Anti-Bullying
(Transcript below)
Have you ever been bullied in the workplace? I have. It was confusing. In my head, I left bullying at high school. Nope! It was uncomfortable and I had no idea what I had done to this person. This person would steal my sales, speak down to me. One time they literally took my chair and told me to sit on the floor... Not even joking.
Bullying has a dramatic impact on mental health.
I was able to manage the situation after months of horrendous behaviour. However, bullying is still a huge problem in workplaces and can cause a lot of turmoil in an organisation. I'm really excited to be speaking to one of my favourite people on #linkedin, Rebecca Brown from Thinkwow who is an anti-bullying advocate!
I'm excited!
Have a listen and make sure to subscribe to stay updated!
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You can find the full LIVE here on my YouTube Channel (where you can also catch them LIVE).
Can't Miss Links From The Podcast:
- The Calling Bullsh*t On Your Diet (Plan)
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Transcripts:
Katie 0:04
And we are live. So welcome back to the Get Your Sh*t Together Live Show and today I am speaking to one of my favorite people from one of my favorite duos. Rebecca Brown from Think Wow. So if you don't know I actually spoke to Rebecca's husband a few weeks ago in regards to talking about burnout and sales teams. And now I'm talking to Rebecca about anti bullying and bullying within the workplace and just bullying in general. And so Rebecca is an anti bullying advocate and I do not think there's a better person to speak to so welcome to the get your--Get Your Sh*t Together Live Show. How are you?
Rebecca 0:44
I'm great! Thanks, Katie. What a lovely introduction.
Katie 0:48
You're welcome. You're welcome.
Rebecca 0:51
I'll come back if you say nice things about me.
Katie 0:54
Just shower you with just, you know, just kindness, everything like that. So I think today we are I think today talking about bullying and talking about anti bullying movements and things like that. It's such an important time, especially because this past year, if we really look at it, you know, kid, if we look at children going to school, the children that were getting bullied from school haven't been at school. So you know, they've, they've had a bit of you know, reprise from that. But then you've got them going back to school. So how do we manage that? And then we've got the added, you know, the added issue with workplace bullying as well, which is also a huge issue. So I don't think there's any more better time to talk about bullying than the now. So how, how did you become an anti bullying advocate? Like what made you want to get into that?
Rebecca 1:41
Yeah, it's really strange, actually, it very much happened kind of organically. I've been bullied horrendously, in my life, I was bullied as a teenager, and then again, bullied in the workplace when I first sort of entered the working world, and it had a huge impact on my life. And I didn't really deal with that. I don't think until this last year, when I became a lot more active on LinkedIn, and started sharing some of my personal stories. And I shared some stories about being bullied. And I was just really overwhelmed by the response, I had so many people commenting so many people messaging me directly to sort of say that my story resonated with them. And sadly, a lot of them were actually stuck in that place, right there and then, and they wanted advice. And I didn't really feel like I was qualified to give advice. I sort of thought, Well, you know, I don't, I've been bullied, but you know, I was bullied. So what can I possibly do to help you get out of it? If I couldn't even really get myself out of it, I suppose. But the more people that reached out to me, the more I got this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, that actually that wasn't good enough, I couldn't, I couldn't just keep telling them away saying, Well, I don't, I don't really know, I can't, I can't really help you. So we decided that through our business, we would do something about it. And although the business is not related to bullying at all, we set up a page just signposting people to really useful resources from people who actually do know what they're talking about. And started offering businesses a free anti bullying health check that they could use to assess whether or not there stuff felt safe or not. And it sort of went from there really.
Katie 3:22
That's amazing. I mean, for people that who are watching who don't really know what you do. So what does Think Wow do?
Rebecca 3:29
Yeah, so, we work with businesses to effectively help them attract, win and retain customers where a customer experience consultancy predominantly. But the one thing we have found working with businesses is that there's such a huge link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction that actually keeping your staff happy and healthy is one of the most critical factors that you can you can get right. So although it's not a direct link, actually, if you've got staff who have who have been bullied and who are feeling really scared to come to work, your customers are probably going to be suffering too. So it kind of links in a little bit with that.
