I have, again and again, told you how great Flylady and Leanne Ely, Saving Dinner are to your overall health and well being. Here is a email letter from Leanne today about saving money by planning menus and grocery shopping wisely. Read it, you will enjoy it!
Dear Friends,
I've had a few emails asking me how to plan menus when you have no
money. Well, this is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. Been
there/done that! It isn't a lot of fun when you have $25 in your
pocket to feed your family for a week! That's what happened to me in
the mid-90's. My budget was $100 a month to feed my family!
I want to preface what I'm saying with it was an emergency and I had
no choice. It wasn't easy—but it was necessary. So instead of whining,
I did something and I got real creative. Now keep in mind: we're not
talking diapers, detergent or any other non-food items—just food, and
food alone.
Okay, so here's what I did.
First off, I utilized the loss leaders the stores advertise each week.
I shopped at about 2-3 stores a week and made my menus according to
what was on sale (after awhile, you don't even need to do that
much—you will have quite a stocked pantry and freezer if you shop via
this method).
I also availed myself of the scratch and dent section of the grocery
store. Not all grocery stores have this, but be on the look out for a
big cart at the end of an aisle filled to overflowing with bread or
another like item (I once bought whole wheat bread for .25 a loaf. I
bought 10 loaves because I had the freezer space and made my (now ex)
husband's lunch every day—and saved a fortune). Look in places you
don't normally look—toward the back of the store or a shelf over by
the restrooms.
I also went early in the morning and took full advantage of the
markdown meats. Yeah, it was a hassle and at the time, I had two
little kids. But I got huge markdowns and sometimes, I even asked for
markdowns of stuff (that maybe they missed) and cleaned house (I
bought a HUGE fresh turkey right after Thanksgiving for $4 that way).
There's a good lesson there—always ASK when you don't see something
that should be marked down (ask the dairy manager, meat manager, etc.)
Check the dates on everything and ask for markdowns when appropriate.
I bought my milk this way too. Milk freezes well after you pour a
little out, or it pops and leaks all over your freezer! Simply thaw it
overnight in the fridge or in a sink full of cold water during the
day, add a pinch of salt—it is a preservative, shake it up and it'll
last a week. I bought whole gallons of milk for 50 cents a piece.
Other times, I mixed dried milk with fresh and my troops never knew
the difference.
I also bought most of my produce marked down. You can always cut off a
bad spot and make due. I made applesauce out of the apples that didn't
make good eating apples. If I didn't buy it marked down, I bought it
on sale and in season. I avoided imported produce as that it was
almost always more expensive, even when it was on sale.
I also found out about grocery outlets. These stores are usually
listed in the yellow pages under surplus food or salvage food. They're
usually not in the best neighborhoods and there are even a few
undesirables in these types of stores (not always, but sometimes).
However, it was survival time and I bought stuff there that was way
seriously marked down.
And last—I bought cheap food! We ate a TON of dried beans. We ate
cheap cuts of meat cooked in the crockpot, we ate homemade everything
(that convenience stuff costs a fortune).
Breakfast was a biggie. I made homemade pancakes, waffles, oatmeal.
When you make it yourself, it doesn't cost much. Good filling food and
infinitely cheaper than cold cereal.
Speaking of breakfast, we had Breakfast for Dinner a few times a
month. Breakfast foods are cheap and if you add a little ambience
(light a few candles and put the OJ--made yourself from frozen
concentrate- -in wineglasses) everyone will enjoy your cheap trick!
Our beverage of choice was (and still is) water. Water costs nothing.
I had a water filter that enabled me to skip the expensive bottled
water and that helped a lot. We had OJ for breakfast (and breakfast
only was the rule) and that's it. We had milk too, but it was only
allowed with the meal and even then, only one glass. One glass is
adequate…no one in my house was deprived or starved.
Nothing went to waste in my house—I mean NOTHING. If there was any
leftover anything, I froze it and made it into soup later that week
(no, I didn't scrape the food off my kids plates, but honestly? There
wasn't any usually). My famous Rubber Chicken recipe was born out of
that period of time (on my website!).
