Printout found in a storage box.

Lately I’ve been sorting through a lot of papers and files that I’ve stored in boxes for years. Such was the case over the weekend, when I found a printout of an online interview featuring a social psychologist that changed the trajectory of my life and career.

During the spring of 1998, when the internet and the World Wide Web were still shiny new things, I stumbled upon an online interview with Dr. Gary Namie, who was talking about something he called workplace bullying. He explained that his wife, Dr. Ruth Namie, a clinical psychologist, had been experiencing a form of severe, ongoing, targeted mistreatment at her place of employment, an HMO, that they couldn’t quite name.

It wasn’t sexual harassment, and it wasn’t discrimination. They searched around and found that the term workplace bullying was being used in England to describe exactly what Ruth was enduring. They also learned that a related term, workplace mobbing, had been popularized in Sweden.

The Namies would take this new-found knowledge to create what they called the Campaign Against Workplace Bullying, later to become the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) which remains the foremost North American resource on workplace bullying.

***

I read that interview and my head was exploding. I knew instantly that the Namies were on to something with this “workplace bullying” thing. I would track down their phone number and call them, asking if they had explored legal protections for workplace bullying targets. They said no, that this was a project for later. At present, they were running a free hotline for those who had been bullied at work.

I offered to start researching the legal implications of workplace bullying under U.S. employment and labor law, and the Namies were happy to accept my offer. This substantial research project would result in a long law review article documenting the lack of legal protections for so many targets of severe workplace bullying, published two years later in the Georgetown Law Journal (link here). 

***

On origin stories: During the ongoing process of culling the amount of printed material in my possession, I’m often finding stuff that brings back significant memories. Some recall certain origin stories, i.e., those moments that led to significant, defining things in my life.  This is the first of three that I’ll be sharing on this blog, including lessons learned from them. 

If asked to describe the key piece of my origin story in terms of doing this anti-bullying work and devoting a substantial portion of my career to it, then reading that interview would be it. At the time, I was a junior law professor, just getting my scholarly agenda in workers’ rights and employment law & policy off the ground. The aforementioned Georgetown Law Journal piece was the final scholarly entry in my tenure portfolio, and gave me considerable momentum towards what would be a positive tenure vote. It also would lead to my drafting the anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill. Moreover, my outreach to the Namies opened the door to a friendship and an association that has continued to this day.

***

Lessons: So what are some of the lessons of this origin story?

• Surf around for stuff pertinent to your interests. Type in those search requests and click around a bit.
• When you do find something that interests you, dig deeper, reach out, and be willing to contribute to the body of work surrounding it.
• If you discover a compelling, unexplored foray that others may have missed or haven’t yet found, then seize the opportunity to take a lead role, being both bold and responsible about it.

***

Recommended podcast episode: In 2022, I interviewed Gary and Ruth for their WBI podcast series, asking them about their origin story concerning their invaluable work. You may access it here.