Katie 4:06
Yeah, I was going to say like, I know that you did a lot of customer service stuff when I was like, You know what, like, if you're going into work feeling unsafe, and you're getting bullied in the workplace, and we'll get to this as well. The ability to be able to do your job effectively. And, you know, customer service people let's get real, they have a really tough job they dealing with, obviously they're dealing with good, they're dealing with good customers, but the old thing, then handling objections to handling, you know, uncomfortable conversations and, and, you know, negative feedback, essentially, and they're at the front line of thought and so if you're getting bullied on top of that, it's got to be a really stressful, stressful kind of role. So I can I can only imagine like that it has to be linked at the end of the day. So I was reading up on some on some statistics before about bullying in the workplace and at school. So it actually says that a fifth of young school children are actually they feel like they've been bullied, and that 33% of them have actually had suicidal thoughts. Which is really that's, that's crazy. I'm not I'm not the scares that so, so, so scary. So what do you think some of the biggest reasons for that is like, what do you recommend some of the reasons that people are getting bullied. I mean, I remember when I was at school, I got bullied at school, I actually got bullied more aggressively in the workplace, which I'm more than happy to talk about. But what do you think is really playing into this bullying statistic?
Rebecca 5:28
Yeah, I think there are so many factors. And I think that's, that's part of the problem is that because there are so many factors, that it's harder to tackle, it's harder to sort of pinpoint one thing or another. But I think certainly, stress levels in individuals play a huge part of it, because you've got the kind of accidental bullies who don't even really realize that they're doing it, but they're stressed themselves, they've maybe got some problems at home, they maybe have been bullied at home. You know, bullying doesn't just exist in schools and in the workplace, it exists within within the household too, which is just absolutely tragic. Because there are some people out there who just don't get that reprieve ever. But you know, it's quite often a sign that something is stressful for that for that individual, for that child, there is something going on that is causing them some significant fear. And bullying is often a way for them to reach out and try and sort of grab some control, grab, grab a little bit of power back. So I think that's certainly one factor. But I honestly think that, you know, society plays a bit of a role in it. And I think we have really allowed victims to blame themselves for far, far too long. You know, if you speak to anybody about their burning experience as a child, and you say to them, you know, what happened? Why were you bullied? None of them ever say, Oh, I was bullied because my bully was really insecure. They all say, Oh, I was bullied because I was a bit fat, or I was bullied. Or because I had ginger hair, or I stood out of the crowd, because I was really, really tall. They always say I was bullied because of I. And we just allow that. Well, I Oh, yeah, God, that must have been really tough. No one says, whoa, hang on a minute. No, no, no, that's not why you were bullied, that bully would have found someone to pick on regardless of who it was. It's It was never about you. Not for one minute, it was always about them. And their need to sort of balance that imbalance of power that they're feeling deep inside. So I think yeah, if we can, if society as a whole can really put their foot down and stop victims from taking that on themselves. Maybe children start to stop seeing those issues as a reason to be bullied and maybe start embracing it and being more confident about the things that make them different.
