WORK PLACE BULLY AND DISCRIMINATION
工作场所欺压和歧视及对心理的影响
by Francy Wang MD MMS
A为专业人士，移民后，因为国内医学执照得不到承认只好做护理工作，A工作认真，工作能力出色，受到同事嫉妒，一次在被同事误解后，其上司偏袒其同族裔的同事，对其进行打击甚至责罚。A因此情绪大受影响，失望、愤怒、挫折感、感到或者没意思，严重失眠，经常难于控制地流泪。。。。。。
B担任某公司的一管理人员数年，三十几岁，年富力强。移民加国多年，在加拿大受教育，所以没有语言和文化障碍， 平时工作出色。当B的顶头上司离职以后，本来B理所当然地应当接替这个职位且被安排承担该职位职责很长时间，但就是不给相应的title。 后来公司从外部招了一个根本没有经验的白人来填补这个空缺。由于此人没有经验， 部门业绩下滑，但由于该人和上层关系好，却仍然得到提升。B变得看破红尘，很easygoing 的B变得有时难于控制情绪，对人和事都有很多负面的看法，因此影响了和家人和朋友的关系，这对B的情绪又形成恶性循环。
C在某大公司任职数年，工作开心，同事关系融洽，但有一天C预定的会议室被另外一个较大项目，职位稍高的同事没和C及C所在项目的任何一个人打招呼就划掉C的预定，致使已预定好的第二天的meeting无处进行，工作受到严重影响，而那个人还反过来指责别人。虽然所有的上司都认为那个人的行为不对，却没有一个人愿意站出来为C说话。C感到非常气愤，无助，情绪和睡眠都受到严重影响。
这种例子不胜枚举，手头就有15个 忧郁症和焦虑症的个案和工作场所欺压和歧视直接相关，这还不包括其家人和配偶经历工作场所欺压和歧视而引起的婚姻／配偶关系问题和焦虑及抑郁。什麽是工作 场合欺压和歧视呢？我做了一些研究，在美国、加拿大、英国、澳大利亚等国对此都有解释和定义，虽具体叙述略有诧异，但其概念都很接近。这里是我从Australian Human Rights Commission 的网站 （http://www.hreoc.gov.au/info_for_employers/what.html)找到的定义，我认为是最简洁和明确的定义。
“ What is unlawful discrimination?
Under federal and state legislation, unlawful discrimination occurs when someone, or a group of people, is treated less favourably than another person or group because of their race, colour, national or ethnic origin; sex, pregnancy or marital status; age; disability; religion; sexual preference; trade union activity; or some other characteristic specified under anti-discrimination or human rights legislation.
Workplace discrimination can occur in:
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recruiting and selecting staff
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terms, conditions and benefits offered as part of employment
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who receives training and what sort of training is offered
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who is considered and selected for transfer, promotion, retrenchment or dismissal.
What is workplace bullying?
One definition of workplace bullying is “the repeated less favourable treatment of a person by another or others in the workplace, which may be considered unreasonable and inappropriate workplace practice. It includes behaviour that intimidates, offends, degrades or humiliates a worker”. (Source ACTUQ/QCCI/Qld Govt Dept of Workplace Health and Safety)
Bullies usually utilise power attributed to their status, skills or position in the workplace, and both men and women can be the targets and/or the perpetrators. Workplace bullying can occur between a worker and a manager or supervisor, or between co-workers.
Bullying behaviour can range from very obvious verbal or physical assault to very subtle psychological abuse. This behaviour may include:
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physical or verbal abuse
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yelling, screaming or offensive language
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excluding or isolating employees
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psychological harassment
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intimidation
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assigning meaningless tasks unrelated to the job
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giving employees impossible jobs
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deliberately changed work rosters to inconvenience particular employees
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undermining work performance by deliberately withholding information vital for effective work performance”
下面是http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_bullying 中对工作场合欺压的描述：
Workplace bullying, like childhoodbullying, is the tendency of individuals or groups to use persistent aggressive or unreasonable behavior against a co-worker. Workplace bullying can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, physical abuseand humiliation. This type of aggressionis particularly difficult because unlike the typical forms of school bullying, workplace bullies often operate within the established rules and policies of their organization and their society. Bullying in the workplace is in the majority of cases reported as having been perpetrated by the Manager or Managers and takes a wide variety of forms :
Bullying can be covert or overt as described by Tim Field (see the "Serial Bully") "bullies are deeply prejudiced but at the same time sufficiently devious to not reveal their prejudices to the extent that they contravene laws on harassment and discrimination" - Bully Online.org
工作场所欺压和歧视并不罕见，反而是相当普遍的现象。美国Workplace Bullying Institute 在2007年的调查（2007 WBI-Zogby survey ）中发现，13％的美国现有雇员在工作场所受到欺压，24％的雇员曾经经历工作场所的欺压。几乎一半（49％）的美国雇员，曾经受到工作场所欺压的影响，或自身经历欺压，或目睹同事受到欺压。2008年，Judy Fisher-Blando博士的研究（on Aggressive Behavior: Workplace Bullying and Its Effect on Job Satisfaction and Productivity)，在参加调查的人群中，75％的人受到工作场所欺压的影响.
