Employees: Let Us Sue Workplace Bullies

Bullies at Large: Employees nationwide may be in need of new legal protections to curb an alarming rise in the number of office bullies. So concludes the Employment Law Alliance of San Francisco, which polled U.S. workers and found that 45 percent say they have experienced workplace abuse from supervisors. The poll addressed abusive behavior that wouldn’t fall under legal protections for racial, religious or gender discrimination and shows that “abusive bosses are more than just an annoyance, but a very real problem and that employees will increasingly demand protection [from]—if not from employers, then the courts,” said Stephen J. Hirschfeld, an employment lawyer who doubles as CEO of the Law Alliance. Of those polled, 64 percent said they believe abused employees ought to be able to sue to recover damages.