Katie 7:40
Yeah, you know, it's really interesting. You ask people, it's like, you know, why were you bullied? It's like, why are we even asking us? Like, what would you like, you know, changing just to this simple language, right? It's like, why does one bully like what, like, you know, what happened? Rather than, you know, why were you bullied? And actually, because even just that language alone is actually giving you like, the idea of like, what was I bullied and thinking about your thinking, but you're, you're thinking, like, why am I getting bullied? And you know, from somebody that's been bullied? Like, I get, yes, I was bullied in school, but in the workplace, and it was just so confusing. I was just like, I have no idea what's going on. Like, I have no idea what's happening. I think that you're just changing the narrative of going like, okay, you know, if you're in the workplace, at least, when you're a bit older, you have the ability, you might have the emotional awareness to actually go hang out, hang on a second, this isn't me. But you actually said something really interesting about the stress response, which is, obviously something that I talk a lot about stresses, stress is my jam, I talk a lot about the impact that stress has on the body and the mind. (Yeah) But that is a really big element. So when we look at bullies, and we can go into a bit more depth about this a bit later, but when we're looking at bullies, a lot of the times it's understanding what why they have a bad behavior, it's a bad behavior, they've gotten into a bad habit of putting other people down, or whatever it is they're trying to do, whether it's for control, or whether they're just trying to shift, you know, someone's made them really, really bad. And it's their way of coping. It's not okay, like, I'm not saying like, you know, let's just put our arms around bullies and be like, your behaviors. Okay, right. Now, I understand you've had a rough back, I was like, No, no, your behavior is really inappropriate. Where's that behavior coming from? But stress does that, right? So being able to be able to sort of talk about it that way. And rather than saying you're a bad person, because you're a bully, talking about bullies, it's actually your behavior is really bad right now. Like, if you were talking to kids, you don't say you're a bad kid, you say that behavior is inappropriate right now. Right? So having having that awareness as well, but as adults, that's easier than being a kid because when you're a kid, you just feel singled out and you just don't understand why that is.
Rebecca 9:39
Yeah, definitely. And I continue to to an extent even as an adult, you know, I was not prepared for bullying in the workplace. I think I had a level of naivety there that bullying was a childhood problem and that as adults we know better. You know, once I left school behind that was when I was going to be safe, and I really didn't see it coming in the workplace and I think it took me too long. To recognize it as bullying, you know, I tried for too long to change the situation myself by just working harder by just trying to be a little bit more likeable by just kind of trying to second guess what my, what my crazy boss was gonna ask me to do next and sort of be ready for her. And it didn't work, because nothing I did would have been good enough for her. You know, she was she she had a problem with me. And it was, you know, it took me a lot by surprise. But yeah, I think understanding that the problem is with the bully, if I'd have understood that from a lot younger, it would have helped me. And it certainly has helped me to be able to move past my experiences of being bullied, because having just that tiny bit of empathy for them, it just kind of helps you let go of the anger, you know, otherwise, it's very easy to just really sit in that place of why me Why did it happen? How could you know, what did I do wrong, and if you know, it was never about you in the first place, and you can maybe feel a little bit sorry for them for what they've got going on in their head, it really is a powerful place to get to,
Katie 11:02
well, it actually helps you guys, it prevents you going down that rabbit hole getting on the hamster wheel of going what's wrong with me and trying to fix everything that you think it might be at the end of the day, you're like trying to fix things that it doesn't even matter what you do, it doesn't make any sense, because that's actually not the problem. So you're spending all your time and energy and your emotional energy on something that isn't even going to solve the problem. So you and I are actually talking off camera for a little bit about what like, well, like, you know, I was talking about my experience with billing, which we'll talk about as well, which I'm happy to have to discuss. But you were saying like, were you even aware of it. So you even said I didn't even know, it was like, you know, we didn't even know it was billing and I think there's a lot of people out there that either a monad even like they feel like something's wrong, but they're like, is this bullying? I'm not quite sure. Or some people see bullying in a really different life. So I wanted to sort of have a bit more chat about how you how you realize it was bullying, you know, you didn't realize straight away. So like, how did you come to the realization of going Holy crap, I'm getting bullied, like, what, like, how was that process? Yeah, I
Rebecca 12:03
think actually, hindsight was was a really powerful tool when it comes to that. And I don't know that I even really thought I was being bullied there. And then even up to the point where I left the second job, I was being bullied. And I think I, you know, I definitely thought I've got a horrible boss. But for a really long time, I actually, I would say quite openly to my husband, I'd be looking at a job. And I'd find that the person who I'd be working directly for would be a woman. And I'd say I probably shouldn't apply for that I don't really get on that well with women. And I was still very much kind of this is about me, I just don't really I don't click with women, women don't like me. And actually, it took having some fantastic female bosses, for me to recognize that that just wasn't the case. I had just been really unlucky. And I found a couple of women who had some serious problems. But I think, again, society has a lot to be a lot to be responsible for, you know, when you consider the training that we have to prepare us for the workplace, the training that we have to get into the working world, it doesn't exist, you know, we don't we don't learn how to be an employee, before we get our first ever job, we learn on the job, we are effectively apprentices at being in the workforce. And so actually, before I'd ever even started working, I had been exposed organically to some really seriously negative stereotypes to leaders through TV through films. You know, if you think about some of the some of the programs that we watch, and that we we tune into in the millions, you know, some of the best grossing programs on TV, have very toxic leaders publicly shouting people down publicly telling them that they're worthless that they, they've done a terrible job. And, you know, we applaud these people as strong leaders. And we keep tuning in. And I think that gives people such a negative grounding, because they then get into the workplace. And when someone talks to them like that, it feels like that's okay. It feels like that's normal, and it doesn't feel good. They still feel really awful about themselves for hearing those hideous things said to them for hearing a horrible tone of voice. But no one knows to challenge the fact Yeah, that's just not the way to lead. You know, where's where's the constructive criticism? Where's the help? Where's the where's the training? It's not about balling people out and telling them that they're worthless, that doesn't achieve anything.
