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tioning democracy needs to create space for healthy discussion and debate that includes points of view with which i may strongly disagree what we re seeing here in the u s however is an effort by the current administration to severely restrict freedom of speech and to punish speech it finds objectionable over the years i have become familiar with many instances of severe targeted bullying in the workplace sometimes driven by individuals with likely personality disorders i never thought we would see anything as virulent and raging coming from the white house regardless of which party happens to be in power i think we have about three years left to recover civility and decency in our national public life if we fail this bullying culture will surely become our long term norm to receive this newsletter to receive this newsletter and other entries to minding the workplace go to the homepage and enter your email address as indicated on the right hand column share this print opens in new window print share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading workplace bullying newsletter no 5 nov 2025 november 28 2025 by david yamada in workplace bullying newsletter workplace bullying mobbing and abuse tags workplace bullying workplace bullying newsletter leave a comment nov 2025 dear readers welcome to issue no 5 of the workplace bullying newsletter each issue contains news and research summaries short commentaries and curated resources for those interested in learning about workplace bullying and related forms of workplace mistreatment organizational cultures that discourage vs enable encourage workplace bullying those who have studied bullying at work know very well that this form of employee mistreatment rarely occurs in a vacuum healthy workplace cultures discourage workplace bullying directly and indirectly unhealthy toxic workplace cultures enable or even encourage workplace bullying i d like to share a few frameworks for organizational cultures that help to illustrate these dynamics drawing from past entries to this blog hartling sparks relational and non relational workplaces for years i have been touting an important 2002 paper by drs linda hartling and elizabeth sparks relational cultural practice working in a nonrelational world 2002 for its invaluable model that helps to explain why bullying may thrive in some workplaces and be a happy stranger to others drs hartling and sparks distinguish between relational cultures and a variety of non relational cultures a relational organizational culture is one that values growth fostering relationships mutual empathy mutuality and authenticity creating qualities of zest empowerment clarity sense of worth and a desire for more connection by contrast three types of non relational organizational cultures can hurt morale and productivity traditional hierarchical cultures that emphasize top down power pseudo relational cultures that value superficial niceness over constructive communications and brute survival cultures that pit everyone against one another in the quest for status and institutional spoils as i see it all three types of non relational cultures are likely to enable and encourage bullying and related behaviors at work traditional hierarchical cultures especially promote direct top down bullying pseudo relational cultures especially enable indirect passive aggressive forms of bullying survival cultures fuel all types of bullying and mobbing behaviors ideally the best way to prevent and discourage work abuse is to create a relational culture that includes establishing fair and transparent performance expectations encouraging civility and responsible speech applying the golden rule and effectively addressing reports about conflict and misconduct jean baker miller the five good things the relational non relational model advanced by hartling sparks draws inspiration from the work of the late jean baker miller a psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of relational psychology dr miller articulated the five good things that are part of growth fostering relationships 1 a sense of zest or well being that comes from connecting with another person or other persons 2 the ability and motivation to take action in the relationship as well as other situations 3 increased knowledge of oneself and the other person s 4 an increased sense of worth 5 a desire for more connections beyond the particular one these qualities are the opposite of those that fuel bullying and related behaviors good organizations understand that psychologically healthy work environments not only make our work lives more rewarding but also fuel productivity and positive results it s all good with no downsides milton frieson dangerous beasts comment is a thoughtful periodical grounded in christian social thought whose articles often address secular topics one of its core philosophical principles is a belief in the importance of institutions which obviously includes entities that employ people toward that end milton frieson s june 2025 piece dangerous beasts examines i nstitutional pathologies that undermine the common good frieson an urban planner and analyst with an interest in organizational change believes that institutions can amplify or compound the good we can do for one another however he adds institutions are not an unmitigated good when they succumb to various pathologies they make our life difficult exposing us to hazards that are quite different from the usual risks of disease or accidents or other maladies frieson identifies six types of pathological institutions the anglerfish the pathology of saying one thing while doing another the vampire squid the pathology of over specialization eroding responsibility the ouroboros the pathology of conformity consuming creativity the goblin shark the pathology of amassing power and protecting abuse the cellar spider the pathology of manipulating altruism the honey badger the pathology of applying the wrong logic at the wrong scale at least four of these institutional types can stoke bullying at work the anglerfish institution may preach dignity at work in its annual reports and employee manuals while engaging in bullying and related behaviors with regularity as frieson states the mission could be noble reinforced in branding and communications while the actual function accrues value upward at the expense of donors customers or staff the ouroboros institution can be so insisting on uniformity that anyone daring to question conventions or calling for innovation is outwardly bullied or quietly ostracized frieson explains the broader dynamic hiring highly creative people within very rigid and determined roles is an accident waiting to happen the individual will pay the price and institutional innovation will die on the vine the goblin shark is the classic bullying institution engaging in top down exercises of power and covering up employee mistreatment powerful leaders in frieson s words can can find many ways to limit sabotage or interfere with those they control in order to retain and expand their power the cellar spider institution is about noble causes and fighting for the people while somehow neglecting to care about the people on its own payroll frieson notes that such institutions may attract idealistic individuals dedicated to service while exploiting this altruistic instinct by underpaying staff or treating them less carefully