Sue Your Boss, the Bully
According to a recent article on Law.com, several states are considering legislation that would make it permissible to sue your employer for bullying or abusive treatment. According to the article:
Currently, 11 states are considering legislation that would give victims of abuse like taunting and yelling the right to sue for damages. They are Connecticut, Hawaii, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington.
Although no one wants an abusive boss, The New Jersey Employment Law Blog points out one of the potential problems with this type of legislation - 44% of employees think they have an abusive boss!
The article further describes efforts in New York to include targeting:
"...malicious conduct by supervisors that hurts employees either physically or psychologically. Mental health harm could include humiliation, stress, loss of sleep, severe anxiety and depression. The bill also would punish retaliation of the complainant or anyone who helps the complainant."
I sure hope if these things become law that there is a clear distinction between actual abuse and a manager or an employee having a bad day. And, I hope this isn't another of the many examples where instead of acting like adults and treating each other as human beings, we have to legislate our behavior.
I have been waiting for this day! As an HR Generalist at a Fortune 500, it is amazing to me the number of business issues caused by bad managers - and, to even multiple the effect - many of these managers try to 'pay' off their bad behavior by upping employee's salaries when the employee announces they're leaving (because they've finally had it!). So the double whammy - higher fixed costs for the company, and generally the employee ends up leaving anyway. I would bet it would take just a few very visible, very expenstive lawsuits to make businesses start to take this issue very seriously. If these laws are enacted like those of sexual harassment - where strict liability is permitted - I truly believe we would see sizable, positive changes in average tenure, productivity, health costs, and overall business financial success.