Beyond the Schoolyard: Workplace Bullying

mllangan1 59 Comments

quote-to-be-able-to-destroy-with-good-conscience-to-be-able-to-behave-badly-and-call-your-bad-behavior-aldous-huxley-314332This infographic on workplace bullying was created by International Business Degree Guide to convey the message that workplace bullies not only hurt people, they can also hurt business–driving away good employees in their quest for control.

Adept at dissimulation, those in authority often see what the bully expressly feigns and pretends to be. Under observation by authority the bully hides his true self and often cultivates an image designed to please and impress.

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Veiling truth to those in power protects the bully.  Reports of abuse are disbelieved or ignored; dismissed or minimized as exaggeration; deemed a product of bellyachers and whiners.  In addition to hiding his true self the bully will often tell superiors what they want to hear. The workplace bully promotes an image of loyalty, dedication and hard work to superiors and may even feign common ideals and goals.   This  impression management often works.

When bullying ends in tragedy it is often revealed that those who could and should have done something about it knew about it and did nothing.  This failure to act may be the result of blinkered apathy, willful ignorance and even malicious complicity.  This is especially true when the  political and ideological views of the bully align closely with  those in charge and the victim of bullying is remotely aligned.   Moral superiority, bigotry, racism,  and other biases all too often factor into the equation.

Perhaps those without sufficient empathy of others to take action when reports of abuse and harassment are reported to them will do their jobs if they realize workplace bullying might harm them personally or what they value most.

via Beyond the Schoolyard: Workplace Bullying.

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59 thoughts on “Beyond the Schoolyard: Workplace Bullying”

  1. My workplace bully was my boss. It was a horrible place to work, and I’m so glad I’m out of there. I wouldn’t cross the street if I saw her laying injured in the road, well maybe to spit on her. Yes, she was that bad. I’m always amazed how pathetic little worms can get and stay in management positions, especially with only a high school diploma. These people never cease to amaze me.

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  5. As a person who was at the end of workplace bullying, I am glad to read your blog on this matter. However, I don’t understand why you think ‘moral superiority, bigotry, racism, and other biases all too often factor into the equation.”

    I don’t think there is anything morally superior about bullying people, in fact I think this is a display of the exact opposite.

    When people are really morally superior, they treat others with kindness, honesty and fairness, and they are certainly not afraid to fight against the bullying situation. Sure fighting against the bully situations may be a long and strenuous journey, yet I found it can be a very empowering and rewarding experience. It is only when victims rise up and fight back, the bullies will begin to learn that as they sow they shall reap.

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      • Thanks for the clarification.

        Pretension of moral superiority is really quite pathetic, as the bullies can not fool anyone. I think that in the west, people are not very fond of the ‘holier than thou’ attitude, and may equate it to the concept of moral superiority. Coming from a difficult cultural background (Chinese for me), moral superiority is actually a good thing, and gives people no right to abuse us. In the east, moral superiority is considered a personal achievement and a benefit to the society.

        I think that to defeat the bullies’ pretension of moral superiority, one must display real moral superiority that embodies intelligence to understand the bullies’ tactics and courage to expose them.

        Thanks for posting this blog that supports bullying victims, and allow me to express some thoughts on the subject.

        Best Wishes

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  6. Of course they pretend to be morally superior. They cannot perceive themselves as anything but flawless. There is no such thing as moral superiority! None! We are all worthy. The dichotomy between humans, the classification of some that are said to be superior and others considered worthless garbage needs to end. There is no grounds that those deemed worthless garbage are only worthy if they agree to being strapped into straitjackets, bound and drugged. BTW, the Murphy Bill was passed yesterday. We’re headed for genocide…..

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      • We may not be able to stop a genocide or stop things going downhill fast, yet we can learn a great deal about the world and ourselves, and we can grow our abilities to make contributions to a fairer and better world. Perhaps these adversities are necessary to bring out the best in us, so that when we achieve greater moral status we can be ready for a better world.

        Cheers

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    • I beg to disagree.

      Moral superiority exists as much as moral inferiority exists. As long as there are people thinking that they can deceive others, there are people who can bust deceptions.

      People need to look into themselves to discover the innate goodness to understand that moral superiority exists.

      No, we are not headed for genocide. When we are offended by corruptions and abuses, we begin to master our ability to fight back for a better world, and in turn become a better person as a return.

      To bully people is a great offence to humanity, yet to dismiss the power of truth and justice is even worse.