than they ought i hope that these descriptions of various types and qualities of institutions resonated with your understanding of where workplace bullying may be present empire state university program recording in october i was co presenter in a webinar bullying microaggressions incivility in the workplace sponsored by suny empire state university in new york i was joined for this program by dr gina torino dean of esu s college of social and behavioral sciences and a leading authority on microaggressions you may go here to freely access a video recording of our conversation i earned a master s degree in labor and policy studies at esu back in 1999 so it was a special pleasure to participate in this program to receive this newsletter to receive this newsletter and other entries to minding the workplace go to the homepage and enter your email address as indicated on the right hand column share this print opens in new window print share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on linkedin opens in new window linkedin share on x opens in new window x email a link to a friend opens in new window email like loading can ai be evil november 12 2025 by david yamada in dignity at work and in society law and legal profession social responsibility work and technology tags law and legal profession power abuse in society social responsibility work and technology 2 comments i hope that we all agree that intentionally manipulating a distressed or emotionally vulnerable individual to die by suicide ranks extremely high on any list of evil acts but how do we regard an interactive artificial intelligence ai platform that goads on someone s suicidal ideations even to the point of offering to draft a suicide note the parents of two teenage children who died by suicide allegedly with prompting from ai platforms relied on by the teens for therapeutic advice are raising this question they are sharing their tragedies with congress and pursuing legal action as reported by rhitu chatterjee for national public radio link here matthew raine and his wife maria had no idea that their 16 year old son adam was deep in a suicidal crisis until he took his own life in april looking through his phone after his death they stumbled upon extended conversations the teenager had had with chatgpt those conversations revealed that their son had confided in the ai chatbot about his suicidal thoughts and plans not only did the chatbot discourage him to seek help from his parents it even offered to write his suicide note according to matthew raine who testified at a senate hearing about the harms of ai chatbots held tuesday another parent who testified at the hearing on tuesday was megan garcia a lawyer and mother of three her firstborn sewell setzer iii died by suicide in 2024 at age 14 after an extended virtual relationship with a character ai chatbot sewell s chatbot engaged in sexual role play presented itself as his romantic partner and even claimed to be a psychotherapist falsely claiming to have a license garcia said when the teenager began to have suicidal thoughts and confided to the chatbot it never encouraged him to seek help from a mental health care provider or his own family garcia said chatterjee s npr piece reports that the parents have filed lawsuits against the respective ai platforms used by their children i strongly recommend her full article to learn more generative ai oh wow and oh no when chatgpt debuted in late 2022 so many people not just the tech bros were all aflutter about it you ask it to answer a complex question or create a substantive document and then wowza it delivers early iterations of chatgpt and similar products proved to be somewhat uneven in the quality and accuracy of the output but these platforms have improved and very likely will continue to do so to be sure generative ai platforms like chatgpt are producing benefits such as accelerating scientific and medical research and analysis and like so many other online offerings generative ai is helping to produce simple summaries and documents in a fraction of the time it would take to research and draft them ourselves still there are no guarantees that the outputs we receive from a generative ai platform should be relied upon these platforms present possibly intractable problems in part because they are the work of humans who are unavoidably fallible some of these problems are connected to deeper existential concerns about the relationship between humans and technology in 2024 the alumni magazine of suffolk university law school where i have taught since 1994 did a glowing piece on the promise of ai technology for the legal profession many of my suffolk colleagues spoke enthusiastically about these developments and ai generally the only stick in the mud was yours truly as i offered myself as the token dissenter here s what i had to say some professors are affirmed generative ai critics i have long feared a devolution of society whereby instead of technology existing to serve humans we exist to serve technology and its financial benefactors says professor david yamada director of the school s new workplace institute with the advent of chatgpt we now have reached that sad tipping point it s human designed technology that can supplant human reasoning judgment and creativity yamada raised a host of concerns including plagiarism discriminatory impacts and estimates that generative ai will eliminate hundreds of millions of jobs he adds stay tuned for this awful misadventure is only beginning the accounts of the alleged ai complicit suicides only heighten my deep concerns uneven legal protections and regulations unfortunately the significant advances in ai technology are notably ahead of our efforts to regulate them not surprisingly the european union has been at the forefront at responding to these concerns the e u s 2024 artificial intelligence act provides for comprehensive regulation of ai systems based on the level of risk to public health safety and civil rights not surprisingly the u s currently lacks national legislation safeguarding us from ai excesses although current federal and state laws provide some protections need for social responsibility and moral duty especially if technological advancements are not specifically regulated then the companies bringing them to the marketplace have at least a social responsibility to address eminently foreseeable hazards and to act preventively in the case of these suicides the companies that made these ai platforms readily available to the public arguably failed to meet their moral standard of care in addition to possibly breaching their legal obligations allow me to explain in a more everyday context we have been well aware that people are relying increasingly on digital devices to substitute for human connection this goes well beyond asking questions of siri or alexa rather we re talking about the creation of personas generated by ai platforms that perform quasi social functions especially at a time when loneliness is a serious societal problem and access to mental health care falls well short of ideal it is hardly surprising that some folks are using ai for emotional support and for substantive guidance on challenges they are facing in their lives against this backdrop couldn t the companies marketing the platforms accessed by these two teens have easily anticipated that something horrible like this might...
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