Brutal LGBTQ Discrimination Leads to Historic Court Ruling

One man’s courage in the face of brutal sexual discrimination has led to a court precedent that may make it illegal for employers to discriminate against workers on the basis of sexual orientation. According to this harrowing article in Slate that describes the abuse he suffered, Matthew Christiansen won the right to sue his employer from the U.S. Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit. For resisting the horrific workplace bullying he suffered, and taking a stand as a resister, a defender, a protector and an activist, Christiansen is our Revolutionist of the Week.

According to Mark Joseph Stern on Slate, Christiansen has earned the right to sue his employer under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars sex stereotyping against employees who do not conform to gender norms. Chief Judge Robert Katzmann wrote that recent legal developments support a greater interpretation of “sex discrimination” and that Title VII should already protect gay employees from bullying in the workplace. There seems to be growing consensus among federal judges on this matter.

None of this would have come to light without Christiansen’s bravery in the face of relentless cruelty at work. The Chief Digital Officer at his place of employment had targeted him from the very beginning and drew obscene pictures of Christiansen that he shared with colleagues throughout the office, spread rumors about his HIV status, referred to him using homophobic slurs and made crude references to his sex life during business meetings. Christiansen couldn’t take the abuse anymore and reached out for legal advice. When lawyer after lawyer turned him down—and some even questioned if he was to blame—he persevered and finally found an attorney who wanted to empower LGBT employees facing similar prejudice.

Getting help wasn’t easy. Fighting this battle meant that Christiansen had to report to work every day and even accept assignments that were personally challenging, but sticking with it brought surprises. According to Christiansen’s attorney, Susan Chana Lask, “After his name was in the papers, he said, ‘Susan, I’m so freaked out to go to work.’ But when he did, people he didn’t even know came up to him and hugged him. They just said, ‘thank you.’”

I’ve written at great length about what to do if you find yourself the target of bullying in the workplace in my columns, as well as in my book, From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire. First, and most importantly, do not try to do it alone. It took awhile, but Christiansen found support from his lawyer, and later from his coworkers. My research has shown that organizations that make horrific bullying possible have a systemic problem and there are other victims. By banding together they can offer one another support. Other key tips to survival are:

·       Build your sense of self: Don’t let the bully break you.

·       Don’t become a bully: Don’t let the bully turn you into someone who targets others.

·       Understand the motivation: Learn why you are targeted. It will help you fight.

·       Avoid the Bully’s Trap: Don’t let the bully set you up for a confrontation or failure.

·       Call the bully out: Let the bully know if front of supervisors the harassment must stop.

·       Get professional help: Attorneys and therapists are equipped to help you.

·       Become a revolutionist: As someone who has called out bullying, you are now in a powerful position to change things for the better. Accept this challenge to build a better workplace and a better world.

Christiansen hasn’t yet had his day in court, but we will be watching to see how it goes and cheering on this brave revolutionist.

Photo credit: Susan Chana Lask

Where’s the Beef? DC Dumpster Fires Steal Focus from Tainted Meat

The endless reality television drama that is Washington is pushing news headlines alerting us of real danger down below the fold. Lost in the revelation-per-minute scandals recently was news of a major Brazilian federal police investigation into tainted and adulterated meat that was being exported by Brazil’s largest meat processors. While the United States gets only a small fraction of meat imports from Brazil this could have become a widespread human tragedy if it had gone unrecognized. Among the places that purchased this unsanitary product were schools and retail chains including Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

When dishonest practices happen on such a large scale, I have to wonder what workplace conditions were like that made corruption—in this case bribing government officials to loosen regulations—possible. What was it about the culture of JBS (the world’s largest beef exporter) and BRF (the world’s largest poultry exporter) that would enable such behavior as mixing healthy meat with tainted product, chemicals and/or foreign matter? Clearly there was a culture of fear that kept insiders from revealing what they knew or sharing that information with a superior who would be motivated to stop the practices.

From my experience working with embattled companies, I find when this happens, no amount of classes, awareness seminars, pleas for employee communication or morale building makes any difference. Bad practices are built into this sort of culture and cannot be changed. The only way to save the company is to dismantle it and rebuild it into a culture that has transparency built in from the foundation.

Based on the reported decline in export revenues, it’s all too likely that not just the country’s reputation but the economy of Brazil has been severely damaged. I have to wonder if the beef industry will recover from this scandal.

This is all too reminiscent of the ongoing tragedy in Flint, MI or the banking debacles at Wells Fargo and TD Bank. Leaders need to wake up and realize that they must create a workplace culture that allows employees to report devious and dangerous practices without fear of reprisal. It’s only by enabling workers to resist bad practices that C-suite executives can sleep soundly at night.