      I was abused by the legal system in Australia where my lawyer suppressed evidence support my case, and the judge made false evidence to frame me, because my opponent’s son-in-law had connections in the legal profession. I lost the case due to the corruption, yet my opponent’s son-in-law died of a sport accident weeks later.

      Never under-estimate the power of truth and justice. In adversity we have a choice to choose to letting go of hope, or to take the opportunity to empower ourselves to fight back and learn to behave with greater moral superiority.

      As a Chinese scholar once said, ‘the value of a civilization is measured by the quality of people it produces’.

      Living in the west for the past 24 years, made me very discontent with the governance in the west. While many people chants ‘all politicians are liars’ at the election times, I wonder what have we done to deserve the politicians that we have got, and what can we do to deserve better politicians. The same analogy leads to wonder when we are bullied, what have we done to attract the bullying situation, and what can we do to overcome it.

      According to Noel Towell’s article ‘Adding trauma to workers’ pain’ published in the Canberra Times on 20 June 2015, ‘In a workplace the major reason for people being picked on is when they’re good at their job and well liked, those are the two major factors. The third one is when they can stick up for themselves or someone else’. We can see from this that bullying often happens when the victim is deemed as a threat to the existing order of the workplace which is often abusive and toxic. It seems to me such abuse is allowed to happen precisely because of a lack of support for the real moral superiority in the social setting.

      Experiencing bullying and abuses in the last 16 years made me sick and tired, yet it does not weaken my spirit, in fact it made me more compassionate and intellectually stronger, and led me to appreciate things that were not my priorities in the past, such as discernment, accountability and justice.

      I sincerely hope that more and more people in our world will recover the innate goodness and wisdom in our hearts, learn to be kind, honest and fair with themselves and each other, support and protect each other, understand and act in each other’s best interest, and never lose the curiosity to create a better world nor the faith in truth and justice.

      Please allow me to share some quotes that may shed some light on this matter:
      – To give light, one must bear the pain of burning: Victor Frankl

      – Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light, but bringing consciousness to the darkness: Carl Jung

      – The improvement of society can be achieved only by the moral improvement of its citizens”:Leo Tolstoy

      – The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything: Albert Einstein

      – Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war: Martin Luther King Jr

      – If wars can be started by lies, they can be stopped by truth: Julian Assange

      – Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves and those we love: Julian Assange

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      • I think we are all on the same page. Those feigning moral superiority are a mixture of the immoral and amoral– “moral preeners ” who wish to impose their agenda onto others under a guise of beneficence and altruism. They also feign professionalism and evidence base and are just as empty in those areas. All one has to do is look under the rock

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        • “Those feigning moral superiority are a mixture of the immoral and amoral– “moral preeners ” who wish to impose their agenda onto others under a guise of beneficence and altruism. ”

          Yes, such guise of beneficence and altruism can only fool the people who do not have a deeper understanding of the matter. It is only when truth is exposed, the pretenders of moral superiority can no longer hide behind such guise. This is why I think it is necessary for everyone who intends to live for the betterment of humanity to value and thrive towards the real moral superiority. Even though I detest every abuse and corruption that I had to endure, I do value the opportunities these experiences have provided me to grow a greater faith in truth and justice.

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        • Thanks for the link. What I see is an abuse of power to profit, but I don’t see any connection between this abuse with ‘moral superiority’.

          “The problem is no one bothered to examine the methodology to discern the validity of these claims. There has been no critical analysis or Cochrane type review of any of these studies which are invariably small, methodologically flawed, and biased.”

          What I see here is a lack of proper management and monitoring of these programs, a case of stakeholders failing to assess and address the risk factors, and a case of people submit themselves blindly to the so called expertise opinions without trying to understand the legitimacy of such opinion.

          As a result, I see moral superiority an inaccurate phrase to describe the basis of this negligence. And I think the inaccurate usage of this phrase can be very detrimental to the moral progress of our humanity.

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        • I think this is simply a disagreement over semantics. My use of “moral superiority” was referring to their interpretation and exploitation of ethics, morality and professionalism not the literal or ideological meaning of it. It is their misuse and misapplication of ethics, morality and professionalism I refer to.

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        • Why do you confuse ‘moral superiority’ with ‘moral majority’?

          These two things are very different from one another, you know.

          If people have no idea what moral superiority really is, how could they succeed in expose the fake moral superiority? The greatest evil I see in Christianity is the destruction of moral superiority by denying the innate goodness of human soul, and labelling the Pharisees the ‘morally superior’ and making them the villains.