That's it in a nutshell. It took extra time that I had back then. I
figured the way I slashed my grocery bill so dramatically, it was like
having a part time job without the taxes, pantyhose and rush hour! I
got to stay home with my kids and we made it through that very rough
time and ate quite well.
I hope some of these tips will help any of you who are wondering how
to make a menu with no budget. You sometimes just have to do what you
have to do! I did it and so can you!
Love,
Leanne
www.savingdinner. com
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Stomach Virus? Apple Cider Vinegar
If you have a stomach virus, try a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, inbetween meals. I have now known of two people who tried this. For one, it took only one tablespoon, and for another, it took two. With both people, symptoms began to subside after a few hours, and within a day they were able to resume their activities. If this works for you, by golly how cheap is this? And how fast? Each person used NON Organic apple cider vinegar, for only 98 cents a bottle, which means what, about 4 cents a tablespoon. Pahleeze, is it not worth at least a try? Come on, what do you have to lose? And let me know the results, please!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Looking for a god Doctor?
This was my recent response to a Mom at Yahoo groups (ADD) on how to find a Mom in her area:
You wrote on Oct. 27, 2008 at 9:49 AM
Phone or email any one of the major suppliers of naturopathic supplies, like the outsource labs and pharmacuetical grade supplements. I don't have the websites but here are some of the names I can think of for supplements: Thorne, Medi Herb, Standard Process, and Pure Encasulations. For outsouce labs, there are two I can think of right now: US biotek, and Genova Labs. I have worked for a holistic chiropractor and these are folks she used. Often these websites will have a place for you to type in your zip code and they will respond back with the doctors in your area, and the driving radius. They want you to buy their producst so they will refer you to the doctors who use them. Do not feel bad at all contacting them.... this is what they do daily.... it helps them turn a profit. And yes, you may have to drive more than a half an hour, I have driven two hours one way often, but quite frankly, you just may not.
Another idea, is call the nearest chiropractic, naturopathic, acupuncture schools, and see where their doctors are practicing nearest you. Many chiropractors practice nutritional counseling, finding the underlying causes of many illnesses, including ADD/ADHD and by nature, naturopaths and acupuncturists do this daily with every consult. I think you wll have great luck with the first option, calling outsource labs and supplement companies, but this is a good second.
If all this fails, and I doubt it will, a third idea is that I have had great success in phone consultations with my holistic MD (www.drmanso.com) and with my holistic pharmacy (www.peoplesrx.com -- I usually call the Lamar south location.) and so have all my friends who have contanced them. Both of these advise people all over the world, you don't have to live in Texas or the United States to use them. I have found them to be worth every penny of their time.
Do you have a health food store nearby? This is my fourth idea. Ask them if they know of anyone. I have worked in a health food store, They can't refer you to anyone, but they can say. hum, here are some names of doctors that our customers have used and liked.
There, I have given you four ideas, and they should all work. But, start with the first one, calling, and emailing those outsource labs and supplement companies, to get the best doctors nearest you, the fastest. And good luck! keep me posted. I don't check back here often, but I do care. Hang in there!
You wrote on Oct. 27, 2008 at 9:49 AM
Phone or email any one of the major suppliers of naturopathic supplies, like the outsource labs and pharmacuetical grade supplements. I don't have the websites but here are some of the names I can think of for supplements: Thorne, Medi Herb, Standard Process, and Pure Encasulations. For outsouce labs, there are two I can think of right now: US biotek, and Genova Labs. I have worked for a holistic chiropractor and these are folks she used. Often these websites will have a place for you to type in your zip code and they will respond back with the doctors in your area, and the driving radius. They want you to buy their producst so they will refer you to the doctors who use them. Do not feel bad at all contacting them.... this is what they do daily.... it helps them turn a profit. And yes, you may have to drive more than a half an hour, I have driven two hours one way often, but quite frankly, you just may not.
Another idea, is call the nearest chiropractic, naturopathic, acupuncture schools, and see where their doctors are practicing nearest you. Many chiropractors practice nutritional counseling, finding the underlying causes of many illnesses, including ADD/ADHD and by nature, naturopaths and acupuncturists do this daily with every consult. I think you wll have great luck with the first option, calling outsource labs and supplement companies, but this is a good second.