Katie 14:24
Yeah. And I think that that comes down to like my, like poor management training as well. Something that I talk a lot about just within my work and what I what I do, especially talking about stress and leaders and how that can impact sales teams or teams in general. It's the management training there, right? And I think you're right, like every single TV program that is anything to be related to work. You see bosses yelling and screaming at their employees and it's just been normalized and I say the most horrendous things and sometimes it's funny for us as old as the audience, but those things do get sad like in the boardroom, and and in the sales rooms. and things like that, you know, some of like, you know, I remember in a workplace I actually got told if, if you can't like I, I think one of my things was crazy crazy. But this is just an example of a manager, not bullying but probably not saying the most constructive thing that could be construed as bullying. But I remember, I've done to 18 hour days, I would done a third, my third day was a 12 hour day before that I was doing another 12 hour day, I think in the middle of the fourth hour day, I was like, you know, I just really need to have like just an hour break, because I wasn't really having breaks. And my manager turned around and said, If you can't handle this job, maybe you should leave. And in my head, I'm like, I am like, a hard working person. I was in sales, hitting all my target cells over chain, shaving all of those things, but have that said to me, you know, you see those things on TV, and I was just like, what the heck is happening? Like, did we talk about, you know, I've worked well, I think, like, it was like, you know, I'd work like 60 hours in like four days. I'm like I was I didn't have like a doctor's job. I wasn't doing anything crazy. I was just in a sales job. And I but the thing is that kind of conversation, I do not blame my manager for that I actually blame the fact that they weren't probably trained properly. They didn't have they thought that that was motivational. And I'm like, that's not motivation at all. Like, I just want to walk out of here and come back. But okay, but I think it does come down to that to that management, that management training as well. And I think it's really important that you guys have, especially when you're going into businesses going, Hey, here's the other thing, right? How often do you think managers actually go out and have an issue with bullying in the workplace? Yet, if we look at some of the latest studies coming out that 71% of UK employees have felt bullied in the last three years? So how many managers do you reckon turn around agree? I don't have a problem with bully, my team is amazing that I don't get bullied. I mean, I would,
Rebecca 16:51
I would say the vast majority. And that was why we produced the the anti bullying health check. Because actually, the The problem is, is that most people think they don't have a problem with bullying. Most people think they aren't a bully. Most people think they haven't witnessed bullying. And there are so many different types of bullying that can go on. And you know, some of it can be very, very subtle, very, very kind of long term sustained low volume attacks that sometimes are done in private. And actually, it's it isn't about do you think you've got a problem with bullying? It's about do your staff feel safe? And if you're not prepared to even ask that question, do my staff feel safe? That should be a warning flag. You know, what, what are you trying to achieve? Because Surely it's better to be able to say hand on heart, I asked my staff, do they feel safe? And they said yes. Or even I asked my staff? Do they feel safe? And they've said actually, not really. And now I know what to do I know how to fix that, than it is to say, yeah, I think I think my staff are fine, I'm just going to assume they're fine. Because really, their well being isn't that important.
