Kellie Auld, CHRP
On October 13, 2009, the Central Interior book club had the great pleasure of discussing Road to Respect: Path to Profit with author, Erica Pinsky.
This book, listed on BC HRMA’s summer reading list, was the club’s first read of the season – and what a good choice it was! Pinsky’s message is one that resonated with everyone: a lack of respect in the workplace is very costly to an organization.
Each book club member in attendance was given the chance to ask Pinsky questions. Hearing the responses first hand further enhanced the value of belonging to the book club and provided a unique opportunity to gain an understanding of the author’s intent.
CI Book Club: How did you go from being a professional dancer to a consultant dealing with bullying and human rights harassment issues?
Pinksy: “I wanted to be a dancer; however, my parents told me that if I wanted them to support me, I had to gain an education to fall back on, so I went to university and obtained my degree and I danced part time”.
CI Book Club: Why did you choose to write your book?
Pinksy: “I wrote the book because I was really getting a sense of frustration over a very ‘reactive’ environment in business today. Repeatedly, organizations would call me to deal with complaints around disrespectful behaviours. I saw a need to investigate the patterns of poor behaviours and saw diagnostic and training opportunities that would enable organizations to become more ‘proactive’ about building respectful cultures in the workplace and get out of the vicious cycle they were in. I wanted to clearly identify why these same issues kept coming up – writing the book helped to identify a win-win approach.”
CI Book Club: What difference have you seen in your work, if anything, since you wrote the book?
Pinsky: “I have seen some positive difference – but today’s economy has almost created a situation in which we’re digressing because we’re more apt to tolerate disrespectful behaviours when we fear losing our jobs if we complain. There is more stress in the workplace and I’m actually seeing a bit of an increase in disrespectful behaviours…but it’s very clear that the old business models don’t work and I do think this is more recognized now.
Some clients are beginning to get it – but then again – it’s one thing to say you get it; and quite another to actually embark on the changes required to show you get it”...”While there is anti-bullying legislation out there, much of what occurs in the workplace is manifested over a period of time. The bullying happens behind closed doors and is covert in nature”.
In addition to answering the book club’s questions, Pinsky provided several real examples and some specific tip on how those in HR can deal with an employee that is possibly being bullied or harassed by a co-worker.
One such example spoke to a situation in which one co-worker sabotaged another during a presentation to a group of employees. She also gave a great example, in response to one of the questions posed to her, about a supervisor being part of a scenario in which the bully and supervisor were friends away from work; when the bullied employee went to the supervisor it was falling on deaf ears.