2rosebud

Great topic and very well researched and written-this is a subject I have had direct experience with having ultimately no choice but to resign and forfeit a fabulous state pension. I worked as an RN for about 18 years in the NY state prison system where moving up the ladder requires taking promotional exams and where seniority reigns. A male colleague hungry for power knew I would not back down from wanting a promotion took several female coworkers under his wing to undermine, bully and sabotage my career- this had been occurring a few years before the strategy became obvious. His tactics became ever more vicious when he saw I was not going to back down- we both had the same grade on the promotional test but I had seniority and wanted this opportunity to get ahead. At the end he was even able to bring the warden and higher ups to go along with his deviousness, not to mention most of my other coworkers. Even though a union was involved they basically blew me off (even though they took 22 dollars every paycheck). Basically, I had no one to back me and due to the fact that my nursing license was next on the chopping block, I was forced to resign leaving behind a 3500 dollar per month pension at 25 years. To show how definite this was when I applied for unemployment it was granted by virtue of 'the grievant shows documentation of reporting this to superiors but fell on deaf ears'. To conclude, what your article espouses is absolutely spot-on ; now I can even put words to some of the concepts of organizational culture and the workings of 'incilvility' in general. Many thanks for this.