practice, and it will assess the culture of Parliament as a workplace. Up to $200,000 will be spent on this.
It seems churlish to be critical, but I wonder why this should even be necessary. I would be surprised if those in the workplaces covered by the review do not have easy access to union membership. If there are issues, and various allegations in news stories suggest there are, why haven’t they been dealt with before now? It may be telling to see who may have been turning a blind eye to any recurring problems.
While the Speaker’s review will hopefully improve things for those working in the rarefied atmosphere of Parliament, what will it do to improve the lot of those further down the food chain, most of whom are likely to have less access to representation and good processes than parliamentary staff.
This year there has been much beating of the gums about strikes and the power of unions, but nobody points out that about 80% of workers are not in unions. In any case, who remembers hearing glowing accounts of how unions and their members have stopped serial bullies?
How many instances of bullying are still fobbed off, or played down as personality clashes, management style, or simply part of a stressful job?
If victims are brave enough to raise personal grievances, how often are they the ones who end up leaving their job rather than the bully? How frequently does the employer stump up some money to make the victim go away, leaving the bully free to strike again?
What would happen if, in every instance where an employer has failed to adequately investigate and act on complaints of bullying, all workers on a site downed tools until they did?
The effects of bullying are serious from a health and safety perspective, and some commentators suggest one in four employees is affected. Would workplaces tolerate a physical injury that prevalent?
Hard on the heels of
Mallard’s announcement came news stories covering allegations of workplace bullying by retirement commissioner Diane Maxwell and National MP Maggie Barry.
One of the fascinating aspects of the Newsroom reporting of the Maxwell saga was the account of the former Human Relations manager at the Commission for Financial Capability being sidelined after she attempted to raise issues about staff turnover and concerns about the commission leadership (arising from exit interviews). It highlighted the invidious position of the HR professional who, ultimately, is there to do their employer’s bidding.
The lack of oversight of the commission management seems dangerous. Under the law, the commissioner is her own governance board. If a commissioner is the darling of any government, how rigorous is the monitoring from the relevant minister likely to be?
Back from the forced march, I realised wet shoes and socks had given me blisters.
After recounting the story (euphemism for moaning ) to one of my sisters, she told me she is being coerced into regular gruelling hill walks by a niece.
‘‘It’s elder abuse,’’ she bleated dramatically.
Catching her vibe, I announced fitness bullying had reached epidemic levels in the family. My companion reckoned the end justified the means. That’s what they all say.