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Welcome to the 'Know Bull!' website...About Us 

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Current Know Bull! Poll:
How helpful was HR (Human
Resources) in addressing
workplace bullying? Click here
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When the Know Bull! website was launched 5 years ago in May 2008, we were a little 'ahead of our time'. Back then, there was the occasional media story about workplace bullying and a few good, international anti-bullying websites...but not much more.  Looking back, it seems like there was actually a 'disinterest' about workplace related bullying - especially within the media.  Know Bull! saw it differently and considered bullying as a serious workplace health and safety issue not only affecting staff...but also undermining the profits of companies and organisations. It wasn't long before our inbox indicated that workplace bullying was indeed set to become one of those 'issues' that wasn't going away in a hurry. 

In response to communication from our website visitors, we began collating and publishing facts and information, conducting polls and research...and monitoring trends. 

To increase awareness about the devastating impact of workplace bullying on 'targets' and the financial toll borne by organisations...we established a national workplace anti-bullying day that takes place annually on 3rd June. But we were still ahead of our time, and the launch of this day was met by the media with overwhelming silence.  Never-the-less, as of 2013 Know Bull! Day enters its 5th year.  

In June 2010 we introduced Bullying Awareness Month - to provide organisations and individuals with some flexibility in implementing their Know Bull! Day, anti-workplace bullying events.

From early on, Know Bull! recognised that while workplace bullying and school bullying shared some common ground, they had entirely different origins.  In other words - opposite ends of the same stick.  While school bullying is directed at children who are perceived as being different or an 'easy target', workplace bullying is directed at those perceived as admired, experienced, and very competent. 

We continued to dig into bullying behaviours, worked with organisations and unions on a global scale to improve workplace cultures to eradicate bullying, provided organisations with materials to do the same, and conducted anti-bullying presentations in workplaces.

By early 2009, we'd gathered a lot of information from individuals and organisations who had communicated with us.  And after noticing the beginnings of two distinct trends we sought further information via an online survey. The Extent & Effects of Workplace Bullying Survey Report (collated late 2009 and published 2010), confirmed a) "strong support for the introduction of a ‘new’ statutory course of action encompassing the notion of 'the deliberate and/or intentional infliction of a hostile work environment', under which organisations, and workplace bullies could be prosecuted", and b) a strong correlation between workplace bullying and suicide.  At the time we wrote:

The most sobering finding of the Know Bull! Extent and Effects of Workplace Bullying Survey revealed that 1 in 5 (16.6%) of respondents said that they had “known of, or worked with a staff member who, after being targeted by a workplace bully, later committed suicide”. This statistic on its own indicates that despite OH&S legislation – many ‘unsafe’ workplaces exist, and that perhaps OH&S legislation doesn’t have sufficient ‘teeth’ to curb the existence of workplace bullying, and that workplace bullying (and its effects) should in fact have its own ‘criminal category’.

We began to herald 'looming' changes regarding workplace legislation - to organisations, and incorporated this into Know Bull! presentations.  And while there were no 'outward' signs of change on the horizon (and still ahead of our time)...we implored organisations not to wait until the 11th hour...and to begin working on improving workplace cultures for the sake of their employees, productivity, bottom line, and ultimately to avoid legal sanctions.

Then in June 2011, and motivated by community groundswell after a court case that penalised workplace bullies who tragically drove a 19-yr-old Victorian teenager to commit suicide - the State Parliament of Victoria passed the Crimes Amendment (Bullying) Bill.  Things began moving quickly.

By May 2012 Australia's Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, announced a national review into workplace bullying. The Parliamentary committee report that followed, Workplace Bullying: We just want it to stop, was tabled October 2012. By March 2013 the Australian Federal Government proposed an amendment (The Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013) to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). This new Bill is set to become effective from 1st July 2013 and represents a change to existing national laws, while providing power to the Fair Work Commission to deal with workplace bullying complaints.  The changes Know Bull! heralded in 2010, are now poised to become reality.

We're only one third of the way through 2013, and there's been an explosion of information about workplace bullying. These days you can't pick up a paper or magazine, watch a current affairs or morning news show, or even read an online news site without coming across something to do with bullying...or how some organisation, psychologist, group, law firm, or 'guru' can help people deal with it.  Previously relegated to the 'we're not interested pile', now it seems that workplace bullying...is the new 'little black dress'.  

The increase in awareness about workplace bullying is a good thing, but hopefully all this white noise doesn't dilute the message that to eradicate workplace bullying - action needs to be taken.  We still have a way to go.  There's still far too many hard working and competent employees being 'burned at the stake' - based solely on the manipulations and fabricated 'underperformance claims' directed at 'targets' by every workplace bully.  All too often 'targets' are expected to solve a problem they didn't create, nor invite...a problem that can rarely be solved without addressing the culture of an organisation.

Know Bull! still stands by our message that Workplace Bullies are far too expensive to keep!  And every day - workers, their families, and workplaces - are bearing the health-related and financial costs of keeping the workplace bully.  It's not easy for a 'target' to break the silence about the workplace bullying they're enduring, and speaking directly to a workplace bully is not only ill advised, but fraught with the possibility of increased bully retaliation.  This is why the Know Bull! website came into being.

In the menus at the top of this page you'll find the offerings of Know Bull! These include: Anti-Bullying (by design), which provides the bully 'target' (or those interested in preventing workplace bullying) with a low-effort way to raise bullying and anti-bullying awareness via anti-bullying products in our online store; a Resources and Information section, which includes audio files, videos, tips & hints, articles, research and other items offering information about workplace bullying, and our Corporate Services which include various tools to raise awareness in the workplace; keynote speech, seminar and workshop services; and the design and implementation of anti-bullying workplace policy, strategies, and remedies.

You'll also find other items such as a school kids' zone, bullying facts and stats, and we've just added a FREE App, which we encourage our website visitors to download, and SMS to friends and colleagues. And if you don't have an iPhone, Blackberry, or Android device - the App can also be viewed online by Mac and PC.

Finally, there's also a page containing 'quick' web polls - where Know Bull! seeks the opinions of their web visitors, and which assist in the ongoing development of the Know Bull! website.  

Take a look around the Know Bull! website - use what you need - and don't forget to make a note of 'Workplace Bullying Awareness Month' throughout June, and in particular... Know Bull! Day on 03 June 2013.

   

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