Sunday, May 10, 2009

Bullies At Work - NY Times May 9, 2009

It's a dog eat dog world out there for graduates and if the economic downturn were not enough a survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute (http://workplacebullying.org) found that while most of the bullies are men, women make up a good 40 percent of the bullies.

The difference? Male bulling is equal opportunity, mowing down both sexes, women bullies target other women more than 70 percent of the time according to the survey. For women it can be a no win situation, to be promoted some feel you have to be aggressive, but where is the fine line between aggressive and bulling?

According to a State University of New York researcher most aggressive behavior at work is influenced by a number of factors including issues related to frustration, personality traits, perceptions of unfair treatment and other stresses and strains in our current environment of lean mean work settings.

Men tend to mentor other men, maybe it is the result of learning team work during school years, however women are less likely to mentor another woman out of fear that it would jeopardize their own career.

What would a high school or college course on mentoring look like, or a course in Bulling 101.

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