Posted by denised in 
If legislators have their way it might soon become illegal to be a bully boss – well at least in New York anyway. The legislation in question defines a bully boss as “someone who is motivated by malice and who is destructive and injurious.” And, if approved by the NY state assembly next year the bill would allow bullied employees to sue for damages.
The possible passage of this new law raises several questions. How clearly defined is the line between a bad boss who’s just mean and one who’s a bully? At times I’ve felt that my bad bosses behaved maliciously with the specific intent of causing mental distress. And while I’d definitely classify one of my former bosses as a bully, the worse thing I could say about most of them is that they were absolute idiots. Mean, rude and incompetent idiots. A few of my colleagues who’d been driven to tears by these same incompetent idiots might beg to differ. In those cases, who decides whether the behavior was bullying or simply just mean?
It’ll be interesting to see what happens if the legislation actually passes. Will it have an impact on bully behavior in the workplace or will it be just one more thing employees, fearful of the repercussions, feel they need to keep quiet about?
Click here to read more about the pending legislation.
