The Wrongologist

What’s
Wrong Today:

Sorry for
the radio silence, the Wrongologist was fighting a turkey-induced coma.

A holiday
story caught our eye. The Wall Street Journal reported
that work is the last thing that people
are thankful for:

“The workplace
ranks dead last among the places people express gratitude, from homes and
neighborhoods to places of worship. Only 10% of adults say thanks to a
colleague every day, and just 7% express gratitude daily to a boss, according
to a survey this year of 2,007 people for the John Templeton Foundation of West
Conshohocken, Pa., a nonprofit organization that sponsors research on
creativity, gratitude, freedom and other topics…

A common attitude
from the corner office is ‘We thank people around here: It’s called a paycheck,’
says Bob Nelson, an employee-motivation consultant in San Diego…”

Research suggests that employees who feel
appreciated are more productive and loyal. But some bosses are afraid employees
will take advantage of them if they heap on the gratitude.

More than
half of human-resources managers say showing appreciation for workers cuts
turnover, and 49% believe it increases profit, according to a study of 815 managers
released last week by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Employers
are placing less importance on recognition programs. Although 77% of companies
still have them, according to the SHRM study, surveys in the past six years show a gradual decline in
total offerings and employer cutbacks in existing programs.

So, What’s
Wrong?

Generally,
work life in America has gone downhill. This isn’t about the millions who can’t find a job or stagnant wages. It’s
about those who are still working, where it’s anything goes at work, including bullying, abuse and violence. Any business or institution that is serious about protecting their employees from all forms of violence and abuse ought to consider implementing some form of workplace violence prevention strategy.

All of this shows just
another facet of the coarsening of
civility in America.
And spare us the
“they should be thankful that they get a paycheck” argument. If
people work only for a paycheck, they’ll only work hard enough to keep from
getting fired.

Bullying in the workplace
is common. A 2012
CareerBuilder survey showed 35% of all employees directly experienced
workplace bullying, up from 27% last year. 16% of these workers reported they
suffered health-related problems as a result of bullying and 17% decided to
quit their jobs to escape the situation.

Of workers who felt
bullied, 48% pointed to incidents with their bosses, while 45% said coworkers and
26% mentioned someone higher up in the company other than their boss (respondents could list more than one choice).

54% of
those bullied said they were bullied by someone older than they are, while 29%
said the bully was younger.

The Workplace Bullying
Institute tries to raise awareness of abuse in the workplace as well as
lobbying states to pass worker protections legislation. So far, thirteen states
have laws on the books to prevent abuse in the workplace. Yet lawsuits are
thrown out by the courts and the message clearly is offenders in the workplace
can get completely away
with it.

In
a case cited by David
Yamada, a professor and founding director of the New Workplace Institute at
Boston’s Suffolk University Law School, a physician in Arkansas abused an
employee for two years, called her a “slut,” and told her repeatedly that women
who work outside the home are “whores and prostitutes.” Making matters worse,
he threatened to kill her if she quit. In its decision, an Arkansas court ruled
that even if the allegations were true, they still didn’t add up to intentional
affliction of emotional stress. While the case dates from 1996, this type of
mistreatment is still common today particularly in the health care industry.

Workplace abuse costs money and is the #1 reason people look for new jobs.

Finally, workplace violence is the 4th leading cause
of death at the workplace and the
leading cause of workplace death for women.

The
documentary, Murder by
Proxy, is a documentary that describes a failed attempt to get a workplace anti-bullying law passed in the
State of Washington. It shows a description of workplace mass murder
and the conditions of the work environment before the tragedies happened.

These studies, the film and the WSJ article offer food
for thought on how the workplace in
this country is turning into a nightmare, particularly for the young and for those at the
bottom of the pyramid.