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Much of today’s media has been side-tracked by the relatively unimportant allegation that Gordon Brown is a bully.
I don’t know whether he is or not and don’t much care to be truthful, though I do wonder whether a person can rise so high in life’s rankings without an element of aggression along the way - the survival of the fittest, so to speak.
This story was initiated by an author who claimed in a new book that Brown ill-treated his staff and that the Cabinet Secretary had to give him a ‘pep-talk’. This led to denials from Number 10.
The head of an anti-bullying charity then popped up to tell the world that her organisation had received complaints about bullying in Number 10, though she was careful to say that Brown was not named by the complainants. This led to the resignation of one of the charity’s patrons and calls for the head’s resignation on the grounds that she had breached confidentiality by making the disclosures.
Now David Cameron and Nick Clegg are calling for an Inquiry.
Bullying in the work place (or any other) is undoubtedly a problem. Heads of organisations want results and they want them quickly and this puts pressure on junior staff who, let’s face it, are unable to fight back regardless of what anyone says.
I’ve seen workplace bullying in action and, in circumstances where the boss is the final arbiter of an underling’s future, can testify as to the utter hopelessness of the person concerned as well as those around him or her. Livelihoods are at risk and it is a brave person who makes a complaint, either though an organisation’s own complaints procedures or to an anti-bullying charity.
Whether the Prime Minister will allow an Inquiry to be set up remains to be seen, though I’m not very hopeful of any clear result.
Meantime, people are being killed by war, devastation and poverty all around the world. Oughtn't we to be focussing more on these issues?
.
Much of today’s media has been side-tracked by the relatively unimportant allegation that Gordon Brown is a bully.
I don’t know whether he is or not and don’t much care to be truthful, though I do wonder whether a person can rise so high in life’s rankings without an element of aggression along the way - the survival of the fittest, so to speak.
This story was initiated by an author who claimed in a new book that Brown ill-treated his staff and that the Cabinet Secretary had to give him a ‘pep-talk’. This led to denials from Number 10.
The head of an anti-bullying charity then popped up to tell the world that her organisation had received complaints about bullying in Number 10, though she was careful to say that Brown was not named by the complainants. This led to the resignation of one of the charity’s patrons and calls for the head’s resignation on the grounds that she had breached confidentiality by making the disclosures.
Now David Cameron and Nick Clegg are calling for an Inquiry.
Bullying in the work place (or any other) is undoubtedly a problem. Heads of organisations want results and they want them quickly and this puts pressure on junior staff who, let’s face it, are unable to fight back regardless of what anyone says.
I’ve seen workplace bullying in action and, in circumstances where the boss is the final arbiter of an underling’s future, can testify as to the utter hopelessness of the person concerned as well as those around him or her. Livelihoods are at risk and it is a brave person who makes a complaint, either though an organisation’s own complaints procedures or to an anti-bullying charity.
Whether the Prime Minister will allow an Inquiry to be set up remains to be seen, though I’m not very hopeful of any clear result.
Meantime, people are being killed by war, devastation and poverty all around the world. Oughtn't we to be focussing more on these issues?
.
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