If all this fails, and I doubt it will, a third idea is that I have had great success in phone consultations with my holistic MD (www.drmanso.com) and with my holistic pharmacy (www.peoplesrx.com -- I usually call the Lamar south location.) and so have all my friends who have contanced them. Both of these advise people all over the world, you don't have to live in Texas or the United States to use them. I have found them to be worth every penny of their time.
Do you have a health food store nearby? This is my fourth idea. Ask them if they know of anyone. I have worked in a health food store, They can't refer you to anyone, but they can say. hum, here are some names of doctors that our customers have used and liked.
There, I have given you four ideas, and they should all work. But, start with the first one, calling, and emailing those outsource labs and supplement companies, to get the best doctors nearest you, the fastest. And good luck! keep me posted. I don't check back here often, but I do care. Hang in there!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Phthalates and Baby Boy Birth Defects!!!!
I adore hitting some of my favorite websites to get the latest news they know about. I highly reccomend you do the same. This I got from US Biotek.
Common chemical may cause defects in baby boys
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
For the first time, scientists have shown that pregnant mothers exposed to high but common levels of a widely used ingredient in cosmetics, fragrances, plastics and paints can have baby boys with smaller genitals and incomplete testicular descent.
The paper, published Friday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that the more a mother was exposed to the chemicals, called phthalates (THAL-ates), the greater the chance her boy's reproductive development would be harmed. Similar changes have led to decreased semen quality and fertility in rodents.
"We'll follow our children to see what the consequences are," says lead researcher Shanna Swan, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) School of Medicine.
The changes described in the federally financed study were seen at phthalate levels found in one-quarter of the female population in the USA.
The study tested levels of four kinds of phthalates in the urine of pregnant women. Researchers later examined 134 of the baby boys 2 months to 30 months old who were born to those women.
Previous work had shown that prenatal phthalate exposure in rodents can critically affect male hormones, resulting in impaired testicular descent and smaller genital size. The Swan study is the first to look at effects in humans.
While none of the boys showed clear malformation or disease, in the 25% of mothers with the highest levels of phthalate exposure, the odds were 10 times higher that their sons would have a shorter than expected distance between the anus and the base of the penis. This so-called AGD measurement is a sensitive indicator of impacts on their reproductive system.
A statement from the Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association said the "use of phthalates in cosmetics and personal care products is supported by an extensive body of scientific research and data that confirms safety."
But, Swan says, no one had ever studied phthalate exposure in infant boys.
"It's way premature to have concern," says Marian Stanley, who manages the Phthalate Esters Panel of the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, Va. "More study is needed."
Andrea Dunaif, chief of endocrinology at Northwestern University, called the findings "strong evidence in humans that this endocrine-disrupting chemical is associated with changes in boys."
The changes are subtle, but male infertility rates appear to be rising, she said, and it's hard to know if the problem is environmental or just diagnosed more often. "The public health implications are enormous."
Common chemical may cause defects in baby boys
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
For the first time, scientists have shown that pregnant mothers exposed to high but common levels of a widely used ingredient in cosmetics, fragrances, plastics and paints can have baby boys with smaller genitals and incomplete testicular descent.
The paper, published Friday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that the more a mother was exposed to the chemicals, called phthalates (THAL-ates), the greater the chance her boy's reproductive development would be harmed. Similar changes have led to decreased semen quality and fertility in rodents.
"We'll follow our children to see what the consequences are," says lead researcher Shanna Swan, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) School of Medicine.
The changes described in the federally financed study were seen at phthalate levels found in one-quarter of the female population in the USA.
The study tested levels of four kinds of phthalates in the urine of pregnant women. Researchers later examined 134 of the baby boys 2 months to 30 months old who were born to those women.
Previous work had shown that prenatal phthalate exposure in rodents can critically affect male hormones, resulting in impaired testicular descent and smaller genital size. The Swan study is the first to look at effects in humans.
While none of the boys showed clear malformation or disease, in the 25% of mothers with the highest levels of phthalate exposure, the odds were 10 times higher that their sons would have a shorter than expected distance between the anus and the base of the penis. This so-called AGD measurement is a sensitive indicator of impacts on their reproductive system.
