Dr. Leah Hollis Speaks At American Association Of Affirmative Action On Workplace Bullying

Dr. Leah Hollis speaks in Washington DC for the American Association of Affirmative Action on workplace bullying.

WILMINGTON, DE (I-Newswire) June 19, 2012 - Dr. Hollis spoke to a very engaged group gathered in Washington, DC to learn more about workplace bullying. Workplace bullying affects over 37% of the American workforce (Naime, 2009). In her own recent study, Dr. Hollis found that workplace bullying affects an even greater percentage in higher education. As the president of Patricia Berkly LLC, Dr. Hollis’ study shows that 68% of respondents have endured workplace bullying or witnessed workplace bullying in the last 18 months.
Workshop participants inquired why does workplace bullying affect higher education at a greater rate?

Higher education is full of experts and highly educated, highly independent people. As workplace bullying stems from the need to control and have power, the implicit culture of higher education relies on power, power in tenure, rank etc. Workplace bullying therefore is potentially a greater problem in higher education.
Dr. Hollis’s workshop also reflected on the untimely death of Tyler Clementi, and Pheobe Prince, two young people who committed suicide as a result of being targeted as by a bully. Workplace bullying is just the manifestation of younger behaviors. Just as we learn leadership, perseverance and determination, we also learn workplace bullying tactics if we were subject to a workplace bully.


Workplace bullying also has an impact on the psychological and emotional wellbeing of the target. No one wants to feel demoralized on the job. But the target of workplace bullying is often left isolated and feeling guilt and shame about being the target. In turn, workplace bullying creates a toxic work environment in which employees are disengaged and often seeking alternative employment to escape the bullying. The Department of Labor estimates that at least 30% of a salary is lost every time someone resigns. In this recession, organizations can ill afford the cost of recruitment and retraining of new staff due to a workplace bully.

When the bully targets someone in a protected class, bullying quickly becomes a discrimination problem. Women, those over 55 and younger workers tend to be the target. Further, women target other women 71% of the time. With the disproportional numbers, a case could be made for bullying wandering into a gender discrimination issue.