Katie 17:54
The other thing is as well, where it's bearing head in the sand, they don't want to know the end. So they want to just be like, Ah, you know, like, the problem, I don't have to deal with it, right? It's that whole, like ignoring it and bring the head in the sand, which doesn't, which isn't productive at all. And I think that that's something that what you guys are doing and just having that that check. Having that just you know, even that just that little survey, it's like do my stuff, you'll say, super, super important, because a lot of the times I would say managers won't even be aware. And here's the thing, they could be actually the ones pulling and not even know that know that they're doing it because it's been so normalized, to be able to say, Do what I say, and I can treat you however I want. Because there's a hierarchy or system in place. Yeah, that doesn't make it doesn't always, it's not conducive to healthy workplace, or a healthy outcome for whatever you're trying to achieve. So if you've got, you know, people that have to work on deadlines, or they have targets or whatever it is, you're not going to achieve them like like, what is it you're going here here for as well. So I think that that's something that is, it's just important to say, but we're also talking about off camera and you just sort of mentioned it a little bit. There's some people just aren't aware that they might be bullying. And you know, I was telling you about my story where I worked in this industry where this person bullied me relentlessly from day one. Literally, I walked into this office, and I have no idea what set this person off and why they were so horrible to me. But they were I mean, the first weekend, if you saw the LinkedIn post, this person literally took my chair and told me to sit on the floor. At this stage. I'm 30 years old, and I'm looking at around going I left high school, what 15 years ago 15 years ago, and everyone in the office saw it and no one said anything can I was kind of like is this just normal behavior and in my head I was like, okay, like obviously this person has a problem. I'm not sure what it is. But it went on for four months and went on for four months not this person didn't steal my chair every day. But they would do other things like steal my sales they would like for right me in front of people belittle me in front of in front of people. It got so bad But other people from other management departments were going up to my manager going, you have a huge issue on your hand. That's how it was so bad, but other people felt compelled people from other countries were coming and going. Now you got a problem here. Yeah, I remember speaking to my manager about it. And they pretty much said, You're a big girl, you can handle it. But at the end of the day, the person wasn't receptive to hearing that kind of feedback. Right? And so you were saying to me, um, you know, do you think she knew, like you were talking about? Are they? Are they a bully? And it's like, Well, yeah, but they would that person think that they were being a bully? That person had no idea. So when they got told you bullying Katie, that person was like, Am I really like, I think I'm up. I'm a bully. But yeah, it is a big thing. Oh, Rafi microaggressions microaggressions is such a thing, right? They are.
Rebecca 20:50
And it you know, it doesn't need to be big for someone to start to feel really insecure around someone, you know, when I was bullied in the second. And last job I was bullied in and you know, she, she would just make snide remarks all the time. And, and you know, as I was working in it, it was a retail job. And in the contract, it actually stipulated that we had to wear heels, no smaller than three inches at all times. Okay, so I was
Katie 21:18
getting great feedback and grind
Rebecca 21:21
my feet all day long, every day wearing these massive heels in tiny little pencil skirts. And we had a delivery to unpack. And you know, when you're unpacking a delivery, it's huge big boxes, you're lugging them around a great big dirty stockroom in my heels and my pencil skirts. And normally, when my when my manager wasn't there, I just kicked my heels off, and I'd have just been doing it barefoot, and it would have been fine. But she was there. And so I kind of just carried on doing this, this delivery and ended up tripping over a box and looking at flying across the room. And she just looked at me and she just went, you're not very practical are you? And I was just like, would be in this scenario, you know, and in high heels and a pencil skirt doing a delivery who is going to be you know, really handy and really practical. But you know, it all added up. Yeah, and actually the culmination for me. And at that point, like I said, I still don't even really think I recognized I was being bullied, I just knew I wasn't happy with the way I was being treated. Was that I, I had some holiday booked at the end of the month, and we had a really big target to hit. And we were nowhere close. And as the store manager, I couldn't just go off on holiday and be like, see you guys over to you fix it. So the week before my holiday, I'd literally spent the whole week phoning through all our VIP customers to invite them in for a special showcase to spacey say, we've got some fantastic new lines, come on in for a coffee, a glass of wine glass of champagne, have a little look, have some fun, bring some of your girlfriends, if you like them fantastic. If not, then it would just be lovely to see you. So I invited about 35 of these VIPs to come in during the course of the week made sure that we had enough stock in in that they'd have liked and had it all really set up so that the team would basically just be able to know what they had to do. And I came back from my holiday and it had gone really, really well. And that's obviously testament to the team. They'd all worked really hard, they get Ben on top of it. But all she could say to me was it's no shock that the one week you're not in the business is the week where we sell them out the most, you know, it's clear. And then she turned around and said to me, your assistant manager could do your job in her sleep. And at that point, I was just like, wow.
