Almost a year after Gordon Brown was accused of bullying workers at No 10, the National Anti-bullying Helpline which brought the story to the media spotlight has listened to its last worried caller and shut.
The Charity Commission didn’t approve of the Helpline’s actions at the time. I admit it was controversial. The normally discrete charity director, Christine Pratt, was so angered by Downing Street’s flat denial of a bullying culture (having listened to 4 calls from No 10 staff) that she went on record with a public accusation.
I thought workplace bullying would be launched into the media spotlight, but what actually followed was a raging argument on whether Mrs Pratt had the right to speak her mind or not.
One questionable outburst from Mrs Pratt has resulted in a struggle to get funding and the subsequent closure of her charity, with its 13 year history of listening to up to 30 calls a day.
Talk about rough justice when Britain has its fair share of horribly run business where angry outbursts are a daily occurrence. No-one is cutting off the funding to these businesses. No-one is giving them a hard time or putting them through trial by media.
There’s one less workplace bullying resource as we head into 2011.
It makes me all the more determined to keep going.
Best wishes
BBTB x
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
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3 comments:
..Sad that they are closing, well done to continue.
Perhaps bullying's core attitude is derived from ones character & bosses trying to make the bottom dollar more valuable by pushing their staff to be more productive & all rounders.
Perhaps there should be a phyc test for new employee managers to rate their bulling attitudes, this could give a bullyboss a rating 1-10 from poor to resilient.
Because this culture is probably of epedimic proportions depending on ones perceptions, advertising needs to be in people faces to open there eyes. A altenative could be one working for themselves or being lucking landing a job with an Excellent working culture.
It is really difficult, but I think we have to just keep doing what we're doing. Thinking about it and talking about it.
Work cultures change so quickly (new employees and bosses coming/old employees and bosses going) that the dynamics are hard to get a hold of. It's like shifting sands.
And I think if someone wants to change the world, they should start small. Charity begins at home, kind of. The National Bullying Helpline charity was big enough to be stamped out by lack of funding.
At times like that, I don't mind being off the radar. I don't have to worry about funding, because I don't have any. I don't have to worry about speaking my mind, because no-one knows or cares who I am.
All we have to do is think and talk about how to stop workplace bullying in its tracks.
And I have every faith we'll get there. x
Erm - wait a minute. The National Bullying Helpline wasn't a resource for people who were being bullied, but a honey trap. Your sadness over their demise shows that you, like many others, including the highly intelligent people who came to me when they realise Mrs Pratt had stitched them up, have been taken in by her self-promotion.
Learn all about her at http://thebullyinghelpline.blogspot.com
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