Bullying Harassment And Sackings Now Normal Working Environment In UK

With the Government attacks on employment rights continuing, warnings of a major shift in the UK’s workplaces back to the 1700s style of management; are now coming to fruition.

Hazards Magazine is reporting on a new study which shows that the ‘government's blitz on employment rights and welfare is being mirrored in a 'new workplace tyranny' and a massive intensification of work.’

Professor Phil Taylor of the University of Strathclyde Business School, writing in Hazards magazine, says the phenomenon 'has brought narrow tasking, stress, bullying and lack of voice. The combination of unremitting intensity, insecurity and claustrophobic control and coercion is now characteristic of work across the economy.'

He warns that performance management is the main tool used to up the pressure at work, with a proportion of workers set up to fail by design.

In an example of employment behaviour, which mirrors exactly that which is going on in British Telecom; Professor Taylor warns:

'In the worst cases, managers are given targets for the numbers of workers under their control who should be underperforming, put on sickness absence management actions or 'exited' out of the organisation. Should they fail to meet these targets, the managers themselves will be judged to be underperforming.'

The professor concludes:

'Unrelenting work intensity and the insecurity caused by fear of the consequences of underperforming induce profound pressure and cause deep anxiety.

The outcome frequently is a vicious circle. A worker gets a poor performance ranking and it affects their confidence. They are put on a PIP [performance improvement programme] and they believe that they have been targeted. Stress might follow and they go off sick. When they return to work, often prematurely, they are in 'a two-pronged cycle', facing warnings over their performance and sickness absence triggers. The resultant pressure compounds their insecurity making them even less likely to make the improvements the performance managers are demanding. The result can be acute mental ill-health with the threat of capability dismissal looming.'

With the changes to employment tribunal procedures and new costs introduced to even register a case, and the 'higher and fire at will' US style employment environment; the chances are that things will only get far worse.

The question is, would a new Labour government or Labour coalition change anything?

The full report can be read on the Hazards website here

Source: TUC Risks

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