SWE - Winter 2009 - (Page 32) A Zogby International poll found that 37 percent of American workers, or 54 million people, had been bullied at work, and that bullying was four times more prevalent than illegal forms of harassment. them in an appropriate style that suits them. Join informal activities such as workplace athletic teams or golf to stay part of the team. Amber Huffman, principal engineer at Intel’s Storage Technologies Group and a panelist at the technical plenary session, “Women Engineers as Change Agents,” at SWE’s annual conference in Baltimore, offered insight. She said she has learned to be “calm, collected, and have my points down, fact by fact,” to get her message across in a mostly male environment. Huffman, whose master’s degree from Stanford University is in electrical engineering and whose undergraduate degree is in computer engineering from the University of Michigan, said she has learned that others in a meeting will recognize when a man tries to “speak over” or shout down a woman. “People will be siding with your position if you give it in a clear, articulate, and wellthought-out way and with credibility,” Huffman said. “Never attack the other person. Simply state facts, and you cannot go wrong.” Huffman has never had a direct supervisor who bullied her, but she has had to convince superiors to support her position on issues. She has learned that she may need to build a consensus for her position among the higherup’s “influencers” before she can convince the person who needs convincing. “It’s sometimes better to see who influences that person and whom the person listens to,” she said. “The higher-up is more likely to listen to people he or she has relied on over time. Make sure the key influencers are part of your network. Explain why your idea is good for them. Find ways that your needs can dovetail with theirs.” Similarly, Huffman has learned to debrief people who may be threatened by her ideas. “If you first talk with five key stakeholders among a committee of 10 or 20 or even 100, and convince them why your idea is good for them, it gives a whole new credibility to the argument with everyone else.” Huffman concedes that she wants everyone to like her. “It’s always a bit of a shock to me when people don’t like me,” she said. “But if you’re doing your job correctly, your agenda won’t be the same as others’. Try to realize it’s about work,” she advised. Citing popular wisdom, she said, “Guys are good at games. They fight and [appear to] hate each other, and then say, ‘Let’s go out and have a beer.’” If these strategies are impossible, build relationships with people who will support you, she said. Fighting a seemingly uphill battle Bryant, the SWE Fellow who wrote the oped article, is a life member of SWE’s Dallas Section and recipient of SWE’s Distinguished Service Award. She said many female engi32 SWE WINTER 2009 neers believe they should stay low-key about career problems. “It’s hard to find a supportive network to help you through,” said Bryant, of Lubbock, Texas, referring to her experiences in the past. Bryant worked for one company for 20 years, and then worked for four companies and as a consultant until she retired at age 62. She never found peace. She was confronted by saboteurs, game players, and back stabbers. Through it all, she felt isolated. Interestingly, men aren’t always the problem, Bryant said. One young woman started ugly rumors about her, for example. Bryant carved out a successful career in spite of the hurdles, and she has dedicated herself to ensuring that the engineering industry takes notice of workplace-harassment issues. She tackled the issue at a time when women were a far rarer sight in the engineering field than they are today. Bryant was reminded of her own experiences when LeEarl Bryant , P.E. a young engineer recently confided that she was experiencing similar bullying, which prompted Bryant to increase her activism on the subject. “Women ought to be able to be themselves in their jobs and make positive contributions,” Bryant said. Bullying is in fact widespread. The Workplace Bullying Institute (www.bullyinginstitute.org) sponsored a Zogby International poll that found that 37 percent of American workers, or 54 million people, had been bullied at work, and that bullying was four times more prevalent than illegal forms of harassment. The poll also found that 72 percent of bullies are bosses; women are targeted by bullies in 57 percent of the cases; and for 45 percent of bullied targets, stress affects their health. The poll comprised 7,740 online interviews of a representative panel of the U.S. adult population, and was conducted Aug. 10-13, 2007. Because 45 percent of Americans claimed to not have experienced or seen workplace bullying, the Workplace Bullying Institute said in a September 2007 report that it believed the issue is a “silent epidemic” that invokes fear. “Eventually, the shame and fear associated with (bullying) will diminish and bullying will lose its taboo status,” the institute said. “Over time, it will be easier to speak about its occurrence and to shame its perpetrators to stop.” Part of the problem is that 32 percent of those bullied said it occurred behind closed doors, where no one else could see it. The poll also found that women bullies are slightly more likely than men bullies to enlist the help of others to “gang up” on their targets. http://www.bullyinginstitute.org
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