Katie 23:39
Even like regressions there. Yeah.
Rebecca 23:48
It's crazy. And you know, ultimately, the bottom line was, I was a store manager, I trained my staff. Well, we had hit target and I still couldn't please her. So you know, you look at behavior like that. And if people don't, like you say they've not had the training, you know, she did? Yeah, the training if she'd have been champion herself, I think often. Certainly my experience has been that actually the people who have believed me most in the workplace have been the people who potentially felt a little bit threatened by by me and by my ambitions. And I, I never had my ambitions and maybe that was maybe that was my failing, but you know, I would be quite open to sort of say, look, I'd love to have your job one day, please teach me Please tell me how you've got to where you are. I'd love to learn from you. But I guess that maybe put a bit of a target on my back.
Katie 24:34
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, that wasn't your failing that was just essentially you showing that you actually want to grow within the business and and do things like that. And it was the way that was perceived. Right? You know, one of my favorite quotes ever is, perception is reality. So whatever is the other person's perception is their reality and might not be ours. And we have no idea how they've gotten there. But it's so important to understand that and a lot of the times when, like we've said, you know, like from friends Since a lot of the times when I've been bullied at people at a couple of other times in other workplaces, a lot of the time it was because someone else felt threatened. And it was just like, Well, I have no idea what you're talking about, I'm just gonna focus on myself or to my own thing, but it does become a huge issue. But when we're looking at what we can do about it, I think that, you know, like, I don't know what your thoughts are, but do you think it needs to be a top down solution here? Do you think it needs to come from the top down and actually getting the owners or the or the management to actually be able to go hang on a second, let's get my emotional intelligence up a little bit higher. So I can see what I'm doing and how my behaviors impact other people. And then train staff like what like, which way do you think it's should go?
Rebecca 25:42
I think in a perfect world, yes, 100%, it should start from the top, it should filter down, it should be embedded in the culture, I think the problem you have is that actually is the problem goes all the way up to the top, they are the kind of people who want to self reflect, they're not necessarily the sort of people who want to learn how they could do better. You know, I think, often there there can be a problem in sort of smaller businesses where it is maybe kind of that that almost family culture, you've got someone owning the business, who maybe wasn't a senior leader in another business, before they owned the business, they might have inherited it from parents, maybe maybe they started the business themselves. And if they've not had any kind of management training, that does leave them open to potentially going down some negative paths. And it's really difficult as an employee, if you're working for the owner, to be able to say to them, actually, I feel bullied, because what are they going to do? You know, they turn around and say, oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry, let me change my behavior? Or are they going to say, actually, it's easier to find someone else to fill your shoes? So I think that that's one of the biggest issues. But essentially, I think the first place to start is just to assess Is there a problem? Do your staff feel safe? And once you've asked that question, do your staff understand what your anti bullying and harassment policy is? Do they know where to find it? Do they know who they can report things to? Do they even know what the signs are to look for? I think it has to be a company wide initiative to educate on what bullying is all the different secret little ways it can happen and how to challenge it, you know, there are some safe ways that you can become an active bystander, and not just witnessed bullying, but helped to intervene in a way that doesn't then paint the target on your own back. So really, for me, it has to be led from the top employees need to know that it's being taken seriously. And they won't, if they're being told, on the one hand, don't bully, but then they see the managers bullying, you know, that doesn't send a great message. But essentially, if you can educate on the signs, how to change it. And you know, maybe actually, even as I'm talking, I'm thinking this is, maybe this is not not right. I think, you know, the problem is, is that by the time people get into the working world, they're often entrenched in their own attitudes. Yeah, actually, it starts at home. It starts with reasons. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. schools need to talk about educate.
