Laws holding the bully directly liable would stop most workplace bullying in its tracks and prevent it from happening in the future. I think bullies will act civilized as soon as they find out it’s them that’ll be sued, not the owners. That must be why they don’t walk around punching and raping people.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if no laws were ever passed because it was too hard?

Please sign the petition to pass the anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/anti-bullying-healthy-workplace-bill.html .

Thank you!

I appreciate your perspective on what unions might and might not accomplish. It’s an interesting question–I’m not in a union (no unions at my university), and so wonder how other schools deal with bosses (chairs, deans, other administrators) being in the faculty union, when of course they were faculty members first before becoming administrators. Do other schools kick people out of the union while they’re administrating? Or do they let everyone stay in, and run the risk of protecting only one of their members against another? (Or do they appoint two mediators when a grievance arises?) Interesting twist.

I hear that! For the longest time, I thought that someone I worked with must have Asberger’s Syndrome or some other Autism Spectrum Disorder, because she was always mis-reading other people’s attitudes and body language. But it didn’t matter in the end what her problem was–she was treating people badly, and was completely unreflective about the effect she had on other people or our working environment.