A License to Exploit

The Trump administration seems to be taking a page out of the illusionist’s handbook as the president sends outrageous middle-of-the-night tweets about his predecessor to distract us from dismantling protections for American workers. The latest don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it tactic was Congress lifting President Barack Obama’s executive order called the Fair Play and Safe Workplaces rule that kept companies with poor safety records from competing for government contracts if they didn’t agree to fix their problems first. This may seem like a sane provision to ensure the kind of psychologically healthy, safe and fair workplaces I wrote about in From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire. However, most Republicans in Congress didn’t agree—the executive order was overturned 49 to 48. It seems fairly certain that Trump will sign the repeal.

It’s additionally unsettling that Congress used the rarely invoked 1996 Congressional Review Act to eliminate it, meaning that it can be revoked with a simple majority vote and can’t be reinstated by executive order by another president—to be reinstated it would have to be passed by Congress as a law.

There’s no doubt why the Fair Play and Safe Workplaces rule was necessary. According to a staff report from the office of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), 66 of the government’s 100 largest contractors have violated federal wage and hour laws. In addition, a third of the largest OSHA penalties have been imposed on federal contractors. This affects a huge number of employees: The Washington Post estimates that companies with federal contracts employ 1 in 5 American workers. Clearly by fulfilling the wish list of private interests Congress has granted an open license to exploit working Americans—the very people Trump promised to champion while on the campaign trail.

And all of this is being done at breakneck speed and deflected by sleight of hand. What’s the rush? I suspect Trump and the Republicans are hurrying to fulfill their agenda before the American people rise up and put them out of power. We can only hope that happens before truly serious damage is done.

Photo credit: BIGSTOCK

When the Bully-in-Chief Directly Affects Your Workplace

When Donald Trump won the Republican nomination, I hoped that my work to create psychologically healthy, safe and fair workplaces and end adult bullying wouldn’t have to be applied to the highest office in the land. But now we find ourselves with a chief executive who is forbidding the sharing of data from the National Park Service, the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency. This is bullying in the extreme.

When I began my work on adult bullying, it was received with skepticism. Now it is suddenly starting to resonate with those skeptics who find themselves living in fear because their rights and privileges are being targeted by the Bully-in-Chief. The only good news is that Trump is doubling down on revealing who he is and what he stands for—himself. This is good news because it should encourage our elected representatives to reinforce the fragile checks and balances that are required to ensure the integrity of democracy. If they don't, the entire world will fall into what I call The Bully’s Trap—the ensnaring of the innocent by creating toxic circumstances in which they incriminate themselves.

Stanley Milgram in "Obedience to Authority" wrote, "... ordinary people simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible disruptive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority." 

We are witnessing this disruptive process in real time in prime time. It has never been more urgent for us to understand how bullies function to inform our response. 

Credit: Ron Niebrugge