Katie 28:05
Yeah, so I normally like I remember when I was at school, it was like, if you got bullied, it was like, Oh, just ignore it. Like, I remember the advice that I would get, it's like, just ignore it. They'll get bored, they you know, they'll stop after a while and and just go on your merry way. But here's the difference when we were at school, like I don't know, like, I think we're around the same age when we went to school, in primary school, and even most of high school as well. We didn't have social media, we didn't have phones, we literally would go to school, if we got bullied, we would then have a safe place to go home. And I think that will actually I'm gonna ask you, do you think that evolution I think it's pretty obvious the evolution of technology? Do you think bullying has become a lot worse, and it's more? It's more damaging now than it was when we were kids? You know, what, I'm not gonna give our age away. But like, back when we did when the phones was not a thing that
Rebecca 28:55
dinosaurs roamed? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, I was I was pretty much on the cusp of it. And I was actually talking to my mom the other day, and I had completely blocked it out of my mind. And I think maybe to protect myself, I don't know. But she we were talking about when I was bullied at school and kind of the the tipping point. And in my mind, the tipping point for me was kind of I just got to the point where I was saying, I was ill every day I wouldn't go to school. I was just like, you know, I don't want to go to school today. I've got a sore tummy or I've got a headache. And eventually it kind of culminated in me telling my mom that I was being bullied. That was my recollection, her recollection was that I got death threats via email from some people at school. And that that was when I went to her to say Actually, I don't feel safe to go to school. And I was like, what I, I literally don't remember it, I just I have no idea. And you know, that was an email. And that was about as high tech as it was. I'd have had to have sat there for 10 minutes to dial up on my dial up internet and to even get that email now with so Media with mobile phones. It's just constant. And it's, you know, it's a barrier in between the emotional reality from it as well. I think, yeah, troll strangers online because it doesn't feel like they're hurting a real human. So, you know, I saw a BBC article about a woman who had been publicly shamed, I think, I can't even remember what it was. I think she I think she was quite a large woman. And basically, she just had stranger after stranger telling her that she didn't deserve to be alive that she was hideous to look at. And she'd never met those people. But they felt like they had a right to wade in on her life, just because she was on social media. So yeah, it's it's far worse than it's ever been.
Katie 30:44
Yeah, I I agree with that. I think technology's just made it easier for people to let you they're allowed in your house. At the end of the day, there are a lot of new safezone Yeah. And here's the thing, though, I think that, you know, it's one thing, kids doing the bullying online, because they don't know anything better than growing up on there. So it's actually, I think you're right, going back to children, educating kids in the house. And it's, it's, it's a jewel thing, right? It's like, this is acceptable, this isn't acceptable. So if you, for instance, for the kids that are on the receiving end of it, it's like this isn't acceptable behavior, you have to let us know, this is the things that you know, safeguarding your kids, this is what you can do to the these are the opportunities. Now, I know, schools are coming out with a lot of anti bullying stuff, which we just did not have when we were growing up, which I think is really good. But I think also educating kids the power of their words and educating them going when you say these things you can really, really hurt people and building up that understanding of just because it's on a text, just because it's from like, you know, a message or whatever it is, those words still have power. And that's really important for them to understand. And I think educating that from a really young age, because I think that technology isn't going going to go anywhere. It's just going to evolve and get more intense. Let's be real. But helping kids educate bullying in the classroom, outside of the classroom, acceptable behavior, not acceptable behavior, and sort of creating more of an emotional intelligence. I think that that that's something that, like when I'm looking at bullying, it's an emotional intelligence here. So Rafi has said empathy, active listening, being non judgmental has never been taught. Literally what we're just saying, say thank you, fa. But, you know, I think that educate, I think we need to have a bit more of a push on emotional intelligence and building that up, rather than focusing on other things as well. Like, what what do you think?
