If you are being harassed or observing misconduct at your workplace, it is important to disclose all such incidents to your employer in a manner that is appropriate and in accordance with the proper chain of command.

Here is an excerpt from my book “How to stand up to workplace bullying and take on an unjust employer”:

Many employees feel it is too risky to report inappropriate conduct involving their superiors to higher authorities, as was the case with many of my coworkers at the center. However, I firmly believe that officially disclosing your concerns in good faith is essential to protecting your rights in the long run and potentially building a case against your employer. After all, how was the unemployment law judge in my case able to correctly determine, over the telephone mind you, that I had been fired as a form of retaliation for my whistle-blowing activities? It is because there was a long line of documented concerns made by me to management, to the board of directors and to my employee union; all leading up to my wrongful termination. With a documented history of reported concerns, it becomes easier for the DHR or a judge or a lawyer to see how you were indeed a victim of retaliation. Once this pattern can be clearly established, the likelihood of prevailing and/or receiving a settlement naturally increases for you.

Along these lines, it is essential for you to disclose misconduct to your employer that may be either discriminatory and/or sexually offensive in nature. Remember, employers are not to punish or terminate you in response to your disclosing what you honestly perceive, in good faith, to be unlawful discrimination or sexual harassment occurring at the workplace. There are legal consequences for such improper actions. Even if the negative conduct you alleged is later found to have not actually consisted of discrimination and/or sexual harassment, it is still illegal for your employer to wrongfully punish or terminate you for disclosing your potential concerns of this nature.

All children deserve a safe and positive environment when they go to school. School officials must make sure that an appropriate bully-free environment is there for all kids.

I firmly believe that a strong emotional health and a positive self-image are key ingredients for overall success in life. If on a regular basis a child is concerned about having to deal with negative issues/events/incidents, it is simply not possible for the child to focus on the positive aspects of school and social life. For academic success of all students it is critical to maintain a safe and nurturing environment for all children.

When we talk about a safe environment for children we must include discussions about creating and maintaining an atmosphere in schools where ALL children can feel free to be themselves and learn most effectively at their own pace. If a child has to face negative environment on a regular basis, it can lead to long lasting negative impact far beyond the school years.

The focus for all schools should be on the fact that every child counts.The schools must be focused on developing and maintaining a culture that has three key objectives – acceptance of differences in people around you, being kind and respectful to others as opposed to negative behavior such as bullying, and focusing on self-acceptance so you can achieve success in life. If schools can focus on these three objectives, then they will be able to truly provide the education all children deserve.

Bullying and harassment in a workplace can have a significant negative impact on an employee’s mental health. This simply cannot be tolerated.

Most employees simply want to do a good job, to the best of their abilities. They like to go to work, do their job and then they like to go home and spend time with their family and/or friends. During their time at work, they do expect to receive guidance, advice and/or directions from their supervisors or managers, but they do not expect to be bullied or harassed. If they are bullied or harassed at work, they will inevitably bring their stress back home with them and that will impact their personal lives.

Most employees do not like to respond back strongly against their supervisors or managers when they are being bullied or harassed. That is primarily because of two reasons – (1) they are conditioned to expect directions from supervisors and managers, even when they come in the form of bullying and harassment, and (2) they are afraid that if they responded back strongly, they might risk losing their jobs. As a result, they often end up tolerating bullying and harassing behavior from their supervisors and managers.

Tolerating behavior of this kind does not come at no cost. It impacts the employee’s self-esteem significantly and affects their mental health. Some employees may be able to let this go and not allow this to impact their mental health, but many employees are not able to let this go and end up with significant mental health issues. That is why it is important for all organizations to make sure bullying and harassment is not tolerated in the workplace.

It is important for school officials to keep in mind that victims of sustained childhood bullying can often end up with obsessive compulsive disorder or some other mental health issues later in life.

The symptoms may or may not show up during their school years. That is why it is so important to make sure no children are having to deal with bullying from others. It may seem like some harmless fun, but it is never that for the victims of bullying. Each and every instance of bullying impacts the mental health of the victim and as it continues on a sustained basis, the mental health status of the victim deteriorates on a daily basis.

When the bullying eventually stops, some of the children are lucky enough to be able to recover by themselves and get their mental health status somewhat back to normal. But for many others, it only deteriorates further. For these unfortunate individuals, the bullying gets transformed into a mental health disorder that might haunt them for many years to come and might even change their lives forever.

Most school staff do not have the opportunity of continued connection with all their students after they graduate. Once the students leave school they are generally out of the minds of the school staff. But it is important to know that many of them suffer for years to come because of what happened to them when they were in school. That is why it is critical that there is genuine focus on bullying prevention and appropriate therapy is provided to any and all victims of bullying so they do not have to deal with a difficult future because of the bullying they suffered.

There is no room for bullying and harassment in a workplace. Employees perform best in a positive and rewarding environment.

Most employees in the United States want to do a good job. They like to feel like they are contributing and earning the salaries they are receiving. That is why it really should not take a lot of work by the supervisors and managers to keep them motivated. However, the environment at work can have a significant impact on the performance of the employees.

Most employees like to see a work environment that is positive and rewarding. On the other hand, if they are constantly being bullied and harassed by their supervisors and managers, it is bound to impact their performance negatively.

It is true that it is the job of supervisors and managers to make sure everyone is performing well and is either meeting or exceeding their expectations. However, if someone is not performing, then yelling and shouting is not the answer. In cases like that, the supervisor/manager needs to work with those specific employees and go through a performance management process, which may include performance improvement plans including possible training and at times change of assignment. But it is never necessary to yell and/or shout at employees even if their performance is not satisfactory.

