I created a version of the following scenario for an upcoming Connecting with Respect program I am co- facilitating next week. Read over the situation and try to take into consideration the perspectives of all the players. Chris just turned 18 years old. Chris is an African-American and lives with his mother, who has been his sole parent for most of his life. He just started his first after school job setting up equipment for a local recreation center. He needs this job to help his mom pay the bills, [...]

With growing dissent and increased violence in the workplace, anti-bullying measures are all the rage in companies big and small and with good reason! According to a Zogby poll in August, 34% percent of workers admitted to being bullied on the job. What Is Bullying in the Workplace? A Schoolyard Phenomenon Haunts the Workplace is an article by Valerie Cade, one of the experts featured, we recently added to our website. Have you been bullied in the workplace?

I was watching CNN briefly this morning and saw a feature about the latest trend in campaign politics. It seems that the way to win votes these days is by catching your opponent doing or saying something potentially damaging or embarrassing, and then using the video as the basis for your own campaign ad. Kind of like political candid camera. Now I get the fact that this is politics and it is all about winning votes. However, my mind jumped almost immediately to the recent suicide of 18 year old [...]

In the first part of our interview with Lynn Taylor, author of Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant™ – TOT: How to Manage Childish Behavior and Thrive in Your Job (John Wiley & Sons), she offered us insights into managing up, TOT-proofing your organization and how all of this can also benefit bosses. Below, Lynn shares more advice for dealing with childish bosses and concludes with an inspiring successful managing up scenario. RW: In your book, you mention creating a “humanized workplace.” Could you please describe for our readers what that [...]

That’s the question that local high school and middle school students are asked each year as part of the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage Stop the Hate! Youth Speak Out! essay contest. Last year, we featured the contest and the winner, Matt Soble from Solon High School, who wrote about a socially different classmate, in our Local Students Respond to Discrimination post. This year’s winner, Andrea Bestor, focused her essay on the recent suicide of a classmate, Jay (not his real name). What is so significant about the death of this [...]

After reading workplace solutions expert and regular contributor, Erica Pinsky’s book, Road to Respect: Path to Profit, I wanted to know more. In her book, Erica provides a wake-up call for employers by detailing why respect, as a core value, is so imperative. She then provides a persuasive argument why organizations should embark on the road map to respect. Particularly compelling are her personal workplace anecdotes as well as the case studies featuring some of the largest companies in Canada, who are getting respect right. Below Erica discusses Road to [...]

Did you know the rate of suicides in the military is rising significantly? According to a recent article on the subject: “The Army, with 128 suicides last year, already has 79 so far this year. The Navy had 41 last year and 28 this year. The Marines have 34, seven shy of last year, and the Air Force has recorded half its 40 suicides of 2008.” So what can be attributed to the increase in suicides in all branches of the military? Various causes of course, but recently Private Keiffer [...]

This week we welcome Margaret W. Jones, Ph.D, author of Not of Making: Bullying, Scapegoating and Misconduct in Churches. She shares with us her experience about being bullied in hopes this will help others overcome similar situations. Overcoming Workplace Bullying Over the years, I have directly experienced and witnessed bullying at work and in churches. Only at the time, I didn’t think of it as that. Bullying was something children do to each other at school. When they walked across the stage to pick up a high school diploma they magically [...]

Twice in the last six months the NY Times has featured articles about women bullying other women at work. In January 2009 it was A Sisterhood of Workplace Infighting. More recently, on May 10, Mother’s Day, it was Backlash: Women Bullying Women at Work. This last article seems to have touched a nerve.  A veritable frenzy of tweets and re-tweets about the subject appeared on Twitter. Journalists and bloggers in both the US and Canada picked up on the story and ran subsequent features. From my perspective all of this [...]