Coral snake management

"Red and yellow, kill a fellow; red and black, friend of Jack.”

That old rhyme can save your life. It illustrates the difference between two species of snake that look similar, but one is virulently venomous and the other is docile and harmless. Human behavior, relative to serpent taxonomy, is notoriously elusive to pin down. Too many ingredients that are not separable or even identifiable beyond a doubt.

The glorious flexibility of the English language is an open invitation for misappropriation and deliberately contorted interpretations. Although it is a reasonable assumption that "when it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck,” there are always lawyers on retainer, or other parsing specialists such as labor relations arbitrators, who "the system" allows to prove that the duck is actually a fire hydrant.

We can no longer be sure what the definition of "is" is, or what constitutes a woman, so how can aggrieved workers define what "bullying is" in a way that will survive the challenges and stick to management when alleged by its victims?

Miraculous and venal is the power that falls into the hands and rolls off the tongues of those who co-opt language and then exploit it for their own purposes. 

That's the obstacle that the Public Employees Federation (PEF) will need to overcome if their proposed legislation for New York State to create "uniform standards to define bullying and abusive conduct" is to prevail. There is no accord on definitions of fighting words. Pity.

All the employer needs to do is say that "intimidation” and "abuse" are in the eye of the beholder.  They will say that the worker's "perception" is an overreaction to management's prerogative to counsel workers on professional matters. They will try to turn the tables by whining that it is they, management, that are being "bullied" by workers.   

On the Americans for Fair Treatment website, there are such apocryphal accounts of unions bullying hapless employers. I suspect there are no skyscrapers that are taller than their tales.

The PEF's more than 50,000 members, serving in more than 3,000 titles across the state, are essential employees, many of whom are treated as disdained underlings by management. They include engineers, doctors, lawyers, IT specialists, nurses and parole officers. They are all "professionals,” but that is one of those words whose fluidity of definition plays into the management's hands.  

When they make unreasonable demands on employees, they flatter and appeal to the rank-in-file's "professionalism.” By otherwise treating them as human widgets, management forces what should be their prized assets a "work-to-rule" posture. Among the offenders singled out by the PEF are the state Department of Health and the Department of Medicaid.

Too often they commandeer words like "professionalism,” instill an alternate meaning that suits their purpose, and then capitalize on it during discipline hearings and collective bargaining.  Either they have no command of its concept or else the concept lends itself to the linguistic equivalent of carjacking. 

Another example is "divisive concepts.”

Many states now have "divisive concepts" laws that progressives view as code for censorship.  Conservatives deem those same laws as protection of free speech. All the workplace crimes of management can be twisted and neutralized by them. What exactly is bullying, intimidation, abuse, etc.? Can workers wounded by them bear up to cross-examination by devious pro-management advocating wordsmiths?

The PEF is testing whether there can be a statutory mechanism of enforcement to assure "respect and dignity" in the workplace. That would require actionable authority to correct obstreperous management.  

Union President Wayne Spence commended the state Assembly for passing the bill last year, but the bill remains in committee in the Senate. It is only the first step in a long stride to institutionalize a toxic-free job atmosphere. In an interview, Spence cited an example of a manager who allegedly impersonated a union member, blasted the union in an email to actual rank-in-file, and then got a promotion.

He also tells of workers being timed to determine how long they take to relieve themselves on the toilet and how expeditiously some of them lactate during breaktime. There is also a type of muted bullying, whereby bosses expect, in effect, their subordinates to be on 24-hour duty to process after-hours work-related calls and electronic texts.

There is also rampant favoritism, but formally asserting one's disparate treatment can be "cutting off the nose to spite one's face” because word travels fast and nobody likes a snitch, even when their cause is just.

Whistleblowers have been suspended without pay by retaliatory management. In this climate, is it any wonder that there are so many state job vacancies? Prospective new hires want to fill their bank accounts, not prescriptions for tranquilizers.

Supervisors have a legitimate role, but it is negated when exercised illegitimately.

Last month, with Governor Kathy Hochul's signature, new measures were enacted to protect workers from wage theft, mitigate disciplinary actions in some cases and help injured workers.  But they fall short. 

Whenever there is subjectivity in the determination of whether a worker has been abused, the power structure invariably gives management the benefit of the doubt.    

Unwarranted action by management will be validated, even upon appeal in many cases, because of embedded pro-management sympathies. Substantiation of complaints or exoneration of accused management is often along predictable lines.

That's even the case in such instances, cited by the union, as excessive monitoring, disparate treatment, isolation and exclusion, trivial, unrealistic or excessive assignments or deadlines, tone of communication, etc. The protection that workers get from the state's Human Rights Law is a porous shield. And the Office of Employee Relations Anti-Discrimination Investigation Division is at best a paper tiger. More like a paper possum.  

The avenues of redress are cul-de-sacs. 

State Senators Jessica Ramos and Robert Jackson co-sponsored the legislation that hopefully will put not only teeth, but also precision into a future law. They were among the supporters who joined the union in a recent public rally at the Empire State Plaza. 

Reptile fanciers point out that toxin-bearing snakes are not properly classifiable as poisonous.  They are venomous. But when they take the form of management, the difference is the same.  They need to be de-fanged.

That's a union job.

We depend on the support of readers like you to help keep our publication strong and independent. Join us.