Photo credit: Reuters

The Art of the Bully

All the king’s threats and all the king’s ultimatums couldn’t put this humpty-dumpty of a healthcare bill back together again. As of 4 p.m. Friday afternoon House Republicans scrapped the American Health Care Act, aka Trumpcare, after House Speaker Paul Ryan made a hasty trip to the White House to inform Donald Trump that they just didn’t have the votes.

It looks like endless threats and ultimatums weren’t enough to overcome poor planning, the evisceration of medical benefits, and the steadfast determination of an electorate that called, wrote, emailed and even faxed their pleas to save the Affordable Care Act to their elected officials. In the end, the Republicans decided to save themselves from embarrassment, and save members in divided districts from losing re-election, by not allowing the bill go to a vote.

The magnitude of the bullying involved with the ACHA has been mind boggling. Trump’s last-minute visit yesterday to the conservative Freedom Caucus included forcing chair Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) to stand and declaring, “I’m going to come after you” because “honestly, a loss is not acceptable.” This is how bullies—not talented businesspeople—cut deals: through threats and false promises.

The Republicans tried to make excuses for Trump’s behavior or laugh it off, but the Democrats weren’t having it. U.S. News & World Report quoted House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer as saying, "When Trump threatens people, he usually means it. I see no reason to believe he was kidding… that was a threat, not a wink and a nod."

In the end, credit goes to Americans who are resisting Trump. In my book, From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire, I devoted a chapter to how people can fight back against bullying in the workplace. The most important thing to know is not to try to do it alone. You need allies who will support you and back you up. Today the American people and the caring members of Congress teamed up to resist the gutting of the ACA. None of the bullying made a difference.  Perhaps Press Secretary Sean Spicer put it best when he told the press, “At the end of the day, you can’t force somebody to do something. At the end of the day, this isn’t a dictatorship.”

Let’s hold him to that. This is just one victory, but resisting tyranny is never a race—it’s a marathon. Rest up. We have a lot more work to do.

Photo credit: Associated Press

Pre-World War II Biography Provides a Chilling Look into the Present

I recently reread Erik Larson’s bone-chilling work of historic biography, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (Crown; 2012) and I’m again in awe, and a little aghast, at how perfectly it parallels what is going in America today. The story follows U.S. Ambassador William E. Dodd as he brings his family to his new post in 1933 Berlin. At first Berlin seems cosmopolitan and exciting, but in a mere 18 months a civilized country turns to tribal brutality. The mild-mannered former professor tries to alert an indifferent Washington that all is not right, but his warnings fall on deaf ears. Days full of romance and excitement turn to intrigue, then horror, as the German people fall in line behind a ruthless dictator.

I believe that Larson’s book should be required reading, especially for anyone who thinks that fascism couldn’t happen here. As I wrote yesterday, our built-in protections are already under siege. People often assure me that the Constitutional system of checks and balances will keep authoritarian extremes from happening—but pre-World War II Germany had checks and balances, and a constitution, too. That is, until Hitler jettisoned their democratic rights.

So much of what helped the Nazis rise to power began with normalizing the abnormal. Germany’s tacit approval of hate is reflected today in the violent murder of Timothy Caughman by a white supremacist, who traveled to New York City just to kill a black person. We must be remain vigilantly aware of these terrifying parallels because the democracy we lose could be our own.

Andrew Faas is the author of From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire.

Photo credit: Bob Newsome

Manipulation, Deception, Denial, Deceit and Deflection at the White House

There are certain traits that define a bully, but as I discuss in my book, From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire, most prominent are manipulation, deception, denial, deceit and deflection. All of these were on full display this week as it was revealed by the Associated Press that Paul Manafort, Trump’s former unpaid campaign chairman, created a plan in 2005 to help an oil billionaire friend of Vladimir Putin influence American politics. Manafort’s ties to Russia Must have been known by the Trump campaign. According to Slate, Manafort was asked to resign when the AP revealed his secret lobbying campaign for Ukraine’s pro-Russia party.

So how has the Trump administration handled all of this? The White House quickly backpedaled, claiming that Trump had no idea of Manafort’s ties with Russia. Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s official response was, “Obviously there’s been discussion of Paul Manafort who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time.”  However, according to Politco, Manafort and Trump continued to stay in touch through November and Manafort continues to live in Trump Tower, where he has resided since 2008.

Trump supporter and fellow bully Newt Gingrich told the press that he didn’t see how this issue “becomes Trump’s problem. All Trump has to say is, ‘None of us knew about it and when we did know about it, he was gone.’” Clearly this is another lie. A Fox News clip has surfaced of Gingrich talking to Sean Hannity last August where he acknowledges, “Nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help this get this campaign to where it is right now.”

