Bullying at work resulting in stress. It is a fact suffered by too many workers in the Scottish Government but your employer has a ‘Duty of Care’ to provide a safe and stress-free place of work for all staff. Managers can sometimes be reluctant to do anything about bullying behaviour within their department. For our sister that was the case. Her senior management team were the bullies. Each one had each other's back and the human resources team would tell our sister that if she had any complaints or concerns to raise it with her line manager. How could she do that when they were the ones who were doing the bullying and harassment and DeeAnn made this clear to human resources?
Her senior management team were as they put it "had intelligence" into our sister's private life outside of work. A senior member of the human resources team was overly concerned as to why they would be delving into DeeAnn's private life. Many email exchanges between senior management were about DeeAnn's private life and malicious gossip. This is a group of men who are senior managers within Marine Scotland Compliance today. They actually try to rationalise the situation in an attempt to justify their bullying. A tactic that is very popular with bullies.
A classic defence tactic for a bully is for the bully to quickly change persona when accused of being a bully, by claiming he is the hurt and aggrieved victim. When one of the senior managers in Marine Scotland Compliance became aware that DeeAnn was trying to put a stop to her being bullied and took action, he then played the victim. This was done on another occasion when a worker in a different office was signed off with stress. When the worker was allowed to go back to his job, the senior managers and human resources would not allow the employee to return. They kept him off his work that long that he took a settlement because of the stress factor.
Bullying can create stress and anxiety amongst staff and is one of the biggest contributors of stress-related health problems, including debilitating feelings of anxiety, panic attacks and clinical depression. In some instances, bullying can even lead to suicide. This is of no surprise to Marine Scotland Compliance when they are aware of one employee who tried to take his own life due to being bullied. These bullies has been given a free reign for many years to be what the workers call "The Boys Club."
Stress is one on the biggest contributors to long term sick leave in the Scotland with over half a million workers citing stress, depression or anxiety as a factor to their absence in the last year. There were several employees in the Scrabster office that their absence from work was due to stress. Yet nothing was done to stop what was causing their stress and they were put back into the toxic work environment with the bullies were rubbing their hands together thinking up of ways to make their lives ever more stressful than they already have.
Subtle bullying can be described as the actions of someone who behaves inappropriately, often intentionally and usually behind your back, with the intention of being negative towards you which is what DeeAnn's senior managers did.
Being bullied by your boss can increase anxiety levels if you are in fear of repercussions for speaking out. The thought of losing your job can put an enormous amount of strain on a person.
There is collusion in DeeAnn's workplace. This is where the behaviour is linked to a group of individuals who are working together. Her senior management team and human resources made her feel intimidated and isolated. This behaviour is unacceptable and her employer is vicariously liable for the unacceptable treatment. DeeAnn raised her concerns about the way she was being treated and being a whistleblower when she saw her colleague attempt to punch a female assistant in the back of the head.
Let DeeAnn Speak is important because what has gone on for years in this organisation is unacceptable and the bullies need to be stopped once and for all. DeeAnn's story can reveal so much about inappropriate behaviours within her workplace and it can also protect others from ever accepting that the behaviour is acceptable. Please keep writing to: firstminister@gov.scot to let her know that DeeAnn's story is important and needs to be heard.