Working With Jerks Essay

Before we delve into the specifics, a few definitions are in order. According to the Bureau of Labor Management (2007), a hostile work environment is a form of harassment and is demonstrated by such severe and pervasive conduct that permeates the work environment and interferes with an employee’s ability to perform his or her job. Although legislation exists in more than 10 states, there currently is no federal or state law that explicitly or generally outlaws “bullying” at work or “hostile” work environments; instead, there are laws within Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and others, that prohibit discrimination and harassment in most workplaces (Saade, n.d.). To add to this, it is “unlawful to discriminate against any individual in regard to recruiting, hiring and promotion, transfer, work assignments,

Unlike aggressive, violent, and abusive workplaces, where the intent to cause harm is apparent, incivility takes on more ambiguous forms, where the perceptions of the instigator, target, and observer(s), must factor together to determine intent (Andersson, 1999). General incivility, as a primary precursor to a toxic workplace, can be described as rude behavior, or a disregard for others within the organization, stemming from a lack of recognition, or ignorance, of co-workers emotions and values, often taking form in deviance as a protest of dissatisfaction (Kelloway, 2010), and leads to a downward spiral of malcontent. Pearson classifies Incivility as “Low-intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm” stemming from “Anti-social behavior in violation of workplace norms for mutual respect”.Despite the intent, or lack thereof, the effects of incivility in the workplace are strictly damaging, and as such, must be addressed before spiraling out of control. Examples of workplace incivility include ignoring advice and belittling ideas, lack of active listening, taking credit for shared work and public criticism or insults (Johnson, 2001). Even negative

Bullying and harassment within the workplace can be attributed to a myriad of factors. The work

* Bullying and harassment – sets out how it is dealt with for the staff being bullied or bullying others

Hatred in the work environment breeds various issues for workers. For example, representatives working in a negative situation will probably discover issues with confidence and low profitability. Also, a negative work environment can prompt high representative turnover rates. To build energy in the work environment, workers must to make a positive workplace and do what it takes to maintain and cultivate this culture. According to Yoder-wise (2011), “the definition of violence includes overt and covert behavior ranging from offensive threatening language to homicide” (Yoder Wise, 2011, p.498). Violence can be noted as the general term that represents lateral aggression,

First, it is imperative to understand what horizontal violence, lateral violence, or workplace bullying is to become fully aware of this issue’s extent; these terms are often used interchangeably. A commonality among sources is the description of horizontal violence as “acts of aggression” committed by one coworker against another (Becher & Visovsky, 2012, p. 210). Astonishingly, the range of what is considered horizontal violence is vast, and these aggressive acts are revealed in several forms. Some violence is unmistakable such as threatening, name calling, criticizing, or public humiliation; however, other acts are less obvious such as withholding information, eye rolling, silence, and isolation (Becher & Visovsky, 2012). Still, other violence includes “scapegoating

Civility in the work place, or the lack thereof, has been identified as a growing problem within many professions in today’s society. Often referred to as lateral violence, this occurrence is no exception in the nursing profession. It is also known as ‘horizontal violence’ or ‘workplace bullying (Coursey, Rodriguez, Dieckmann, & Austin, 2013). In this evidenced-based paper, information will be provided in an effort to identify causes of lateral violence in the workplace and how to encourage civility.

Being a jerk can be fun. It gives you a feeling of dominance over others; you are more important then the rest. You are the wolf among a flock of sheep; people fear you, and therefore look up to you. Being a jerk is not hard; all you have to do is think about yourself and your own feelings, and forget that everyone else has emotions. There are various ways of achieving this perception of importance; you can put people down and belittle them, pretend you’re better than everyone, or just be plain mean, unpolite, and nasty. Sure, there might be some little voice inside saying that you are no better than anyone else is, but you can drown out that nagging reminder with constant insults to others. Nothing replaces

Have you ever been in a situation where you wondered why people are so rude and why does it seem like being rude is accepted? I encounter a rude person at least 1-2 times a day. Growing up with a family that teaches respect, I would’ve thought that everyone was the same, but as I got older I realized most of these people were not raised with knowing how to respect people. I agree that rudeness is on the rise. More importantly because of what I grew up knowing and what I saw is a big difference to how it is now without generation.

Jerks are a problem in the workforce because no one wants to work with them. They are toxic people who effect everyone around them. Jerks are a problem in most every field of work and they are hard to avoid. They can cause people to quit or be less productive because of their toxicity.

With my newfound sense of worth - the desire to exact some kind of revenge for being so subjugated was inexplicably tempting. Though some say that by forgiving we become virtuous, was it not Shakespeare himself who said, “If you wrong us, shall we not

Employees should have the right to feel safe in their work environment and to be free from workplace bullying. Employers need to be held accountable and have a plan in place to protect the employees from this type of violence. Barbara McCulloch is a mediator who has developed a process of mediation to address the complicated issues of bullying behavior in the workplace (McCulloch, 2010). Barbara suggests that

Lately, we have been hearing a lot from our clients about “toxic” coworkers and teammates. This issue isn’t new; there have been bad coworkers since the beginning of organized work. But these days, their impact feels bigger and more destructive. Businesses need teamwork to function. And teams need to be more collaborative, adaptable, and proactive than

Heeman, V. (2007). Workplace Bullying: A Distinct, Interpersonal, and Communicative Phenomenon. Paper presented at the meeting of the National Communication Association.

Student Answer: One major ethical issue we have dealt with in my workplace in harassing behavior from one employee and another. As a leader of the organization I would and did handle the situation by first and foremost having a zero tolerance policy in place that type of behavior. We were able to reference the policy to take action towards that employee which ultimately led to their termination. I do however think that preventative measures could have taken place to further prevent this unethical behavior and that would be to instill the values of the organization and its leaders to the community of staff who choose to be a part of the organization. Dr. Atkinson stated, “In order to prevent bullying and harassment at work, the antecedents and the culture of an organization need to be understood”, and her work won `the inaugural Denis D 'Auria prize, a prize inaugurated by Cardiff University in memory of the college’s senior lecturer in toxicology and occupational medicine, who passed away at