The Workplace Bullying Dilemma In Connecticut: Connecticut's Response to the Healthy Workplace Bill

I. INTRODUCTION A. Workplace Bullying: A National Dilemma The phrase "growing up" has come to embody an expected and assumed phase of mental and emotional development in an individual's life. Starting from early childhood, continuing throughout primary and secondary education, society expects individuals will be properly socialized and transformed into responsible, respectful, and mature adults. But what happens when these adults conduct themselves in an unbecoming manner? What happens when these adults assume positions of power in the workforce and have the ability to affect and control their subordinates? Furthermore, what happens when their inappropriate behavior goes unchecked and unfairly burdens a growing class of bullied employees? Bullying is a widespread social phenomenon that reaches adults. 3 In today's globalized economy, increasing numbers of individuals receive undergraduate and graduate degrees. 4 Arguably, the average bully is the superior of the target 5 and is of high enough intellect to elude the detection of overtly hostile behavior. 6 She has also been socialized to view more aggressive behavior as the norm. 7 The bleak reality remains that workplace bullying is the "sexual harassment of the new century." 8 In the wake of the national campaign calling for comprehensive healthy workplace reform, 9 advocates in states across the nation have sought to modernize existing law to allow for both deterrence and restorative statutory measures for victims of workplace violence and bullying. 10 As a result, scholars, legislators, and other advocates have struggled to adapt the "markets and management" 11