Rebecca 32:32
I absolutely agree, I think learning how to be a considerate human being is so important. And you know, our children are really young, we've got a two year old and an almost four year old, but the almost four year old this year, effectively experienced her first perpetual unkindness, and I'm not gonna say it was bullying, because it was a three and a half year old kid. And I just don't think that the the kind of aggression was behind it. But she got to the point where she wouldn't go to nursery. And when we raised it with nursery, they were kind of like, you know, it's six of one half dozen of the other. And that might well be the case. But our point was kind of like, Yeah, but it starts here, we have to, we have to collectively be taking it as our own responsibility to educate these kids that there are thoughts at the end of their actions and you know, no longer is it okay to say things like sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me, because that's just not true. So words are the worst part. You know, I mean, I remember verbatim some of the things that were said to me as a 13 year old kid, they still stay in my head now, because they were that hurtful to me, and they shaped so much how I saw myself growing up. Yeah, words are words are so powerful. So yeah, it has to start young. But I just I sort of, I guess I sort of feel a little bit like, maybe our curriculum is just a bit broken in places, you know, we I agree. I think it's great that people can spell and that they can do basic maths and that they know how to do these things. But if you think of the emphasis that's put on things like photocopy or even really in depth mathematical thing, mathematical problems, you know, if you're, if you're not going to be an engineer, or a mathematician, or someone who's going to be working with numbers, and you know that early on, because some people are not good at that I was terrible at math. So this is it and you know, I worked so hard to get my maths GCSE and I cried when I got to be at maths GCSE because I was like, I never have to do this again. Did I have to learn Pythagoras theorem? Did I have to learn algebra? Or could maybe, maybe could I have spent half an hour a week learning about, you know, emotional intelligence instead? Would that have been a better standard my time,
Katie 34:42
but I think that it starts you know, I think there has to be an element where we have to start teaching, teaching kids that and something that I've spoken a lot about, you know, with just my fiance, just with people just my network as well as understanding the action, action and consequences. element, there seems to be a lot less than If you see this in the workplace as well, where there's an action, and then there's no consequence or the consequences, that makes sense. So for instance, like, I think people actually just do things without even thinking it's like trolls, they do things without even thinking, or, like, kids do things without thinking, because there's no consequences behind it. And I, and I'm actually kind of, like, when I look at bullying, like, I actually think it's become like, a bigger problem than it has ever been. In my, in my personal in my personal opinion, I could be very wrong, it could still be just maybe we're speaking about it more. But I need to become, maybe. But I also, I also think that element of technology has made it that much worse. I think that we don't have that safe place anymore. Like you know, you get bullied at school face to face, and then you get home and you've just got your Instagram and your your messages or whatever, it is just full of just hateful things. But I think that there has to be an element of teaching people that agiou like action, in consequence, like your actions do have consequences you do make, you are actually creating some type of pain and what that looks like, again, that's just an emotional intelligence thing, which is actually saying, my behavior is impacting the people around me. And just understanding to what that element is. Because how many times have you heard somebody say, in the workplace, I know I have said this. I'm like, I really don't like you speaking to me, it's like, Yeah, but I'm just angry. It's like, that's okay. You're allowed your emotion, you're allowed to be angry. But I'm telling you, your behavior isn't okay.
Rebecca 36:27
Yeah, I would agree with that. And, you know, I think, halfway me maybe gone a little bit too far. The other way, you know, I sort of hear the phrase that, effectively no one can make you feel something, you feel something about something, but no one has made you feel that way. And I agree with it to a certain extent, you know, a certain extent you have control over how you receive things, and you have control over whether or not you take offense to something. But actually, if you're in the grips of being bullied, you don't have that level of like awareness, you don't have the ability to remove yourself from something and think, Oh, well, you know, actually, I have control over my feelings. So I'm going to choose whether or not I listen to these people who are calling me hideous and ugly. When it's happening every day, day in and day out, you start to hear it as your norm, or you start to believe it, you start to think it's true. And their comments do impact you. So I think there's almost a tendency for people to just be like, Oh, well, y