A statement from the Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association said the "use of phthalates in cosmetics and personal care products is supported by an extensive body of scientific research and data that confirms safety."
But, Swan says, no one had ever studied phthalate exposure in infant boys.
"It's way premature to have concern," says Marian Stanley, who manages the Phthalate Esters Panel of the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, Va. "More study is needed."
Andrea Dunaif, chief of endocrinology at Northwestern University, called the findings "strong evidence in humans that this endocrine-disrupting chemical is associated with changes in boys."
The changes are subtle, but male infertility rates appear to be rising, she said, and it's hard to know if the problem is environmental or just diagnosed more often. "The public health implications are enormous."
Men's aging, testosterone, depression.
Men, have you had a testosterone level done? If you haven't, get one. Are you twenty, make sure you get one. If you don't have a holistic health care provider, get one. I have given you several links in my main page of professionals to contact, who do phone consults. Often these hormonal tests are saliva based, ordered by the health care provider, shipped to your home, you ship it back. Then send the results to the holistic health care provider and he/she calls you with the results.
Why is your testosterone level so important? It's more than sex, it's happiness versus depression. Who wants to be depressed.
I know I have talked about this before, but I am going to do it again. Just like women have varying levels of various hormones at different ages, so do men. And this is an important thing to remember, and only holistic health care providers seem to acknowledge it, what may have been normal for the average man at 40 is not a normal decline to a man, who say, was very athletic in his prime at 21. This is important! If you were very athletic at 20,say playing college ball, and are now 45, and depressed yet your testosterone level looks normal, tell your holistic doctor. What is normal for the average joe, is not normal for you!
And honey, I want you happy. Sex can be a byproduct of the happy, but let's work on happy and correct testosterone level for you, OK?
Why is your testosterone level so important? It's more than sex, it's happiness versus depression. Who wants to be depressed.
I know I have talked about this before, but I am going to do it again. Just like women have varying levels of various hormones at different ages, so do men. And this is an important thing to remember, and only holistic health care providers seem to acknowledge it, what may have been normal for the average man at 40 is not a normal decline to a man, who say, was very athletic in his prime at 21. This is important! If you were very athletic at 20,say playing college ball, and are now 45, and depressed yet your testosterone level looks normal, tell your holistic doctor. What is normal for the average joe, is not normal for you!
And honey, I want you happy. Sex can be a byproduct of the happy, but let's work on happy and correct testosterone level for you, OK?
Men's Fertility Affected by Aging Too!
Many times I will enter emails, or something of interest written by other people and this is not different. I don't agree with everything from WC Douglas, MD, but often I agree with a lot and he, like other authors. puts things so much better than I can. As well, although I may well lose you as a reader, I hope you will hit their websites, and gather even more information, or just know that I am gleaning the best of the rest for you.
I got this article today from Dr. Douglas in his group email (yes you too can subscribe.) I have been hearing about this sort of thing, mens aging and menopause, for a while, but not connected to fertility and birth defects, etc.
Here is the article:
Guys: do you know what time is on your biological clock?
Dear Friend,
Hey guys. Hear that steady "tick, tick, tick" sound? Well, if you don't, maybe you ought to be listening more closely, because it turns out that the whole "biological clock" thing isn't just for women any more. More and more studies are discovering that a man's fertility is just as likely to come with an expiration date as a woman's.
For years, it was assumed that because men constantly produce sperm every 90 days for as long as they live, age didn't play a factor in fertility. But that might not be the case after all. A recent study in France found that a father's age could have as much of an impact on the rate of pregnancy and miscarriage as a mother's age. In fact, the older either potential parent was, the lower the odds of conception and the higher the odds of miscarriage.
Another study found that only eight percent of couples where the would-be father was younger than 25 would take longer than a year to conceive. But when the father was over 35, that number jumped to 15 percent taking over a year to conceive.
Honestly, I don't know why this info would come as such a shock to everyone. It's well known that men are most fertile when they're around 24 years old. It's all downhill from there. Age leads to a drop in testosterone level, which can lower the number and viability of their sperm.
