Bully For You

LITFL: Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog LITFL: Life in the Fast Lane Medical Blog - Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog Guest post by Dr Andrew Tagg Six months ago Lt General David Morrison AO (Retd) came to talk to me, and the senior medical staff at my place of work, about the importance of culture of positivity in the workplace. If you’ve not heard of Morrison you’ve probably heard some of this speech. “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept” //www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaqpoeVgr8U As a hundred senior and not-so senior colleagues bowed their heads and nodded in general agreement I wondered by such behaviour goes unchecked, often for years, in the medical establishment. I started reading up on it. I even wrote a post on it for our blog, Don’t Forget The Bubbles. There have been a number of theories as to why bullying exists in schools but I wasn’t really interested in how it developed but why it persists. According to Sutton and Smith 1 if you are not a bully or their victim then you are a bystander and may fall into one of four key roles. The Crabbe and Goyle to Draco Malfoy, or the Gretchen and Karen to Regina George (if that is your thing). They join in the so-called fun, helping the bully. The people who laugh and point fingers, providing positive social reinforcement for bad behaviour. These ethical chameleons are the members of the team that laugh at the consultants sexist jokes, who j...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Bullying Guest Post ACEM workplace bullying Source Type: blogs