Another Trump operative trying to run interference for the Bully-in-Chief is House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes. He told the press late today that he had seen reports from the U.S. intelligence community that included communication from the Trump White House transition teamthat were part of a broader surveillance effort. He declared himself “alarmed” and said he had personally reported this to Trump—but nothing was reported to the ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff.

Trump seemed to be delighted by the news and said he was “somewhat vindicated” by the Nunes’ report—which basically says nothing. Schiff on the other hand had harsh words for Nunes. "The chairman will need to decide whether he is the chairman of an independent investigation into conduct, which includes allegations of potential coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians, or he's going to act as a surrogate of the White House. Because he cannot do both," Schiff said.

The layers of manipulation, deception, denial, deceit and deflection are mind boggling. They should make anyone ask—why should we believe anything that comes out of the White House?

Credit: Bloomberg

How NOT to Fix Workplace Culture

In February I wrote about the reports of sexual harassment at Uber and how CEO Travis Kalanick had created a culture that promoted this sort of behavior. However, I was enthused to hear that high-profile board member Arianna Huffington was stepping in and vowed to make sure that Uber would no longer be at the mercy of “brilliant jerks.”

Sadly, my rejoicing was premature. Huffington told CNN today that she and the head of human resources at Uber had spoken to hundreds of women at the company and they had found only “a few bad apples” but “this is not a systemic problem,” she said.

This is an amazingly shortsighted. Employees who work for bullies are highly unlikely to confide anything in the HR department, which is generally seen as being on the side of management. Nor are they likely to confide in a celebrity whose chief goal is damage control. An independent investigative team should have been called in that could guarantee anonymity for the people with whom they spoke. It’s already been shown that HR failed the young woman who reported her experiences on her personal blog, which went viral.

The fact that Huffington reported all of this on national television brings home how self-serving this report was. Even if, as Huffington indicated, Kalanick has “evolved,” and Uber does hire a chief operating officer to help Kalanick run the company, it is naïve to assume that this would do anything to change behavior is ingrained in the workplace culture.

It is perhaps ironic that this report dropped the day after the sitting president of the United States was proven to be a liar. I would imagine that the employees of Uber are like the rest of America—they have no idea who in power they can trust.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Death in the Family

I have gone through many emotions since the last election. Last night, after listening to Press Secretary Sean Spicer desperately defend his boss, it suddenly hit me: I am going through a stage of mourning.  I lost my father when I was 26 and I now feel a similar enormous loss, but this time the loss is one of confidence. We cannot believe the person who acts as the American paterfamilias, the person we look up to protect and defend the Constitution of the most powerful nation on earth. 

Spicer was on television yesterday trying to walk back Trump’s accusation of the Obama administration wire tapping Trump Tower during the election. This is just the latest conspiracy theory trotted out by the Commander in Chief. Lest we think this is just the prattling of a warped mind, the increase of conspiracy theories in the news cycle is a reason for alarm. Ivan Krastev discusses this in his op-ed, “The Rise of the Paranoid Citizen,” in the New York Times.

“Conspiracy theories disempower people. In a worldview shaped by conspiracy theories, political leaders can get away with making bad decisions by simply blaming invisible, putatively powerful enemies conspiring against them. What makes conspiracy-theory politics more dangerous than ideological politics (and lest we forget, the 20th century showcased just how deadly extreme ideologies can be) is that conspiracy theories can be dazzling in explaining what has happened and who should be blamed. But they lack any kind of vision for the future or any claim about what kind of world we want to live in,” Krastev writes.

If that isn’t worrisome enough, Trump’s other actions continue to make sure that our respect for his office remains moribund. Certainly cutting programs that provide food to hungry schoolchildren and seniors has done no good for our confidence in him as a caring leader—especially when his wife cheerfully pretends to eat diamond jewelry on the cover of—wait for it—Vanity Fair Mexico.

I feel a tremendous loss. My only comfort is that I’m not mourning alone.

Photo credit: BIGSTOCK 

Is America Becoming a Dictatorship?

There’s a lot of hyperbole being tossed around these days to describe the current unprecedented assault on American democracy from the Trump administration. But how do we really know what to believe? What is the benchmark that will tell us when an aspiring authoritarian president has tipped us over into a dictatorial culture?

I define a dictatorial culture as one that strictly enforces control over its citizens or employees. Bullies thrive in this culture and are considered heroes. People under such a regime live and work in fear. Dictatorial cultures have a severe emotional and psychological impact on human behavior and people often change their behavior to survive—rationalizing, blame and denial become coping mechanisms while under assault.  According to Leon Festinger in A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, “people can be highly impressionable and obedient when provided with a legitimized ideology and social and institutional support, especially when it is done through coercive means by and authority.”