工作场所欺压是 一种攻击性行为，严重影响受害者在工作场合的尊严。工作场所欺压大大地增加了员工的压力，会严重影响受欺压员工的健康。会对受害者形成严重的精神负担，影 响受欺压着的自尊，会造成抑郁、焦虑、睡眠障碍、和躯体健康，甚至失去工作。有些受害者表现出创伤后应激障碍的症状。慢性疲劳综合征则是另一种常和工作场 所欺压有关的一种表现。很多受害者都因这种具有破坏性的经历感到绝望、不知如何应对，情绪和功能受到严重损害。世界著名的研究者Heiz Layman说工作场所欺压是一种心理恐怖行径（terror）。著名的爱尔兰研究者Jacinta Kitt相信欺压是一种心理折磨（torture），这种对受害者造成严重心理伤害的行为在工作场合是不应被容忍的。Arizona州立大学的一个项目（The Project for Wellness and Work-Life )研 究表明，工作场所欺压的后果影响到个人的身体和精神健康，也会增加工作机构和社会的负担。对很多人来讲，工作是他们生活最重要的一方面，工作带来收入，赖 以养家糊口，界定社会地位。更有很多人将自我价值和自己的工作联系在一起，失去工作就相当于失去一切。对于移民来讲，在一个新的国家，没有社会根基，没有 家庭（extended family）的支持，很多人费劲周折才找到工作，要说放弃谈何容易？所以很多人进退两难，害怕改变，只好一忍再 忍，长期忍受这种压力，对身心的伤害岂可轻视。这种压力和压抑无处发泄，有时又会转嫁到配偶、家人、和孩子身上，由此引起婚姻关系问题、亲子关系问题、甚 至造成家庭暴力和儿童虐待。
工作场所欺压形成的压力（stresses） 是工作场所影响健康的最强有力的压力，其负面影响包括精神健康和身体健康，致使病假次数和旷工增加。除此之外，对于目睹欺压的其它员工也会造成负面影响， 比如害怕，压力增加，情绪受到影响等。那些目睹欺压的员工为了避免自己受到欺压，会选择辞去工作。工作场所欺压对也会工作场所的氛围造成负面影响，比如影 响到员工的团结、交流、和整体的工作表现和业绩。Edmund Burke说，那些邪恶的欺压者想得到的胜利就是让好人做不成任何事情。
由于长期受到欺 压，个人自信会受到严重影响，一个人这样说：“（我）在前后的变化是非常大的。现在我就象受惊的兔子，害怕见人，无法和人进行目光接触，别人说话的声音稍 大一点我都会非常敏感。乍看上去，人们会想：怪不得她受欺负，她连一点自信都没有！说的对，但这不是“真正的”我。我受的创伤使我变成了这个样子。”人们 往往会被误导，因为工作场合欺压造成的创伤何以是突然或持续的，可以是令人难以承受的，在这样的压力下，由于上面所说的各种原因，受害者不知所从，变得非 常无助，有时难于控制自己愤怒的情绪，所以给人这样一种印象，好像她／他就是这样的人，好像错在他自己。这种情况也常见于学校欺压（school bully）、儿童虐待、配偶虐待的受害者。上面例子的症状是创伤后应激障碍（PTSD)的症状，可能需要数年的时间来恢复。
那些年轻者和年老者还有少数族裔都容易成为欺压者的目标。那些经验不够丰富者也容易成为较有成就员工欺压的目标。在一个机构中，较小的工作群组也容易成为较大工作群组欺压的集体目标。那麽欺压者是如何选择他们欺压的目标的呢？世界最大的关于工作场所欺压的网上资源www.bulyonline.org总结出这样一些规律：
Howdo bullies select their targets?
