By Jeff White, Induron Sales Manager
As a lifelong Miami Dolphins fan, the bullying story last week caught my attention. I think we can all agree that bullying is wrong. But sometimes there are gray areas as to what constitutes bullying. As more info on the Dolphins story comes out there are differing opinions with some saying that the two guys were great friends, but something went awry.
Having grown up playing football and then serving in the Army as a combat soldier, there is always a great deal of “teasing” until you prove your metal in most testosterone driven environments. Most of the time, it is good natured, but there are many times insecure people (as most bullies are) will carry it overboard. When that happens, the offended person has to defend themselves, or the leadership/group has to put a stop to it or it will continue and escalate.
In the past few years we have had many tragedies in our society attributed to bullying and hazing. I believe a few of things have led to this:
1. Loss of a moral compass for much of our society. A lot of folks just don’t know the difference in what is right or wrong.
2. We live in an offended society. Many people are just looking for something to be offended about.
3. Many times leaders are afraid or don’t know how to lead in these situations.
I do my best to live by one of the standards of my faith that most of us know as the Golden Rule, Luke 6:31 GNT “Do for others what you want them to do for you”.
Whether you are a religious person or not, I think we can all agree that if everyone lived by that standard, there would be no need for this blog post or the this article about how to avoid workplace bullying.