          If our experiences of corruptions and abuses cannot bring us to aspire towards the real moral superiority, then nothing will. The fear to respect the real moral superiority is exactly the ingredient for a continuously corrupt society.

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        • No, I don’t think we are all on the same page, as I am being accused of treading scary ground to make such comparisons of value in humans. Juliemadblogger is putting words into my mouth, accusing me of denying people rights based on their moral status. All I have been saying is that the real moral superiority is a good thing, and that people with real moral superiority are not the bullying type. They are not bullies, but they are not weak targets of the bullies. If anyone dares to bully them, they will teach the bullies a good lesson, a lesson of fairness and accountability.

          Now since Juliemadblogger accused me of denying people rights based on their moral status, does not people get fined or even loose licence when they commit traffic offence? Isn’t this the basis of most judicial systems in the world? Does this give us examples that when people are less moral, limits of rights can be imposed upon them?

          I found Juliemadblogger basing her denial of real moral superiority on the so called worthiness of all people a very poor example of reasoning. These two things has no connection with each other, and her insistence to relation them two, to me seem to be an unfortunate hopefully an unintended condoning of the bullying tactics.

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    • I guess people do understand ‘moral superiority’ differently.

      According to Wikipedia:

      “Moral superiority is the belief or attitude that one’s position and actions are justified by having higher moral values than one’s opponent.

      It can refer to:

      Morality, when two systems of morality are compared
      Self-righteousness, when proclamations of moral superiority become a negative personal trait
      Superiority complex, when the moral superiority is a psychological reaction to insecurity and self-doubt”

      To me, moral superiority gives people greater intelligence, kindness, consideration, and courage to fight for the right.

      True we are all worthy as a human beings, yet our choices of pursuits can reflect a great spectrum of moral status. Just because we are all worthy as human beings, does not mean one can not be morally superior to another. In a situation of workplace bullying, I think it is safe to say that people who tries to stop the bully abusing others is more morally superior than the bully.

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      • You are treading scary ground to make such comparisons of value in humans. if anyone is deemed lesser in any way their rights can be denied, including Freedom of Speech and the notion that anyoe is lesser can lead to genocide.

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      • Juliemadblogger, you are confusing yourself.

        The real moral superiority does not lead to denial of freedom of speech or genocide, on the contrary it prevents it.

        I understand that in the western culture, for centuries people were taught that everyone is sinful and have no right to accuse one another, and this has become the exact breeding grounds bullying tactics need to fester, because then no one will be allowed to accuse the evil doer for their wrong doings? Isn’t this what had happened to the hundreds of years of genocide by the western colonialism? Isn’t this the real killer of ‘freedom of speech?

        What I am saying, is that we the victims need to grow in our own moral status to achieve a superiority over the abusers, so that we get to expose their evil deeds, hopefully understand the cause of their destructive behaviours, take constructive steps to help ourselves and help everyone involve to grow towards a greater morality together.

        This I believe is what many people are doing, including Michael Lawrence Langan MD here, who is sharing some very interesting perspectives on the matter. To combat evil, we need to be morally confident first, which does not mean we deny other people’s freedom of speech or going around killing people, it does mean that we are honest and fair when it comes to our opinions of others, so that they receive a feedback that is beneficial to both themselves and everyone else.

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  7. All I am saying is to tell the truth doesn’t make you, or me, or anyone a better quality person than anyone else. It simply means you are telling the truth. That’s a verb, an action. Dr. Langan exposed these so-called addiction treatment centers in his blog. He told the truth about these prison-like places that do not cure nor help anyone. To me, that’s an amazing and brave thing to do. We are trained in our society to remain silent and passive and to shut up about what we see and hear. He also exposed how people, including health care professionals, can be framed via phony blood tests. I shared his blog with fellow activists and they, too, are convinced that Dr. Langan isn’t some “disgruntled employee” and he knows what he is talking about. This is an action he did. I praise what he did but I still feel that we shouldn’t be saying some humans are better quality than others, as quality is measurable and the idea of that is too simplistic. And yes, it’s a matter of semantics as well.

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    • Juliemadblogger, telling the truth does make the teller a better person than a person who does not tell the truth. It is your muddled reasoning that really does not help us to solve the problem here. I see your approach morally apathetic.

      We need people like Dr. Langan who exposed these so-called addiction treatment centers in his blog. He told the truth about these prison-like places that do not cure nor help anyone. To me, that’s an amazing and brave thing to do.