Here's what I did find interesting…
Older men are also at an increased risk of having children with birth defects such as Down syndrome. The children of older fathers also have higher rates of autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Men are increasingly found to be the "problem" in as many as half of all infertility cases due problems like low sperm count due to factors other than age.
The older you are when you have a child, the more likely you are to have a kid with psychological problems. Men who have kids when they're 55 or older are 37 percent more likely to have children who are diagnosed with bipolar disorder at some point in life.
Many researchers believe the risk factors for psychological disorders in children (like autism and schizophrenia) have more to do with genetics than age. Men's sperm can be affected by DNA mutations that come with age, which has a negative impact on the quality of the sperm being produced.
I'm sure a lot of women reading this are thinking, "Welcome to the party, pal." Many are probably well fed up with years of hearing the old saw about the woman hearing the tick of the biological clock in their 30s. It turns out, we're all on the same fertility clock, more or less. And it's time for men to start hearing the tick, too.
I got this article today from Dr. Douglas in his group email (yes you too can subscribe.) I have been hearing about this sort of thing, mens aging and menopause, for a while, but not connected to fertility and birth defects, etc.
Here is the article:
Guys: do you know what time is on your biological clock?
Dear Friend,
Hey guys. Hear that steady "tick, tick, tick" sound? Well, if you don't, maybe you ought to be listening more closely, because it turns out that the whole "biological clock" thing isn't just for women any more. More and more studies are discovering that a man's fertility is just as likely to come with an expiration date as a woman's.
For years, it was assumed that because men constantly produce sperm every 90 days for as long as they live, age didn't play a factor in fertility. But that might not be the case after all. A recent study in France found that a father's age could have as much of an impact on the rate of pregnancy and miscarriage as a mother's age. In fact, the older either potential parent was, the lower the odds of conception and the higher the odds of miscarriage.
Another study found that only eight percent of couples where the would-be father was younger than 25 would take longer than a year to conceive. But when the father was over 35, that number jumped to 15 percent taking over a year to conceive.
Honestly, I don't know why this info would come as such a shock to everyone. It's well known that men are most fertile when they're around 24 years old. It's all downhill from there. Age leads to a drop in testosterone level, which can lower the number and viability of their sperm.
Here's what I did find interesting…
Older men are also at an increased risk of having children with birth defects such as Down syndrome. The children of older fathers also have higher rates of autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Men are increasingly found to be the "problem" in as many as half of all infertility cases due problems like low sperm count due to factors other than age.
The older you are when you have a child, the more likely you are to have a kid with psychological problems. Men who have kids when they're 55 or older are 37 percent more likely to have children who are diagnosed with bipolar disorder at some point in life.
Many researchers believe the risk factors for psychological disorders in children (like autism and schizophrenia) have more to do with genetics than age. Men's sperm can be affected by DNA mutations that come with age, which has a negative impact on the quality of the sperm being produced.
I'm sure a lot of women reading this are thinking, "Welcome to the party, pal." Many are probably well fed up with years of hearing the old saw about the woman hearing the tick of the biological clock in their 30s. It turns out, we're all on the same fertility clock, more or less. And it's time for men to start hearing the tick, too.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Bullies at work, UK, illness statistics
Hum, while we are on the topic of bullies at work, try this one.
Bully at Work
Interview with Tim Field
By: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.
Also published by United Press International (UPI)
Malignant Self Love.
In 1994 Tim Field was bullied out of his job as a Customer Services Manager which resulted in a stress breakdown. Turning his experience to good use he set up the UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line in 1996 and his web site Bully Online in 1997 since which time he has worked on over 5000 cases worldwide. He now lectures widely as well as writing and publishing books on bullying and psychiatric injury. He holds two honorary doctorates for his work on identifying and dealing with bullying. He is the Webmaster of Bully Online.
Question: What is workplace bullying?
Answer: Workplace bullying is persistent, unwelcome, intrusive behaviour of one or more individuals whose actions prevent others from fulfilling their duties.
Question: How is it different to adopting disciplinarian measures, maintaining strict supervision, or oversight?
