Bangor Savings takes novel approach to stamping out workplace aggression
BY J. CRAIG ANDERSON, PORTLAND PRESS HERALD
Bangor Savings Bank is putting all 900 of its employees through an innovative training program that is designed to empower workers to intervene whenever they witness workplace bullying or harassment.
The Bangor-based bank is also sponsoring similar training for some community groups in Maine and trying to get others involved.
“It’s one of those questions that employees always struggle with: What to do when they see something or they experience something?” said Bob Montgomery-Rice, president and CEO of Bangor Savings. “Plus we have this whole other thing of bullying and all this other power-based aggression going on. When we got exposed to what Green Dot is doing, we decided that this is the next step we needed to take.”
Green Dot is a program championed and taught by Virginia-based nonprofit “social accelerator” Alteristic. Its goal is to promote positive societal change by teaching people how to counteract bullying or harassing behavior when they witness it.
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Ban bullying in science
Nature
Science can be difficult enough even if you work in a great laboratory with supportive colleagues. So the added pressure of a boss or co-worker who regularly abuses, trivializes, hassles, belittles and unfairly criticizes is not just a problem for the individual concerned. It’s bad for research.
Such workplace bullying thrives on silence. But, as occurred with sexual harassment, there is growing noise about bullying in science. Already this year, allegations of bullying have rocked the world of astrophysics, closely followed by those of cancer genetics, neuroscience and vertebrate palaeontology.
Much of this additional scrutiny is down to the willingness of scientists to speak out. Now is the time for more institutions to follow their lead and step up to take decisive action.
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Angry customers and bullying: Why job stress in Ireland has doubled
By Órla Ryan, The Journal
JOB-RELATED STRESS has doubled among employees in Ireland in recent years, a new study has found.
Dealing with angry customers, time pressure and bullying are among the reasons people list for their work stress.
Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) research, funded by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), has found that job stress among employees doubled from 8% in 2010 to 17% in 2015.
However, the level of job stress in Ireland was still below the average for 10 western European countries in 2015 (19%).
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