{"id":2047,"date":"2020-11-22T13:19:46","date_gmt":"2020-11-22T13:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/?p=2047"},"modified":"2020-11-22T13:19:46","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T13:19:46","slug":"an-extra-concern-about-bullying-in-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/an-extra-concern-about-bullying-in-government\/","title":{"rendered":"An extra concern about bullying in government"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On the face of it this is a matter of workplace bullying, with one person having received a \u00a325,000 payout in 2015<\/a>, the looming prospect of an Employment Tribunal case and an enquiry showing that she broke the Ministerial code<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If this were simply a matter of a cabinet minister behaving badly they\u2019d resign, the justice system would do its work, and things would move on. <\/p>\n

Instead, there\u2019s been a remarkable level of support from within government. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has chosen not to push her to resign, and there’s a claim that he “asked for Patel report to be palatable”<\/a>. Jacob Rees Mogg tweeted:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Meanwhile, the elected mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, James Palmer tweeted:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

and South Cambs MP Anthony Browne gave what\u2019s been politely called a \u201ccar crash\u201d interview<\/a> defending her on Channel 4.<\/p>\n

The implication is that bullying is OK. It isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

At a very mundane level, the fact that there\u2019s been one payout means a problem has been recognised. At this stage we don\u2019t know what the Employment Tribunal will decide but the implication is that the law is not on Patel\u2019s side. There\u2019s a problem when law-makers decide they can break the law.<\/p>\n

A deeper lens<\/h2>\n

My mind jumps from this to a comment on workplace bullying made in a discussion among members of the International Society for Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations, that \u201cEarl Hopper\u2019s fourth basic assumption is usually around when there is workplace bullying\u201d. Demystifying that\u2026 the idea of \u201cbasic assumptions\u201d is that, when a group acts as if people have agreed to behave in a particular way, without having discussed it, there\u2019s something going on unconsciously. Hopper\u2019s work draws together two other basic assumptions. One is that the group doesn\u2019t really exist \u2014 which means people are behaving as if it is so unsafe that they can\u2019t let themselves recognise it. The other is that it\u2019s met for some higher purpose so the group itself doesn\u2019t really matter. Hopper\u2019s point is that these both deny the group itself.<\/p>\n

At the moment, Priti Patel is in the headlines, but Dominic Cummings has been described in the same terms<\/a> (David Lammy said \u201cHis legacy is one of bullying, deception, hypocrisy and hubris\u201d<\/a>).<\/p>\n

From that perspective the defences of Patel should ring alarm bells, especially bearing in mind that one of the characteristics of workplace bullying is for the bully to blame their victim.<\/p>\n

James Palmer\u2019s tweet said:<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhen civil servants are challenged by a politician with the temerity to implement the will of the people, standard response is often to smear that individual. @pritipatel is an outstanding Home Secretary and absolutely the right person at the right time.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is this a case of \u201cthe will of the people\u201d being the \u201chigher purpose\u201d in this basic assumption? We talk of governments being elected, and having manifesto commitments, but these are not infallible. At the very least, they need to change when circumstances change. In December 2019 people voted for political parties \u2014 it would be hard to argue that they gave explicit support for all that Patel has been doing, and even harder to argue that they voted to allow a bully to bully.<\/p>\n

The rub here is that civil servants bring enormous skill and competence. It goes against their professionalism to actively frustrate the government of the day, but a key part of their skill is bringing expertise to bear \u2014 and to be honest when ministers propose courses of action that won\u2019t work. Justifying bullying when a civil servant does their job is serious \u2014 what it actually means is that an interpretation of \u201cthe will of the people\u201d transcends all thinking and all sense of reality.<\/p>\n

By contrast, a wise minister would hear the frustrations of the whole country and act in a way that addresses these and is rooted in actual reality. Non-partisan civil servants are vital in this to ensure that contact with reality, so policies are about making real differences and not engaging in flights of fancy.<\/p>\n

Jacob Rees Mogg\u2019s tweet<\/a> is relevant. He praises Patel saying:<\/p>\n

\n@pritipatel is a formidable Home Secretary. Under her stewardship the HO has recruited thousands of police officers and introduced an Immigration Bill to safeguard our borders. Priti is an asset to government and a great Great Officer of State.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The need to \u201csafeguard our borders\u201d implies that they haven\u2019t been safe before that we\u2019ve not been safe up to now, or face a new threat. There\u2019s no evidence of either. But it could also imply a new anxiety \u2014 a sense that \u201cwe are no longer safe\u201d. The irrationality of that goes back to the part of the \u201cfourth basic assumption\u201d that\u2019s about the group not being safe \u2014 not because it isn\u2019t safe, but because people\u2019s fears are in the driving seat. A Home Secretary talking forcefully about imagined threats is a powerful motivator, but it needs to be done with a good grasp on reality. The horrific twentieth century example of this is the genocidal response of Nazi Germany to the \u201cJewish threat\u201d that didn\u2019t exist. <\/p>\n

A wise Home Secretary \u2014 and a wise government \u2014 would draw on the expertise of civil servants to have a realistic assessment of the actual threats being faced by the UK, and find ways to address them. We\u2019re in dangerous territory when it\u2019s seen as acceptable for ministers to bully civil servants and to force through what they see as \u201cthe will of the people\u201d rather than respond to the needs of the people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Allegations of bullying against Priti Patel \u2014 and the Conservative Party\u2019s defence of her \u2014 point to a much more serious problem in Boris Johnson\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[229,300,2],"tags":[301],"class_list":["post-2047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basic-assumptions","category-bullying","category-politics","tag-priti-patel-bullying-government-dysfunction"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2047"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2072,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2047\/revisions\/2072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markargent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}