Signs of a dictatorial culture include:

·       Bullying is a means of survival and advancement

·       Blind obedience is expected

·       The boss is not told what needs to be heard

·       People who “suck up” are favored

·       When things go wrong, employees are blamed and punished

·       Innovation, loyalty and goodwill are nonexistent

·       There is little transparency and an obsession with secrecy

Fortunately, there is something that can be done when you find yourself under a dictatorial culture, which I discuss in my book, From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire.

Continuing this three-part series, I will also discuss living in disjointed and stable cultures, how to recognize them, and what they mean for our future.

Illustration credit: BIGSTOCK 

Challenging the Bully

While there have been plenty of voices from the left resisting the inner workings of the Trump administration and calling out wrongdoing as it happens, the right has been conspicuously quiet—except for U.S. Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Their principled stance in seeking the truth and standing against party loyalists is why they are our Revolutionists of the Week.

McCain was recently on State of the Union on CNN discussing Trump’s groundless wiretapping allegations against former President Barack Obama. He wasn’t about to let the sitting president off easy. “All [Trump] has to do is pick up the phone, call the director of the CIA, director of national intelligence and say, ‘OK, what happened?’” McCain told host Jake Tapper.

Investigating Trump’s ties with Russia is also very much on McCain’s mind. "There's a lot of aspects of this whole relationship with Russia and (Russian President) Vladimir Putin that requires further scrutiny, and so far, I don't think the American people have gotten all the answers," McCain said. "In fact, I think there's a lot more shoes to drop from this centipede."

Sen. Lindsey Graham has also been keen on getting to the truth. He told CNN that he’s growing more concerned about what is beginning to be known as “Russia-gate.”

“If there's not a criminal investigation of the Trump ties to Russia, I think the country needs to know it. Congress needs to know it, and [FBI Director James Comey] has never promised to answer that question," Graham said. 

The two senators have been in accord before. On January 29, when Trump issued the now infamous ban on travelers from seven countries, they jointly issued a statement that read in part:

“Our government has a responsibility to defend our borders, but we must do so in a way that makes us safer and upholds all that is decent and exceptional about our nation.” It went on to point out that the hasty executive order was done with little to no consultation with the departments of State, Defense, Justice or Homeland Security. In addition to harming people who we should be helping, it could have unintended consequences.

“Our most important allies in the fight against ISIL are the vast majority of Muslims who reject its apocalyptic ideology of hatred. This executive order sends a signal, intended or not, that America does not want Muslims coming into our country. That is why we fear this executive order may do more to help terrorist recruitment than improve our security,” they wrote.

The author J.K. Rowling once observed in one of her novels that it takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to those you think of as friends. I applaud McCain and Graham for modeling revolutionist spirit from the other side of the aisle and hope more of their Republican colleagues find the strength to join them. Nothing less than democracy is at stake.

Andrew Faas is the author of From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire,

Photo credit: The Daily Beast

Bridgewater Associates: Radical Transparency or The Emperor has No Clothes?

Just how radical is the “transparency” at Bridgewater Associates? The huge hedge fund gathered quite a bit of negative press after an employee filed a complaint with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities about the firm’s culture of constant video surveillance and recording all meetings. Matters were further compounded by a filing by the National Labor Relations Board, which revealed some of the behind-the-scenes workings of the firm, which seemed to include a fair amount of humiliation and occasional harassment.

At the New Work Summit conference sponsored by the New York Times, Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio described the culture of his organization as being like a nudist camp: “…it’s very awkward. There has to be getting over the emotional reaction,” he said.

As an expert in cultural transformations in the workplace, I see a cutthroat culture where employees have license to discredit one another as one is pitted against the other. If the New York Times statement that one-third of their hires leave within two years is accurate, they either do a terrible job of hiring people or it’s a horrible job—or perhaps both.

Adam Grant in his book, The Originals, highlights Bridgewater as having a “commitment” culture where “the secret is promoting original ideas.” This is great in theory but has a dark side when applied without parameters that reinforce civility.  As I discuss in my book, From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire, employees’ behavior is rooted in the workplace culture that surrounds them. As Oscar Wilde said, it’s the prisons, not the prisoners, which need reformation.

I’ve written recently about how Uber CEO Travis Kalanick who reeling under allegations needs to change the way he leads. The behavior of his firm reflects the culture he created. This is true of all CEOs, although sadly neither Kalanick nor Dalio seem to grasp this.

Photo credit: Business Insider