Special Issue on Workplace Bullies at The Complete Lawyer

Victoria Pynchon over at Settle It Now offers a sneak preview of the next issue of The Complete Lawyer,which focuses on workplace bullies. I've commented before on this blog about how much interest there has been in The No Asshole Rule and workplace bullying more generally among lawyers; the first publication to print an excerpt from the book was The American Lawyer, I've given "no asshole" talks to several groups of lawyers including the Stanford legal department and the lawyers and clients of Littler Mendelson.  I've written about law firms that have the rule, as well as an asshole infested law firm, and the troubling times at Holland & Knight (a law firm that had once bragged about its "no jerk rule," but then suffered a deluge of bad publicity about alleged sexual harassment problems).

The articles in this issue include:

Why Lawyers Are Unhappy… And Make Others Unhappy, Too   by Victoria Pynchon, an attorney and mediator. 

How to Spot and Deal with Jerks by Julie Fleming Brown, author of the  Life at the Bar blog

Create a Blueprint for a Bullying Free Workplace by Gary Namie, North America's foremost authority on Workplace Bullying

Defining and Legislating Bullying by Garry Mathiason, vice chair of Littler Mendelson, and, according to the National Law Journal, one of the 100 most influential attorneys in the nation.

Yes, There are Ways to Reform Workplace Jerks by Employment Practices Specialist Allison West

The No Asshole Rule by Robert Sutton (This is an edited and updated excerpt from the book)

There is a lot of good stuff here; and most of it doesn’t focus on law firms, so if you have general interest in workplace jerks – the damage they cause, how to manage them, how to reform them, and the legal implications, this issue provides efficient “one stop shopping.”

Comments

[Vickie Pynchon]

Thanks for the mention.

As the single "confessional" of bad workplace behavior to appear in the Complete Lawyer issue on workplace bullies, I note the following:

As the Stanford Prison and Stanley Milgram's "Authority" experiments long ago proved, we are all capable of bullying behavior.

When we demonize others (i.e., tag them s "jerks," "bullies," "A-holes," and "sociopaths") we exempt ourselves from potential wrongdoing, create a class of evil "others" and unwittingly further enable people and their organizations to deny bad behavior by decent people.

If, instead of ridicule and demonization, we can "out" the bully in each of us, those who are ashamed of themSELVES instead of guilt-ridden about their BEHAVIOR, will be better able to admit their wrongdoing, make amends, move toward reconciliation with their fellows and re-join the rest of the fallible human beings amongst us.

I suppose you could say that I am an jerk in recovery. As such, I make it a part of my daily "program" to "take my part" in any rancorous dispute, promptly apologize and make amends for any harm I have caused without seeking (but nevertheless hoping for) forgiveness.

I forgive myself my human fallibility and move forward.

For more on the profound differences between guilt and shame, take a look at my article on restorative justice, "Shame by Any Other Name" -- here: http://www.settlenow.org/ShamebyAnyOtherName.html

Happy holidays and thanks for the compliment Michael!

[michael webster]

I am big fan of Victoria Pynchon's blog.

My sense is that we are seeing a gradual realization that those school yard bullies - most of whom were sociopaths in the making- have snuck up the ladder of corporate control.

Laughing at them is a very good first start to disarming their control.