Answer: The purpose of bullying is to hide the inadequacy of the bully and has nothing to do with "management" or the achievement of tasks. Bullies project their inadequacies onto others to distract and divert attention away from the inadequacies. In most cases of workplace bullying reported to the UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line, the bully is a serial bully who has a history of conflict with staff. The bullying that one sees is often also the tip of an iceberg of wrongdoing which may include misappropriation of budgets, harassment, discrimination, as well as breaches of rules, regulations, professional codes of conduct and health and safety practices.
Question: Should it be distinguished from harassment (including sexual harassment), or stalking?
Answer: Bullying is, I believe, the underlying behavior and thus the common denominator of harassment, discrimination, stalking and abuse. What varies is the focus for expression of the behavior. For instance, a harasser or discriminator focuses on race or gender or disability.
Bullies focus on competence and popularity which at present are not covered by employment legislation.
Bullies seethe with resentment and anger and the conduits for release of this inner anger are jealousy and envy which explains why bullies pick on employees who are good at their job and popular with people. Being emotionally immature, bullies crave attention and become resentful when others get more attention for their competence and achievements than themselves.
Question: What is the profile of the typical bully?
Answer: Over 90% of the cases reported to the UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line involve a serial bully who can be recognised by their behaviour profile which includes compulsive lying, a Jekyll and Hyde nature, an unusually high verbal facility, charm and a considerable capacity to deceive, an arrested level of emotional development, and a compulsive need to control. The serial bully rarely commits a physical assault or an arrestable offence, preferring instead to remain within the realms of psychological violence and non-arrestable offences.
Question: What are bullying's typical outcomes?
Answer: In the majority of cases, the target of bullying is eliminated through forced resignation, unfair dismissal, or early or ill- health retirement whilst the bully is promoted. After a short interval of between 2-14 days, the bully selects another target and the cycle restarts. Sometimes another target is selected before the current target is eliminated.
Question: Can you provide us with some statistics? How often does bullying occur? How many people are affected?
Answer: Surveys of bullying in the UK indicate that between 12-50% of the workforce experience bullying. Statistics from the UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line reveal that around 20% of cases are from the education sector, 12% are from healthcare, 10% are from social services, and around 6% from the voluntary / charity / not-for-profit sector.
After that, calls come from all sectors both public and private, with finance, media, police, postal workers and other government employees featuring prominently. Enquiries from outside the UK (notably USA, Canada, Australia and Ireland) show similar patterns with the caring professions topping the list of bullied workers.
Question: Could you estimate the economic effects of workplace bullying - costs to employers (firms), employees, law enforcement agencies, the courts, the government, etc.?
Answer: Bullying is one of the major causes of stress, and the cost of stress to UK plc is thought to be between £5-12 billion (US$7-17 billion). When all the direct, indirect and consequential costs of bullying are taken into account, the cost to UK plc (taxpayers and shareholders) could be in excess of £30 billion (US$44 billion), equivalent to around £1,000 hidden tax per working adult per year. Employers do not account for the cost of bullying and its consequences, therefore the figures never appear on balance sheets.
Employees have to work twice as hard to overcome the serial bully's inefficiency and dysfunction which can spread through an organisation like a cancer.
Because of its subtle nature, bullying can be difficult to recognise, but the consequences are easy to spot: excessive workloads, lack of support, a climate of fear, and high levels of insecurity.
The effects on health include, amongst other things, chronic fatigue, damage to the immune system, reactive depression, and suicide.
The indirect costs of bullying include higher-than average staff turnover and sickness absence. Each of these incur consequential costs of staff cover, administration, loss of production and reduced productivity which are rarely recognised and even more rarely attributed to their cause. Absenteeism alone costs UK plc over £10 billion a year and stress is now officially the number one cause of sickness absence having taken over from the common cold. However, surveys suggest that at least 20% of employers still do not regard stress as a health and safety issue, instead preferring to see it as skiving and malingering.
