Bullies and Chair-Kickers

A writer friend recently posted a powerful article on her blog about bullying in a school environment.  It's a situation that makes many of us very angry, and one that is not confined to schools. I have had brilliant colleagues in the past who have been at first lauded, and then as the workplace politics change, harassed and bullied out of their jobs. Someone once told me that she'd been told a particular person had been appointed as a 'chair kicker'. When she asked what this meant, she was told this: "Well, if you walk past someone's chair and you kick it, it is annoying. If you do it often enough they will get up and move. Then they will leave." The strategy seems to be a way of getting around unfair dismissal rules, if they continue to exist. It seems to happen mostly to people who are doing a reasonable job but who do not serve the interests (some might say the self-interests) of those in positions above them. Interesting too, that these kinds of people sometimes rise to positions of some influence and power, and are unburdened by the inconvenience of a conscience or any other aspect of communal responsibility likely to slow them down in their desire to become (somewhat ironically) held in high regard by the community they walk over.

There are probably deep seated reasons for this behaviour - innate and learned reasons, but the fact remains that there is also an element of decision-making and I think that this decision-making is not motivated by feelings of benevolence towards the other, or generosity or a willingness to work cooperatively with the other to grow if there is a problem with the organisational fit given a new direction perhaps. In some cases perhaps there is an element of defensiveness in the bully or chair-kicker born of a lack of skill or competence that, rather than face and address, they project onto others.

Why is she writing this on a blog for writers, you might ask. I suppose it is something that each of us must grapple with when we are writing, what the purpose of our writing might be, whether entertainment and pure art is enough. In some cases I think yes, it is. Then again, when we are made aware of social practices which seem to be increasingly pervasive and negatively impact on many peoples' lives, given that we are in a position to raise concerns about how the ripple effect damages them and all of us, I would say no.

I was listening to a talk by Philosopher and Ethicist Peter Singer who was speaking at a writers festival in Tasmania recently, and he threw out the challenge to writers there to write about the big-picture things that matter - world poverty, animal treatment and climate change. I think the seemingly small-picture nastiness that spreads and consolidates into the harsh attitudes that drive the way these bigger things are acted on, is just as important, and a place where, as writers, we might make a real difference. Refusing to tolerate a bullying culture is a big part of that.