Friday 18th March is the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence in Australia. I wrote this post last night in preparation to post today and then got up this morning to hear about yet another video of a bullying attack in an Australian school which has now gone global. It is reassuring to also hear on the news today that the government is looking at legislation to make cyber bullying a criminal offence. I worked in Human Resources for a number of years and this is a subject that is dear to my heart and which I am very passionate about.
I heard an interview on the radio yesterday by the founder of Youth Opportunities, which is a South Australian based, non-for-profit company. They’ve created a school based program to teach kids about bullying and to provide them with the skills to help build self esteem and confidence. Ironically bullies often suffer from just as low self esteem as their victims do.
Bullying doesn’t only occur in schools (latest statistics show 1 in every 6 kids suffer from bullying every week) but it also occurs in workplaces (a recent survey indicated that 66.6% of workplaces have an ‘active’ bully)
Ironically upon investigating the website of this company, I discovered that the Founder of the program is in fact a boss from a company that I worked for almost 20 years ago where a number of us participated in a course that he created called ‘Self-Motivated Success’. Isn’t it amazing how things work, life is just one big circle.
This course was just one stepping stone to greater things for me and knowing who the creator of this program to prevent bullying was, motivated me to fire off an email to the company to investigate volunteer opportunities
I also was inspired to dig out a training presentation on Bullying & Harassment which I created for the company I previously worked for. I have taken the main information from the presentation and put it on my In My Words page for you to have a look at.
Please take the time to check it out because even though we all hear about bullying in the media, I know that if you’re anything like me, I had absolutely no idea of how many different forms bullying could take.
I have a strong belief that every man, woman and child deserves the right to go about their daily lives without fear, no matter who they are.
What are your thoughts on bullying? Should we (or is it the schools) be doing more to protect our children?
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself ~ Harvey S Firestone
Ok -- so this is startling -- 66.6% of workplaces have an ‘active’ bully
ReplyDeleteI had no idea it was so high -- and I do work with a bully now. I'll check out your links -- this is important work.