I recently saw another fabulous documentary on Martin Luther King’s life. This man’s integrity and the difference he made to humanity stands out in history. He was intelligent and was able to touch people’s consciousness by his simple and clear dealing with the truth. A stinging but powerful statement was his commentary around “the appalling silence of good people.”
To be clear he actually said,
“We will
have to repent, in this generation, not merely for the hateful words and
actions of bad people, but for the appalling silence of good people.
“He went on to say,
“Our lives begin to end the day we become
silent about the things that matter.”
Another battle is now being fought and not before
time. A significant moment came in 2017 with the ‘outing’ of Harvey Weinstein
and the many other men who have used their position and power to sexually and
emotionally abuse women. It started as a trickle but very quickly became a
flood as more and more men were ‘exposed’ for their past bullying. Daily we
read about more and more high profile men being ‘outed’. In our own backyard the Law Society have
acknowledged the problem that exists in their profession. (1)
A wide cross-section of society have joined the
chorus of support for these brave women who have spoken out. Oprah Winfrey’s
speech as she accepted the Cecil B. DeMille award at the Golden Globes was not
only inspiring but pointed out the work to be done. “It's not
just a story affecting the entertainment industry. It's one that transcends any
culture, geography, race, religion, politics, or workplace.” (2)
We know this is only the tip of the iceberg as harassment
in the workplace is unfortunately common, taking many forms and often hits
hardest for those operating further down the hierarchy.
Employees’ acquiescence is usually based on fear.
Fear of losing your job, fear of not being promoted and fear that further
harassment will take place if you don’t bow down to the bully. These bullies
usually operate ‘behind closed doors’ and are clever manipulators and often
outright liars. Colleagues too often ‘run for cover’ being too afraid
themselves to speak out. Their silence is demoralising and hurtful but to some
degree very understandable with them having career aspirations, jobs to protect
and families to feed. Unfortunately this silence adds power to the bully’s
position. These people are actually the very protective enablers and their silence is in fact no more than complicity.
I have seen bullying in the workplace. It was very
cleverly managed behind closed doors and extremely emotionally damaging. Unfortunately
this was the leader’s modus operandi so the harassment didn’t stop there with
others affected. Having watched the damage from afar and trying to intervene
became a bitter and depressing experience.
I was
delighted by Oprah’s message in her speech encouraging the press and all of us
to uncover the truth and not turn a blind eye to corruption and injustice.
Unfortunately
confronting harassment of any sort in the work place is an uphill battle for
the victims. The system works against them in a number of ways. Board and senior management members often ‘dig in’ to support the regime as any admission or
‘fronting up’ is an admission of personal and collective fault. They often also
perceive it is bad for business and bad for their organisation’s brand. It is
easier to hire lawyers to use the power of the law to make their problem go
away. It is often a ‘David v Goliath’ situation for the victim (3).
I thought Taylor Swift
comments after she won the court case against a former radio host who had groped
her summed the situation up rather well.
"Going to court to confront this type of behaviour is a
lonely and draining experience, even when you win, even when you have the
financial ability to defend yourself," Swift told Time. "Even though awareness
is higher than ever about workplace sexual harassment, there are still so many
people who feel victimized, afraid and silenced by their abusers and
circumstances." (4)
This view point can be generalised
across all types of bullying in the workplace.
As an educator, I feel a big
responsibility to ensure these values around standing up for what is right is a
central part of the children’s education. Having empathy for others and a
social conscience is fundamental to what it is to be human. The Weinstein case
has highlighted one aspect (sexual harassment) of the ‘black hole’ of injustice
and although depressing, it has helped to ‘rattle a few cages’. I am hoping it
will give others strength to speak out and what a difference to the world this
would make.
Meanwhile schools and
families have the obligation to explicitly educate our young people with these
central issues of human responsibility but most of all, ‘walk their talk’ as
modelling is the most powerful weapon against the insidious nature of bullying.
(2+3) Oprah
Winfrey http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/08/entertainment/oprah-globes-speech-transcript/index.html
(4) Taylor Swift http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/06/media/time-person-of-the-year-2017/index.html?sr=fbCNN120617time-person-of-the-year-20170758AMStory
