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In this seventh episode of Wellness Wednesday, Beth Gustin, LPC and Robin Ennis, LCSW, CPC, address a listener’s question about what one can do as a blind or visually impaired person if they should find themself in an active shooter situation. Beth and Robin share their agency training experience, thoughts and ideas
Be sure to check out all the Wellness Wednesday episodes and share with friends and family.
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Robin Ennis on the web at www.robinennislcsw.com
Beth Gustin, LPC, NCC, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, CAGCS, PLGS
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You can message Beth and Robin by calling 612-367-6093 or by email. They are looking forward to hearing from you!
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Full Transcript
Wellness Wednesday: A Question from a Listener – What Do You Do if You’re In Public, School or the Workplace and There is an Active Shooter in the Vicinity?
Jeff:
From the Blind Abilities studios, it’s Wellness Wednesday, with your hosts Beth Gustin and Robin Ennis.
Beth:
Well, welcome back to Wellness Wednesday. My name is Beth Gustin. I’m a licensed professional counselor in Colorado, and I’m here with Robin Ennis, a licensed clinical social worker in Colorado.
Robin:
Hey everyone. Today’s topic is gonna be a continuation of our topic a couple of weeks ago where we talked about school bullying, and so today we’re gonna talk about bullying in the workplace. Like we mentioned before, there’s a difference between harassment and bullying. Harassment is more so illegal and it’s really based upon a social- a protected class, whereas bullying unfortunately is not illegal and it’s harder to have somebody face the consequences for it.
Beth:
I think that’s really important, especially as we’re discussing bullying in the workplace because it can be more uncomfortable to bring it up to someone if it’s happening to you, and there’s different types of bullies according to some sites. So bullying may not look as overt as someone screaming and yelling and being verbal towards a person. It can be someone who is being more critical and no matter what you do or how many hours you work, it’s not good enough. It can come in the form of emails from a boss or a coworker or a peer or someone even who’s in a different position that’s a lower level than yours. It also can look like maybe someone not giving you enough information to do your job and so you can’t do the job well, not through anything you’re doing, but because you don’t have that information to do it ‘cause they’re withholding something, and it can also look like someone who’s kind of really nice to you, but then undermines what you do. So bullying can look a lot of different ways, and it may not be as openly noticeable depending on how the person is bullying you at the workplace.
Robin:
Right, yeah. And I read an article where it said that bullying in the workplace is on the rise, unfortunately. And so-
Beth:
I’ve read that too.
Robin:
Yeah. And I think it’s about 30% of individuals in the workplace have reported bullying and it’s very unfortunate ‘cause like I mentioned in the last podcast is, I try to offer that hope to children as they get older that, you know, that it’s the hope that people see the error of their ways, but in some situations it’s really not the case. It can be really hard, like you said, Beth, to prove in the workplace because it can be very, very subtle. And also too, I think that it can be isolating as well because when you’re an adult, you have responsibilities, you have bills to pay. You can’t necessarily feel like you can leave a workplace, so that can be more feeling like you’re more so trapped in having to endure that negative behavior that they’re facing in the workplace.
Beth:
I think, a couple things, if you can leave a job, find a new one, that’s encouraged. But if you can’t, I think it’s important to know your workplace policies and procedures, and is there something like in the employee handbook that addresses bullying? ‘Cause that gives you something you can kind of fall back on if you talk about it, and again, the goal is to speak up early and speak up often about it if it’s happening, whether it’s you, it’s happening to, or you’re witnessing it happening to someone else, the best thing you can do is bring it up to someone, whether it’s HR, whether it’s your boss, or talk to someone in the company you feel safe talking to. And along with that, I think it’s important to document what’s happening. So document day and time and incident, just so that you have a history of what’s going on for you so that when you do bring it up, you can say, well, this, this, this, and this happened, and you know, here’s why I wanna bring it up and here’s how it’s making me feel, and those can be really hard vulnerable conversations to have, but it’s not going to stop if someone doesn’t say something.