The Bristol Stress and Health at Work Study published by the HSE in June 2000 revealed that 1 in 5 UK workers (around 5.5m) reported feeling extremely stressed at work. The main stress factors were having too much work and not being supported by managers. In November 2001 a study by Proudfoot Consulting revealed the cost of bad management, low employee morale and poorly-trained staff to British business at 117 lost working days a year. At 65%, bad management (often a euphemism for bullying) accounted for the biggest slice of unproductive days with low morale accounting for 17%. The study also suggested that in the UK 52% of all working time is spent unproductively compared to the European average of 43%.
The results of a three-year survey of British workers by the Gallup Organization published in October 2001 revealed that many employers are not getting the best from their employees. The most common response to questions such as "how engaged are your employees?" and "how effective is your leadership and management style?" and "how well are you capitalising on the talents, skills and knowledge of your people?" was an overwhelming "not very much". The survey also found that the longer an employee stayed, the less engaged they became. The cost to UK plc of lost work days due to lack of engagement was estimated to be between £39-48 billion a year.
Question: What can be done to reduce workplace bullying? Are firms, the government, law enforcement agencies, the courts - aware of the problem and its magnitude? Are educational campaign effective? Did anti-bullying laws prove effective?
Answer: Most bullying is hierarchical and can be traced to the top or near the top. As bullying is often the visible tip of an iceberg of wrongdoing, denial is the most common strategy employed by toxic managements. Only Sweden has a law which specifically addresses bullying. Where no law exists, bullies feel free to bully. Whilst the law is not a solution, the presence of a law is an indication that society has made a judgement that the behaviour is no longer acceptable.
Awareness of bullying, and especially its seriousness, is still low throughout society. Bullying is not just "something children do in the playground", it's a lifetime behaviour on the same level as domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape.
Bullying is a form of psychological and emotional rape because of its intrusive and violational nature.
Bully at Work
Interview with Tim Field
By: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.
Also published by United Press International (UPI)
Malignant Self Love.
In 1994 Tim Field was bullied out of his job as a Customer Services Manager which resulted in a stress breakdown. Turning his experience to good use he set up the UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line in 1996 and his web site Bully Online in 1997 since which time he has worked on over 5000 cases worldwide. He now lectures widely as well as writing and publishing books on bullying and psychiatric injury. He holds two honorary doctorates for his work on identifying and dealing with bullying. He is the Webmaster of Bully Online.
Question: What is workplace bullying?
Answer: Workplace bullying is persistent, unwelcome, intrusive behaviour of one or more individuals whose actions prevent others from fulfilling their duties.
Question: How is it different to adopting disciplinarian measures, maintaining strict supervision, or oversight?
Answer: The purpose of bullying is to hide the inadequacy of the bully and has nothing to do with "management" or the achievement of tasks. Bullies project their inadequacies onto others to distract and divert attention away from the inadequacies. In most cases of workplace bullying reported to the UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line, the bully is a serial bully who has a history of conflict with staff. The bullying that one sees is often also the tip of an iceberg of wrongdoing which may include misappropriation of budgets, harassment, discrimination, as well as breaches of rules, regulations, professional codes of conduct and health and safety practices.
Question: Should it be distinguished from harassment (including sexual harassment), or stalking?
Answer: Bullying is, I believe, the underlying behavior and thus the common denominator of harassment, discrimination, stalking and abuse. What varies is the focus for expression of the behavior. For instance, a harasser or discriminator focuses on race or gender or disability.
Bullies focus on competence and popularity which at present are not covered by employment legislation.
Bullies seethe with resentment and anger and the conduits for release of this inner anger are jealousy and envy which explains why bullies pick on employees who are good at their job and popular with people. Being emotionally immature, bullies crave attention and become resentful when others get more attention for their competence and achievements than themselves.
Question: What is the profile of the typical bully?
Answer: Over 90% of the cases reported to the UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line involve a serial bully who can be recognised by their behaviour profile which includes compulsive lying, a Jekyll and Hyde nature, an unusually high verbal facility, charm and a considerable capacity to deceive, an arrested level of emotional development, and a compulsive need to control. The serial bully rarely commits a physical assault or an arrestable offence, preferring instead to remain within the realms of psychological violence and non-arrestable offences.
Question: What are bullying's typical outcomes?
