Does the advice people give kids being bullied to simply punch them in the face actually end it?

[Gerry Seymour]

I'm actually frustrated precisely because I'm considering the totality of your posts amd not parsing them out.

Then I'm not sure why you don't see them as consistent, Steve. I started out saying that the numbers seemed high, and said that might be due to a difference in definition. Then, when I repeated that (in different wording) later, you referred to it as internal inconsistency. I'm being consistent, just allowing that my definition might not be consistent with what was used by the studies and/or participants. Heck, it's possible most people have a different definition than I do - I don't recall having many discussions at a depth that would have brought up the definition.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I'm actually frustrated precisely because I'm considering the totality of your posts amd not parsing them out.

Another thought, and something I'd think you'd have picked up by now, but perhaps you haven't. In discussions, I'm perfectly okay with turning out to be wrong, so I often share my thoughts more or less as they occur. If my opinion evolves in the discussion, so do my comments. (At this point, I've not yet seen anything to change my opinion here, but I haven't yet gone back to look at the individual studies, so that could occur.) In this case, there's something else at play - I tend to include where I already see my position could change, and allow for that. I think it's an unconscious attempt to reduce conflict to keep discussions meaningful. In any case, it's one of the ways I acknowledge early in discussion when I see room for disagreement with my own position.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Okay, I dug through the links in the article. I didn't immediately see links to any of the studies (one link to a union site's page about bullying, one HR-oriented guide to developing related policies, a link to what appears to be a formal book review, one link that seemed to be an actual study I can't find in a library, and other articles that discuss the issue).

One of the linked articles actually comments on my primary point, though with a different purpose:

Estimates of the actual prevalence of workplace bullying in Britain vary due to the difficulties in clearly defining an experience that is shaped by individual perceptions, and the challenges of measuring it. As Dix et al (2012) observe, bullying and harassment “represent aspects of negative behaviours that may not be easily labelled and thus may not be transparently reported”. There is therefore no single benchmark for assessing the incidence of workplace bullying. Instead, the literature provides a wide range of measures and accounts of how much bullying is taking place, over a range of time periods. However, representative time series surveys of workplaces, employees and health and safety representatives all indicate that the problem has been growing.

Source: http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/e/...-and-ill-treatment-in-Britains-workplaces.pdf

If I missed a link to an actual study, help me out. I thought I clicked on every link in the article, but maybe I missed some. I checked some of the other sources I came across when searching for the linked study article - all with the same first author - but none provided an obvious reference to prevalence

 

[Steve]

Doublepost

 

[Steve]

Okay, I dug through the links in the article. I didn't immediately see links to any of the studies (one link to a union site's page about bullying, one HR-oriented guide to developing related policies, a link to what appears to be a formal book review, one link that seemed to be an actual study I can't find in a library, and other articles that discuss the issue).

One of the linked articles actually comments on my primary point, though with a different purpose:


If I missed a link to an actual study, help me out. I thought I clicked on every link in the article, but maybe I missed some. I checked some of the other sources I came across when searching for the linked study article - all with the same first author - but none provided an obvious reference to prevalence

How about sharing what you think about what you've read. I mean, did you just single-mindedly look for something labeled "study" or did you read any of the source material?

Or shoot. Just google workplace bullying and do some research of your own. There is a body of research going back on this since at least the late 90's. You post something, I promise to read it and will gladly discuss it.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

How about sharing what you think about what you've read. I mean, did you just single-mindedly look for something labeled "study" or did you read any of the source material?

Or shoot. Just google workplace bullying and do some research of your own. There is a body of research going back on this since at least the late 90's. You post something, I promise to read it and will gladly discuss it.

As I said, I clicked on each link and looked to see what it was. I listed what most were in the first paragraph. One appeared to be a study, but I couldn't find it in the online library I have access to (though I did find several others by the same lead/author). If there was another link in there to an actual study published in a journal, I entirely missed it.

Remember that the reason you suggested I click on the links was I was questioning what definition was used in the study that led to the % numbers listed in the article. I wasn't able to find any link that led to that information.

There was a good deal of interesting information in the links, though.

A google search of other information would probably get me to some useful numbers, but probably wouldn't get me to the source of the numbers we've been discussing, since I don't know where they came from. If I come across something salient, with some numbers (good or bad), I'll post it up for discussion.

One thing I did come across in one of the studies I looked at provided a similar number, but with some clarity. It said about half of all workers had received or witnessed bullying in the workplace. That seems perhaps reasonable (though a bit low, perhaps) when including the incidence of witnessing. I'd have thought that total would be higher (multiple witnesses to one instance of bullying), but perhaps there's enough overlap (people who both received and witnessed) in that situation, that the about half is about right.

 

[Buka]

Let me ask you guys/gals something. For those of you with the experience and skills necessary - if you happen upon bullying.....do you intervene?

Not judging, just curious.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Let me ask you guys/gals something. For those of you with the experience and skills necessary - if you happen upon bullying.....do you intervene?

Not judging, just curious.

As with most things, it somewhat depends. But normally, yes. If a customer is bullying a worker, I'll normally speak up, unless the worker seems to have things well in hand. On the few occasions I've seen a manager bully a worker in front of me (all were as a customer), I've always spoken up - both against the bullying and against the unprofessionalism in front of a customer. When I was young, I always stepped in when other kids were bullied. I'm not around kids much now to have a chance to see that bullying. I can think of some situations where I saw minor bullying in the workplace where I was working, and I think I addressed most of those by notifying managers who I trusted. I can't think of any of those where I intervened in the moment, but I also can't think of any of those where the bullying was obvious and clear enough to do so.

EDIT: I should add that I'm a slow fuse on this in most cases. Often, in retrospect, I feel like I ought to have stepped in earlier.