Persistent Workplace Bullying

Wasted Honor -

Carl R. ToersBijns is the author of the Wasted Honor Trilogy [Wasted Honor I,II and Gorilla Justice] and his newest book From the Womb to the Tomb, the Tony Lester Story, which is a reflection of his life and his experiences as a correctional officer and a correctional administrator retiring with the rank of deputy warden in the New Mexico and Arizona correctional systems.

Carl also wrote a book on his combat experience in the Kindle book titled - Combat Medic - Men with destiny - A red cross of Valor -

Carl is considered by many a rogue expert in the field of prison security systems since leaving the profession. Carl has been involved in the design of many pilot programs related to mental health treatment, security threat groups, suicide prevention, and maximum custody operational plans including double bunking max inmates and enhancing security for staff. He invites you to read his books so you can understand and grasp the cultural and political implications and influences of these prisons. He deals with the emotions, the stress and anxiety as well as the realities faced working inside a prison. He deals with the occupational risks while elaborating on the psychological impact of both prison worker and prisoner.

His most recent book, Gorilla Justice, is an un-edited raw fictional version of realistic prison experiences and events through the eyes of an anecdotal translation of the inmate’s plight and suffering while enduring the harsh and toxic prison environment including solitary confinement.

Carl has been interviewed by numerous news stations and newspapers in Phoenix regarding the escape from the Kingman prison and other high profile media cases related to wrongful deaths and suicides inside prisons. His insights have been solicited by the ACLU, Amnesty International, and various other legal firms representing solitary confinement cases in California and Arizona. He is currently working on the STG Step Down program at Pelican Bay and has offered his own experience insights with the Center of Constitutional Rights lawyers and interns to establish a core program at the SHU units. He has personally corresponded and written with SHU prisoners to assess the living conditions and how it impacts their long term placement inside these type of units that are similar to those in Arizona Florence Eyman special management unit where Carl was a unit deputy warden for almost two years before his promotion to Deputy Warden of Operations in Safford and Eyman.

He is a strong advocate for the mentally ill and is a board member of David's Hope Inc. a non-profit advocacy group in Phoenix and also serves as a senior advisor for Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council in Chino, California As a subject matter expert and corrections consultant, Carl has provided interviews and spoken on national and international radio talk shows e.g. BBC CBC Lou Show & TV shows as well as the Associated Press.

I use sarcasm, satire, parodies and other means to make you think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Persistent Workplace Bullying

Persistent Workplace Bullying

So many articles have been written about workplace bullying, yet it appears to be happening more frequent than ever before. This makes this persistent trend to bully others an especially troubling concern or issue in corrections as this profession is filled with an abundance of ethical issues related to employee safety and violence that appears to be focused on those employees who do their jobs with due diligence and appear to be contributing to the positive efforts to provide an ethical environment driven by a negative culture that undermines civility, teamwork, compassion and fair treatment of co-workers and others.

One would hope a profession such as corrections fosters dignity and respect. Although generally speaking much is said about the job in a positive light, there are still those individuals who ruin the positivity with their own self-created negativity. We can only guess how this impacts or affects those around them whether they are prisoners or co-workers, contract employees or visitors.

This negative affect on the workplace is directly related to the sculpturing of workplace violence or excessive bullying. Such negative dynamics created barriers of ‘silence’ whenever there are mistakes made in their improper behaviors or performance. Most ignore or ‘keep quiet’ about such mistakes as they fear retaliation for speaking out about another’s behavior or misconduct.

This ‘silence’ leads to excessive stress and anxiety creating health issues that are a direct result of unmanaged anger or frustration that adds to hypertension, heart disease, depression and other deep rooted psychological problems combined with this health issue. It becomes a long-term affect rather than short term and solutions are often drawn to impact staffing issues as the call-ins or absenteeism for using their sick leave becomes excessive and more frequent in an attempt to escape the bully syndrome at work. Some transfer out or resign their positions but most of all, most begin to deteriorate in their performance that directly results in less quality control in safety and security elements.

Lastly, this lateral violence or bullying creates a negative workplace environment that often causes the good employees to leave creating a high turnover of experienced and high skilled individuals leaving the bullies and other incompetents behind to do the job. One can certainly see how these impacts the environment from other perspectives as it general contributes to high vacancy rates and high rates of critical incidents.

Today, more than ever, employers and staff have opportunities to intervene to prevent lateral violence and workplace bullying. There are multiple resources an organization can draw from to apply to their own setting. Employers should make it clear that bullying will not be tolerated through establishing zero tolerance policy enforcement. Education about and role-modeling of respectful interactions is also important. Poor behavior and performance needs to be addressed rather than ignored and it must be addressed by the wisdom of management to change the cultural disposition of the workplace and implement a re-tooling method to change behaviors and attitudes along the way.