Page 37 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

yelled, slammed doors, raised their voices, or hung up on other employees during
moments of anger; yet those employees have not been given such a directive, so there is
a consistency issue.
The reasons for this employee’s anger must be explored, considered, addressed, and resolved.

This could easily appear to be an example of disparate treatment for any reason includ-
ing related to personal conflicts of interests. I am unaware of this employee ever engag-
ing in behavior that has been characterized as threatening or violent, and I see no reason
for such a directive to be given to this or any employee.

CHECKLIST OF BEHAVIORS

Those who feel they are being attacked at work may respond with one of two general
sets of behaviors that can take many forms, either fight (attack) or flight (retreat):

FIGHT RESPONSES
You may be bullied.
You may be ridiculed.
You may be excluded from meetings, processes, decisions, trainings, consultant
meetings, etc.
You may be subjected to further exclusion than existed before.
There may be secrecy around information you would normally or should have access to.
You may be put on probation, given a poor performance evaluation, or fired.
You may have rumors started about you.
You may be slandered.
You may be harassed.
You may be retaliated against.
Your harassment and/or retaliation may be ignored if known about, not acted upon
properly when observed by others, and/or not taken seriously.
There may be conflicts started with you more often—or when they weren’t previ-
ously—and won’t be handled with sound conflict resolution methods.
You may be accused of “causing problems” or “starting problems” if you attempt
to raise real issues or resolve a conflict using sound conflict resolution methods.
You may be characterized as “litigious” or not trusted as a valuable team member;
a background check may even be conducted on you to see what your history in any
lawsuits has been.
There may be a general devaluing of the HR field as though it is valueless fluff.
There may be a general devaluing of your education, training, skills, and abilities.

20 The H R Toolkit