Some supervisors and managers believe that even for employees who are doing well, it is important to yell and shout to keep them motivated. But that is absolutely the wrong thing to do. Most employees will only become demotivated if there is bullying and harassment at work.

Children of all ages should be exposed more to what mental health professionals do. It is important for them to know that it is not at all abnormal for them to have to deal with a mental health issue and there are excellent professionals who can help.

There is still a lot of stigma in our society about mental illness. And that is what keeps many children quiet when they should be speaking out about the issues they are dealing with and receive appropriate treatment. I have experienced this myself when OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) started for me at the age of sixteen. I kept it all to myself for 5 years, thereby delaying appropriate treatment for 5 years.

Whenever I speak to school students (of various ages) about long term impact of bullying on mental health, I end up talking a lot about what I experienced and what I was dealing with. At the end of my presentations, many children would come up to me and describe their mental health issues to me – things that they had not shared with anyone else. Many would even send emails to me later describing their issues in detail. They do that because, after hearing my presentations, they feel certain that I would understand their issues since I had gone through this myself. That gives them the confidence that I would take their issues seriously and not downplay what they were experiencing.

In most cases I was able to connect them with their school mental health staff (such as school psychologists or social workers) and get them the help they needed. They finally understood that what was happening to them was not abnormal and can certainly be treated. This is why it is important to make sure that all children learn about mental health issues and mental health professionals.

There are many companies where complaints about workplace bullying and harassment do not receive appropriate attention. All employees should know that there are things employees can do in such situations.

It is absolutely important for all employers to make sure they have adequate well-documented processes and procedures to follow up on complaints from employees about workplace bullying and harassment. If all employees are made aware of these policies and procedures and if the employer does follow up diligently as per the company guidelines, then they will be able to maintain a positive work environment. On the other hand, if the employers either do not have appropriate policies and guidelines or do not follow them when they receive complaints, then the work environment will only become more and more negative.

On the other side, for all employees it is extremely important to maintain detailed documentation of any negative incidents they had to encounter and what they had done about it. If they decided to put in a complaint to the employer, then it is important to keep track of all documentation of what the complaint was about, when was it filed, who received the complaint and what, if anything, happened after the complaint was received by the employer. Documentation of this nature will be very useful if it becomes necessary for the employees to take the matter to an external authority like a state government department or if it goes further and becomes a legal matter. A mentor had advised me about this several years back and I found it to be extremely useful and effective.

Whenever a person is subjected to sustained maltreatment, it is almost certain to impact the person’s mental health. That is why it is not a surprise that bullying can have long term psychological impact on victims.

Bullying is a form of abuse – and any type of consistent abuse over a sustained period of time can result in mental health impact for victims. In my specific case, my OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) was triggered because of bullying I had encountered during my school years. Interestingly it started impacting me significantly after the actual bullying had generally ended. In other words, even though the actual bullying had gradually stopped, my OCD took over as the internal bully and continued the torture. This has had a long term impact on my life.

Children who do the bullying often do not understand what kind of long-term impact their actions can cause for the victims. After many of my presentations at various schools, many “bullies” who attended the presentations, came up to me later and told me that they never knew how much long term impact it can have on victims and that they decided to stop the bullying thereafter. I was delighted to hear this from some of the school bullies and was extremely happy about the impact of my presentation on these young people.

It was also clear to me that many school staff members around the nation are not able to find a way to explain this issue to all children so they will all understand how devastating bullying can be. Children are often thinking of “here and now” – it is important that the school staff take the responsibility to explain to them that their negative behavior can impact someone else for many years to come.

Employees perform their best in a rewarding and encouraging environment. Bullying and harassment in the workplace by a supervisor or a manager is never a good approach for sustained positive results.

A lot of managers and/or supervisors have this misconception that the only way to get employees to work hard and produce results is to control them with bullying and harassment. They may have some success with a few employees, but for a vast majority of employees this approach simply does not work. Making employees feel bad about themselves do not typically make them work harder or make them more productive.

All employees are aware that they get paid because of the work they do. It is not difficult for them to understand that if their performance is not satisfactory, there may be some consequences. It is the job of a manager to help each employee reach his or her potential through an appropriate supportive approach. It is important to have frequent communications with the employees so the manager can truly understand the problems faced by the different employees and then provide appropriate assistance so the employees can succeed. There can always be a few employees who simply do not want to work hard and perform well. But most employees want to do a good job and want to succeed for the company they are working for. If the managers can help them in a supportive manner (rather than in an abusive manner) most employees will succeed and that will only make the company more successful.

Many schools around the country have started educating all students about the role of bystanders in prevention of bullying. This is an extremely important program that should be implemented by all schools.

Bystanders can play a significant role either in promoting bullying or in preventing bullying. In my own situation, one of the worst bullies had described to me (later in adulthood) that he was not getting the support and recognition within the school community that he would have liked. So he turned to bullying because he noticed that people laughed and encouraged his actions, thereby improving his self-esteem, and he felt that he then had a recognized place in the school community. He was then known for “something” instead of just another insignificant kid in the school community.

This revealing discussion clearly indicates the significant role a bystander can have in encouraging bullying. In fact, even if the bystander does not laugh or visibly encourage the actions, just by being there and witnessing it and not saying anything causes the bully to continue his/her irresponsible behavior. Of course it would be best if a bystander can step in and try to prevent the negative behavior – but as a minimum a bystander must not laugh or encourage the actions and should simply go away from the area and report it to the school authorities.

The overall impact of bullying will not be as serious if the bystanders do not encourage the actions of the bully. That is why it is so important for all school children to learn that bystanders do play a significant role in prevention of bullying.