Op-Ed: Workplace bullying, bosses could be sued

New York - New York state senate recently passed a bill that could let employees sue their employer for workplace bullying. But, will it really help employees?

One way or another, most people out in the workforce will have a boss that is not exactly pleasant to be around. These types of bosses are notorious for their ploys in embarrassing their employers by shouting or being a bit sneakier in their motives and micromanaging everyone into a tense, passive aggressive workplace. Whatever be the case, these bosses are now being threatened by a recent bill the New York state senate passed. Called the Healthy Workplace Bill, this could help employees--if they can show proof--that they were verbally assaulted, subjected to lost work or other deemed unhealthy behavior in the workplace and in turn sue their boss and receive medical expenses, lost wages, punitive damages and compensation for emotional distress. It has left both sides of the spectrum in a heated debate about the bill, as employers argue it will only cause even more micro-management and strict laws or lest they are subject to "frivolous lawsuits," as said in Yahoo! News. People who support the bill, however, say that the conduct must be done multiple times and have "malice" behind its motives in order to be successfully filed as a lawsuit. The bill was passed in a bipartisan, senators voted 45 to 16. This also brings into light exactly how many people will stand up against their mean employer in order to sue them. The United States is still in a terrible economic situation and everyone must clench on to their jobs in order to keep their houses and pay the bills. Jobs are scarce, there is no doubt about that, so that would in turn make an employer more compliant about being abused at work in order just to keep their job. Also, Unions have seen a decrease in members as well as acting upon questionable behavior from supervisors. The number of Union workers only stands at thirteen percent now, from the previous thirty-five percent in the 1950's. This brings in a new generation of bringing about workplace fairness through litigation and the courtrooms. Regardless of these sentiments, passing the bill is still very much so a positive thing. With the rise of the recession, employers have become a bit tenser with their workers. Whether it is completely unintentional or they are a serial bully should be left to the judge in court as well as the jury. However, having worked for a boss that was rather nasty and for a company that was pushing their workers to their limits, it would be relieving to see this bill being brought up nationwide. There are way too many supervisors who abuse their title and need to be reprimanded for it. Perhaps the bill should also have the bosses in question complete a workshop or seminar to bar their bullying behavior, or even go under emotional evaluation like their suing counterpart. It would be good to really make the bully realize what they have done in order to stop what they are doing, so they don't continue to do so. Comments are welcomed below about the bill and what exactly should be done about bullies in the workplace.