      I understand that you are saying over and over that we shouldn’t be saying some humans are better quality than others, as quality is measurable and the idea of that is too simplistic. And I am in strong disagreement with this opinion of yours.

      In a corrupt society where the vicious bullies the innocent, one thing they often use to silence the victims is to accuse the critics of their bullying tactics of ‘moral superiority’. In fact the term ‘moral superiority’ is not only used to justify the bullies own bullying tactics, but also used to counter their critics.

      In order to improve the moral of our society, it is essential to recognise the importance of the real moral superiority, so that there can be some moral standards to monitor people’s behaviours and discourage socially destructive behaviours.

      If people do not learn to appreciate and aspire towards moral superiority, and are not motivated to grow morally more superior, then our society deserve to suffer. It is useless to be a crying baby. And it is a great dis-service to humanity to deny the difference of people’s moral status. Each of us need to grow our moral superiority, so that we can be wiser with our own conduct and can more helpful to promote greater fairness and justice in our society.

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  8. “All I am saying is to tell the truth doesn’t make you, or me, or anyone a better quality person than anyone else. It simply means you are telling the truth.”

    Tell the truth does not make you, or me, or anyone a better quality person than anyone else, ONLY WHEN everyone (ie you me and anyone else) tells the truth. It does not only mean that your are telling the truth, it also means that you are capable of being an honest person.

    If people like you refuse to acknowledge the importance of moral status, then no wonder so many people are comfortable abusing and bullying us.

    PS I am seriously thinking about un-following Dr Lagan. It is too depressing to put up with this confused, apathetic, and disempowering approach to deal with social ills. This is exactly how the corrupt authority keep people silent. They tell you:
    1. All people are sinners and were born with sin;
    2. The world is evil and we are all domed if we do not follow a dead prophet to be meek and lowly;
    3. Our only salvation is to follow this dead prophet to be meek and lowly, so that when we die we go to heaven; and
    4. Judge not for you will be judged.

    To me juliemadblogger’s idea is exactly what takes to keep the society miserable, and to keep the corrupt authority unaccounted for.

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    • Yippy you clearly haven’t read my blog. I outed Massachusetts General Hospital. That is one of the most powerful medical institutions out there. Right now, you can’t read my 11 years of blogging as it is temporarily hidden, no one can, since I have a job application in and am waiting for a decision. Don’t call me a Christian, I am not one, I am a Jew, was born one. Don’t jump to incorrect conclusions based on some hasty, closed-minded decision. Neither Dr. Langan nor I care if you unfollow.

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  11. Haha, you are not game enough to publish this, are you? What a fraud you are! So glad to have exposed you and your hidden agenda. Glad that I did not waste much time on your long, boring and depressing blogs.

    Conclusion
    From what I gathered through my interaction with him, Michael Lawrence Langan M.D. (aka Disrupted Physician) is a fraud. I deeply suspect his real agenda of running this anti-bullying blog. His blog displays a resistance to view the bullying situations with any positive possibilities. Instead of supporting and inspiring people, his blog disempowers and discourages people to take opportunities of growth. When my questioning of his logic threatens his hidden agenda, he got his sidekick juliemadblogger to oust me. I am satisfied in my mind now that his questionable agenda is confirmed by his actions. And I am very pleased with myself that I was not persuaded to make donation to support his blog. I must admit that I was tempted though. Hooray!!! No more long and boring blogs from Michael Lawrence Langan M.D. (disrupted physician) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    https://yipingwang58.wordpress.com/

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  12. Michael it’s so terrific to have a good laugh on a Sunday morning. Do you ever notice how these little consistencies seem to out themselves? Nothing further is needed on the part of those of us who are simply here to tell the truth. I am always amazed at how liars confess to their lies right to our faces. We only have to listen carefully.

    MGH said to me, August 2011, “We cannot allow you to write about us. We are afraid you will expose us.”

    Now if there was no wrongdoing on their part, not any that they were right then consciously aware of, then what was to be “exposed”?

    Here’s my favorite quote by writer Anne Lamott: “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

    Julie

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  13. This site is a fraud. I feel really sorry for the people falling for it. However I am glad to put up with these abusive tactics used by the blogger and his sidekick, so that I can see through the blogger’s pretention. People may be confused to believe him, but sooner or later they will see through.

    Dr Langan, you can fool some people all the time, or fool all people for some time, but you cannot fool all people all the time.

    juliemadblogger, you bullying attitude really helped me to understand how the US hegemony is pestering around the globe, causing horrible atrocities. The truth is more clear to me now, and justice is coming closer.

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