Racism is bullying

The bullying of Anna was a more serious case of bullying than the racist bullying that I experienced in the in the 1960s, when I was 19 years old, and working in another country. I was hardworking, but shy. A rural child who had seen little of life or of the world. Perhaps a target for bullying! Most of my colleagues were kind and helpful. I think, however, that one elderly man did not have a favourable view of Irish people. Sometimes I worked for him in the evening, and found that he did not properly explain my tasks. I struggled to comply with his instructions, and soon began to feel his irritation, when he turned on me with the words ‘stupid Paddy. How can you be so stupid! I’ve explained this to you, and it’s so simple. Stupid Paddy.’
These examples contain some behaviours at the heart of workplace bullying, which Susan Harthill defines as ‘repeated offensive behaviour through vindictive, cruel, malicious or humiliating attempts to undermine an individual or group of employees’. It is often based on sex, race, age, marital or family status, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and nationality. Perpetrators exert control by marginalising and demeaning their victims. Targets include new employees or workers who are better qualified, more efficient, or more popular than the abusers. They become jealous of a subordinate’s or co-worker’s exceptional skills. Envy enflames the abuser’s sense of inadequacy, especially if the victim refuses to be subservient. My opinion, however, is that becoming subservient only encourages the cowardly bully to increase his controlling, abusive behaviour. The abuser might resent the professional qualifications or social skills of the victim. Just as abusers feel uncomfortable in intimate situations, workplace abusers constantly feel irritated and angry in their professional relationships with their victims.
Adapted from Jim O’Shea’s book Abuse. Domestic Violence, Workplace and School Bullying published by Cork University Press
THERAPISTS IN TIPPERARY
PSYCHOTHERAPISTS IN TIPPERARY
COUNSELLORS IN TIPPERARY
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
ABUSE
DEATH OF A CHILD