The bully selects their target using the following criteria:
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bullies are predatory and opportunistic - you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; this is always the main reason - investigation will reveal a string of predecessors, and you will have a string of successors
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being good at your job, often excelling
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being popular with people (colleagues, customers, clients, pupils, parents, patients, etc)
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more than anything else, the bully fears exposure of his/her inadequacy and incompetence; your presence, popularity and competence unknowingly and unwittingly fuel that fear
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being the expert and the person to whom others come for advice, either personal or professional (ie you get more attention than the bully)
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having a well-defined set of values which you are unwilling to compromise
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having a strong sense of integrity (bullies despise integrity, for they have none, and seem compelled to destroy anyone who has integrity)
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having at least one vulnerabilitythat can be exploited
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being too old or too expensive (usually both)
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refusing to join an established clique
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showing independence of thought or deed
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refusing to become a corporate clone and drone
Jealousy (of relationships and perceived exclusion therefrom) and envy (of talents, abilities, circumstances or possessions) are strong motivators of bullying.
从 这里可以看出，嫉妒和妒忌是造成欺压者欺压别人的最强烈的动机。欺压者并不是工作场合最优秀的人，他们往往是感觉自己不称职但又有一些权力的人。这些人也 不一定就是工作场合的负责人，也可能只是掌控某些资源的员工。这些人因为感觉自己不称职而没有安全感，因为嫉妒／妒忌别人的优秀而采用欺压的手段。别人优 秀的任何方面：工作、个性、外表、年龄等都可以成为他们的目标。
有人会把工作场所骚扰和欺压混淆起来，甚至一些专业部门的介绍也有混淆。其实二者是有分别的，工作场所欺压是更隐性的、更巧妙伪装的、常常打着为工作着想的所谓正当旗号进行，是心理上的骚扰。下面是www.bullyonline.org对工作场合骚扰和欺压的区分：
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Harassment
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Workplace bullying
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Has a strong physical component, eg contact and touch in all its forms, intrusion into personal space and possessions, damage to possessions including a person's work, etc
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Almost exclusively psychological (eg criticism), may become physical later, especially with male bullies, but almost never with female bullies
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Tends to focus on the individual because of what they are (eg female, black, disabled, etc)
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Anyone will do, especially if they are competent, popular and vulnerable
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Harassment is usually linked to sex, race, prejudice, discrimination, etc
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Although bullies are deeply prejudiced, sex, race and gender play little part; it's usually discrimination on the basis of competence
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Harassment may consist of a single incident or a few incidents or many incidents
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Bullying is rarely a single incident and tends to be an accumulation of many small incidents, each of which, when taken in isolation and out of context, seems trivial
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The person who is being harassed knows almost straight away they are being harassed
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The person being bullied may not realise they are being bullied for weeks or months - until there's a moment of enlightenment
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Everyone can recognise harassment, especially if there's an assault, indecent assault or sexual assault
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Few people recognise bullying
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Harassment often reveals itself through use of recognised offensive vocabulary, eg ("bitch", "coon", etc)
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Workplace bullying tends to fixate on trivial criticisms and false allegations of underperformance; offensive words rarely appear, although swear words may be used when there are no witnesses
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There's often an element of possession, eg as in stalking
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Phase 1 of bullying is control and subjugation; when this fails, phase 2 is elimination of the target
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The harassment almost always has a strong clear focus (eg sex, race, disability)
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The focus is on competence (envy) and popularity (jealousy)
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Often the harassment is for peer approval, bravado, macho image etc
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Tends to be secret behind closed doors with no witnesses
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Harassment takes place both in and out of work
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The bullying takes place mostly at work
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The harasser often perceives their target as easy, albeit sometimes a challenge
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The target is seen as a threat who must first be controlled and subjugated, and if that doesn't work, eliminated
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Harassment is often domination for superiority
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Bullying is for control of threat (of exposure of the bully's own inadequacy)
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The harasser often lacks self-discipline
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The bully is driven by envy (of abilities) and jealousy (of relationships)
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The harasser often has specific inadequacies (eg sexual)
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The bully is inadequate in all areas of interpersonal and behavioural skills
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综上所述，工作场所欺压／歧视／骚扰（这里重点谈了欺压）是相当普遍存在的，其影响也是相当严重的。如果您感觉自己是工作场所欺压的受害者，而且心理、精神、身体已经受到影响，应尽早寻求帮助，以减少伤害造成的严重影响。
版权归Francy Wang （王方）所有，转贴请注明出处。
February 6, 2010