Robin:
Exactly. And if it’s happening to you, then more than likely it’s happening to somebody else. So that’s exactly right, it’s not going to stop and it can be scary to speak up, especially if you feel like you’re being bullied by somebody in power, but weigh the pros and cons of, okay, what will happen if I don’t speak up? And Beth, like you said, finding that person that you feel safe, the key word is safe, talking to, to help you navigate such a scary, intimidating channel. I feel even in going remote, there’s a lot of remote work now. Bullying can still happen even though you’re working remotely. So just because you’re working from home, it doesn’t mean that people aren’t still facing those same types of intimidating behaviors that they did before. If you think about it, if you can stick it out in your workplace, if you feel like it’s worth staying in, then you want to try and figure it out, like Beth said, look at your policy handbook, really try and know your company and how they handle those types of things. And if it is harassment, then that is something, again, that is quite different and that really all companies have a harassment policy. So if you feel like that goes beyond bullying and that you’re being harassed on- as a protected individual, it’s important that you take those measures as well.
Beth:
Something else that’s helpful, this is a little bit off the subject of in the workplace, but outside your workplace, having really good self-care and having really good support from friends or family or a partner, so that you do what you can to reduce the impacts the bullying is having on you, because it can be very isolating, it can cause depression, it can cause not wanting to go to work. It can have a whole ripple effect of ways it affects you, it can make you physically sick, and so having really good self-care when you’re not at work is going to help you be able to continue going to work if you can’t leave that job until you can get some support through work.
Robin:
Yeah. Have you seen the movie Office Space?
Beth:
Yes.
Robin:
That movie came to mind when it comes to workplace bullying, and so for those of you who haven’t seen Office Spacewith Jennifer Aniston and I don’t know the individual who has the speech disability, but he is being bullied by his supervisor and so he actually ends up being fired, but he doesn’t know that he’s being fired and he still comes to work every day and not being paid, and they keep moving his desk, so to different places to where it ultimately ends up being in the closet towards the end of the movie. But that’s a prime example of bullying. It didn’t come in the form of physical aggression or even overt verbal aggression. It came in more of the relational or social aspect of it. They kept manipulating him and slowly moving him in different places of the building and not paying him and having him do work for them. I think that going off of not only the individual who’s being bullied, but supervisors, really check in with your team and know your employees and know what is going on around you, and making sure that everybody has a level playing field, a productive and safe environment to work in, because nobody deserves to be treated that way, especially when they’re trying to earn a living and trying to give back to society.
Beth:
Absolutely. You’re not alone. This is on the rise. It’s happening a lot more than it used to, happens if you’re remote or in person.
Robin:
And in terms of support, check in with your employer to see if they have an employee assistance program where you can seek therapy that way, or through your own insurance if you don’t wanna go to your employee assistance program, it can help having that objective opinion as well.
Beth:
The employee assistance programs are really nice though, because usually you get, you know, five or six sessions that’s paid for by your company, so it’s no cost to you and the company is not supposed to have any information of what you’re working on or anything. It’s a benefit to you that companies offer, and so I highly encourage you to check that out first just because it is going to be no cost to you. And then if you want more sessions, you can choose to use insurance or not, but it’s a good benefit if you have it.
Robin:
It is a good benefit. Yep, I agree. Anything else that you wanna mention, Beth, that we didn’t talk about?
Beth:
No, I think the biggest takeaway is talk to somebody. Talk to somebody. It doesn’t feel good, and you are not what the bully says you are. It doesn’t define you. Just remember that it’s about them, not you. I know it doesn’t feel that way, but it’s not about you.
Robin:
Mm-mm. Nope. There’s a saying that they use with domestic violence perpetrators, it’s not being out of control, but really wanting the ability to control. And so that’s the aspect of bullies, right? They’re not being out of control, but they wanna have that ability to control because that is one thing that they feel like they can have power over, and so it’s correct, it’s not you. It’s about them and what they’re going through in that moment. And so unfortunately you can’t take that responsibility and try and change somebody and hope that they change. They have to be able to do that. All you can just do is try and figure out how you can react in that situation.
Beth:
Exactly. Thank you again for joining us for this episode of Wellness Wednesday, and we are back in November. I’m drawing a blank on the topic, I apologize.
Robin:
I think we were gonna talk more about, since it’s Thanksgiving time, about being grateful or-
Beth:
Gratitude.
Robin:
Yes.
Beth:
Yeah, gratitude.
Robin:
So until then, everyone, and as we mention in every podcast, write in, call in, whatever it may be, we really wanna hear from you.
Beth:
We want to know what you would like us to talk about.
Robin:
Exactly.
Beth:
And if it’s within our ability to do so, we will do so.
Robin:
Yes. All right. Take care.
Jeff:
And you can send Beth and Robin a message at 612-367-6093 or by email at info@blindabilities.com. They’d love to hear from you.
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.