Answer: In the majority of cases, the target of bullying is eliminated through forced resignation, unfair dismissal, or early or ill- health retirement whilst the bully is promoted. After a short interval of between 2-14 days, the bully selects another target and the cycle restarts. Sometimes another target is selected before the current target is eliminated.
Question: Can you provide us with some statistics? How often does bullying occur? How many people are affected?
Answer: Surveys of bullying in the UK indicate that between 12-50% of the workforce experience bullying. Statistics from the UK National Workplace Bullying Advice Line reveal that around 20% of cases are from the education sector, 12% are from healthcare, 10% are from social services, and around 6% from the voluntary / charity / not-for-profit sector.
After that, calls come from all sectors both public and private, with finance, media, police, postal workers and other government employees featuring prominently. Enquiries from outside the UK (notably USA, Canada, Australia and Ireland) show similar patterns with the caring professions topping the list of bullied workers.
Question: Could you estimate the economic effects of workplace bullying - costs to employers (firms), employees, law enforcement agencies, the courts, the government, etc.?
Answer: Bullying is one of the major causes of stress, and the cost of stress to UK plc is thought to be between £5-12 billion (US$7-17 billion). When all the direct, indirect and consequential costs of bullying are taken into account, the cost to UK plc (taxpayers and shareholders) could be in excess of £30 billion (US$44 billion), equivalent to around £1,000 hidden tax per working adult per year. Employers do not account for the cost of bullying and its consequences, therefore the figures never appear on balance sheets.
Employees have to work twice as hard to overcome the serial bully's inefficiency and dysfunction which can spread through an organisation like a cancer.
Because of its subtle nature, bullying can be difficult to recognise, but the consequences are easy to spot: excessive workloads, lack of support, a climate of fear, and high levels of insecurity.
The effects on health include, amongst other things, chronic fatigue, damage to the immune system, reactive depression, and suicide.
The indirect costs of bullying include higher-than average staff turnover and sickness absence. Each of these incur consequential costs of staff cover, administration, loss of production and reduced productivity which are rarely recognised and even more rarely attributed to their cause. Absenteeism alone costs UK plc over £10 billion a year and stress is now officially the number one cause of sickness absence having taken over from the common cold. However, surveys suggest that at least 20% of employers still do not regard stress as a health and safety issue, instead preferring to see it as skiving and malingering.
The Bristol Stress and Health at Work Study published by the HSE in June 2000 revealed that 1 in 5 UK workers (around 5.5m) reported feeling extremely stressed at work. The main stress factors were having too much work and not being supported by managers. In November 2001 a study by Proudfoot Consulting revealed the cost of bad management, low employee morale and poorly-trained staff to British business at 117 lost working days a year. At 65%, bad management (often a euphemism for bullying) accounted for the biggest slice of unproductive days with low morale accounting for 17%. The study also suggested that in the UK 52% of all working time is spent unproductively compared to the European average of 43%.
The results of a three-year survey of British workers by the Gallup Organization published in October 2001 revealed that many employers are not getting the best from their employees. The most common response to questions such as "how engaged are your employees?" and "how effective is your leadership and management style?" and "how well are you capitalising on the talents, skills and knowledge of your people?" was an overwhelming "not very much". The survey also found that the longer an employee stayed, the less engaged they became. The cost to UK plc of lost work days due to lack of engagement was estimated to be between £39-48 billion a year.
Question: What can be done to reduce workplace bullying? Are firms, the government, law enforcement agencies, the courts - aware of the problem and its magnitude? Are educational campaign effective? Did anti-bullying laws prove effective?
Answer: Most bullying is hierarchical and can be traced to the top or near the top. As bullying is often the visible tip of an iceberg of wrongdoing, denial is the most common strategy employed by toxic managements. Only Sweden has a law which specifically addresses bullying. Where no law exists, bullies feel free to bully. Whilst the law is not a solution, the presence of a law is an indication that society has made a judgement that the behaviour is no longer acceptable.
Awareness of bullying, and especially its seriousness, is still low throughout society. Bullying is not just "something children do in the playground", it's a lifetime behaviour on the same level as domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape.
Bullying is a form of psychological and emotional rape because of its intrusive and violational nature.
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