By Amy Frost

Yelling at living things does tend to kill the spirit in them.  Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will break our hearts…  Robert Fulgum. 

  There is a virus running rampant in today’s business world.  It’s called workplace abuse.   Most cannot name what is going on. They just feel a terrible unease. Many figure that it’s their own problem. Others see it as business as usual.  

  Take the example of Kathy.  She had spent two weeks, much of it overtime, working on a proposal for funding new projects for the next quarter. She wanted it to be perfect Knowing how picky her boss could be under pressure of a deadline. She chose a moment when the manager was not distracted and gave him the project proposal. She waited anxiously for five minutes while the proposal was scanned. Then the unthinkable happened. The manager crumpled it up and threw it at her and yelled so that the whole floor could hear “This is unacceptable.  We can’t submit this crap. I want a rewrite on my desk tomorrow at eight am sharp.”  Everyone within earshot turned away in embarrassment.  Kathy wished that the ground would open and swallow her up. 

Sounds like a scene from a melodramatic business movie. Unfortunately, it’s an example of abuse in the workplace.  

  Some other examples of workplace abuse: 

• Setting a person up to fail by not providing adequate resources and support
• Not considering the personal life to be of value
• Demanding more from the worker than is reasonable
• Demeaning and sarcastic remarks
• Managing by intimidation with comments like: Get that list to me or you’re fired.
• Unfair and unjustified performance reviews
• Not showing appreciation for a person’s work and value 
• Yelling at others
• Hurtful attacks of your nature and abilities

  While preparing to write this, I pulled out a notebook from my previous work with the Department of Defense.  Inside it was a yellow Ppst It note saying, “Amy – rewrite this paragraph so it flows.  The document was almost right before; now it is horrible.”  For a moment I flashed back there.  I had spent months coordinating efforts and writing a lengthy, complicated acquisition document. It was reviewed by many people and I rewrote and rewrote striving for excellence on this very important project.  Then in a fit of rage my boss described the document as horrible.  That was abuse. 

  One of Ann’s first jobs was as a secretary. She recalls a time when an executive accused her of losing a document.  She was almost certain she had returned it to him.  He berated her in view of others and threatened to have her fired if she were “lying.”  He later found the document – no apology followed, just a curt acknowledgement that he found it after all. 

  I am writing on this topic with the hope that workplace abuse can be identified, healed and prevented.  I believe that companies that are values driven and people oriented make for a kinder, gentler workplace with an excellent bottom line.  There are toxic systems, policies and people that cause deep hurt, reduce productivity, and generally raise the misery factor at work.  Workplace abuse results in depressed workers with the joy sucked out of them.   They dread going to work, are frequently absent, show little loyalty to the company, and even resort to violence to themselves and to others.    

 (Editor’s note:  Amy Frost serves on the MilTRAC advisory board, helping us to frame articles like this to help others in transition understand how to identify topics that will impact their post-military careers.)