Sometimes it’s yelling. Other times it’s an impossible work assignment.
Instances of workplace bullying have increased in the last three years, Cal Poly Staff Union President Joan Kennedy said. Staff reported 10 instances of workplace bullying to the union in the past four months, Kennedy said.
“Here at Cal Poly, there are many staff people that are going through a hostile work environment because of bullying in the workplace,” Kennedy said. “When they come through this door they’re either already in tears, or on the verge of tears.”
The staff union raised the issue with Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong in a meeting last September. The union told Armstrong that bullying is a problem at Cal Poly and it needs to be addressed.
In the meeting, the union defined workplace bullying as an action toward an employee that intimidates, degrades, humiliates or undermines the employee. This definition from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, because California has no definition for workplace bullying.
Workplace bullying at Cal Poly is costly though, Kennedy said.
“People are calling in sick,” Kennedy said. “People are taking stress leaves which costs the taxpayer and costs Cal Poly in productivity.”
Employees typically take anywhere from three to 14 days off, Kennedy said.
Workplace bullying isn’t always the same thing. It can take several forms.
In one instance, a Cal Poly employee was asked to complete a full report involving data research, filling tables and financial information in one hour, Kennedy said. The report would take weeks to complete.
Employees can also be isolated when a manager yells at them, Kennedy said. This causes other employees to communicate with them less, for fear of being associated with the targeted person.
Isolation can also be physical.
“In some cases employees have actually been physically moved out of their cubicle and into a small working desk that only the computer can fit on and all their work and boxes surround them,” Kennedy said.
Verbal assault has also been reported by some employees at Cal Poly.
“In one area, this woman was being called the ‘b-word’ by her boss — he screams it,” Kennedy said. “In that case of cussing, management did take responsibility.”
Upper management sent the manager to conflict resolution training and anger management training before the incident, but the workshops the manager was made to attend did not work, Kennedy said. The manager has since been transferred to working with men, rather than women.
The university does not currently have any policies or laws that deal with workplace bullying, and there is nothing the union can do legally if bullying is not covered in the contract.
“It’s not a violation of any policy, because Cal Poly doesn’t have a policy against bullying in the workplace,” Kennedy said. “So basically, they condone bad behavior.”
But Human Resources (HR) said bullying is being handled by current policies and practices.
When an allegation is taken to HR, an investigation is undertaken if the person bringing the case wants one, Gallagher said.
The HR department asks the employee to describe what happened. Then they interview and gather statements from the people involved. If there is a violation of policy, the case is referred to Employment Equity, Gallagher said. If not, HR handles the matter itself.
If the case goes to Employment Equity, director Martha Cody conducts an investigation of the case. Cody interviews the employee making the complaint, the defendant and witnesses, and writes a confidential report that is submitted to the defendant’s supervisor, Gallagher said.
The Employment Equity office also deals with civil rights violations, Cody said. If a student or employee feels they have been harassed under a protected class status, the case is handled by Employment Equity.
“Protected class status is given to groups of people to provide protection from discrimination and harassment based on race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, age, disability or veteran status,” Cal Poly’s Employment Equity website states.
But Employment Equity does little to help in instances of bullying, Kennedy said.
“She does talk to the people, we already know what she’s going to say because we’ve heard it all before,” Kennedy said. “They’re not breaking any federal law, they’re just using bad judgment or it’s unprofessional behavior, and there’s no law against unprofessional behavior.”
Instances of bullying are taken seriously, according to the CSU Chancellor’s office.
Education Code 89535 applies in cases of bullying, Liz Chapin, CSU public affairs assistant at the CSU Chancellor’s office, said.
According to the code, “Any permanent or probationary employee may be dismissed, demoted or suspended for the following causes: immoral conduct, unprofessional conduct.”
Unprofessional conduct is a behavior that an employee has been told over time is against best professional codes, Gallagher said. The best document to define “best professional codes” is the Statement to Commitment to Community on Cal Poly’s website, Gallagher said.
“Act with integrity and show respect for ourselves and one another,” the Cal Poly statement reads. “Demonstrate concern for the well-being of others.”
Education Code 89535 was used to discipline an employee two or three times since January, Gallagher said.
The results of the cases are confidential, but discipline begins with a verbal reprimand. If the behavior continues, a letter of reprimand is put into an employee’s personnel file, she said. After a letter of reprimand, an employee can be suspended.
Gallagher said that if the situation does not improve, an employee can be dismissed. No employees have been dismissed under the Education Code since she took over the position in January.
Cody said she was unaware of any recent cases where Education Code 89535 was used to demote, suspend or dismiss anyone. These cases could have gone through HR without reaching her office, Cody said.
If there is no violation of a specific law or policy, the situation is handled by HR. HR handles instances of bullying by providing managers with professional advising and by bringing in counselors from the Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
Professional advising involves a manager or employee having a conversation about their behavior with their supervisor or HR.
University disciplinary policy is related to the frequency of infractions, Gallagher said. Multiple violations would warrant discipline, but there is no specific number that triggers discipline.
“People make mistakes,” Gallagher said. “But with someone who perpetually mistreats a coworker and has been counseled repeatedly, discipline would be taken.”
The severity of an action also factors into what disciplinary measures would be taken, Gallagher said. If something extreme is occurring, HR will take action immediately, she said. They look to see if something was above and beyond reasonable standards. There are no black and white rules about deciding the standards though, she said.
For instance, unreasonable workload demands are not covered under a policy, Gallagher said. If the manager isn’t understanding the workload, counseling would be used.
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a counseling service provided with Cal Poly’s benefits package. EAP helps employees work through stressful everyday issues by providing face-to-face counseling; it is recently under a new provider.
Kennedy said the old EAP provider was poorly regarded while the new provider is recieving more positive feedback.
“The old EAP blamed the victim,” Kennedy said. “They basically told the employee it was their fault, deal with it.”
The new EAP is used by 4 percent of employees while the previous one was only used by 1.5 percent, Gallagher said. Word of mouth is a good indicator of the quality of the new service, and it drives this increase in usage, Gallagher said.
The union advocates the creation of policies that cover bullying by bringing the issue to the attention of administrators as much as possible, Kennedy said.
The union is currently in contract negotiations. They sought to add language to the Health and Safety section of its contract that would address workplace bullying. The CSU Chancellor’s office struck out language the union tried to add to its contract that would address bullying, Kennedy said.
“They acknowledge it exists, but they don’t want to be liable for the cost, so they struck that out,” Kennedy said. “We’re still in negotiations.”
There has been informal talk of a task force or working group being created to look at the issue.
“I look forward to continuing the discussion about the topic,” Cody said. “It’s a really productive, healthy discussion to have.”
This article was written by Kyle McCarty.