Work abuse is more than simply "bullying"; it's the systems-sourced brutalizing or persistent emotional dehumanizing of people at work. Work abuse goes beyond "bullying" and "mobbing" to describe the systems that demand and enforce "bullying" and "mobbing" behavior. As with child abuse fifty years ago, work abuse is mostly denied and the victim is blamed for his or her reactions to the maltreatment that has its origin in dysfunctional work systems. Workplace violence can often be traced to emotionally abusive work found in dysfunctional work systems.

SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE: TWENTY-FIVE PIONEERING YEARS DOCUMENTING AND TREATING WORK ABUSE

In 1977, Chauncey Hare's photo book Interior America was published by Aperture showing the spiritual desolation of American working people. The text of the book describes Hare's emotionally abusive experiences working as an engineer in an oil refinery. The book received lengthy positive reviews in The New Yorker and The New York Times. Photographs from the book were a solo exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in July 1977.

In 1984, Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art published Chauncey Hare's photo book This Was Corporate America which documents emotionally abusive work environments in California. From the book is the Logo-Photo in the upper left corner of the Web site, an emotionally abused office worker returning home on the subway. The text of the book describes Hare's own work abuse and scapegoating before he was terminated for "Undermining the Authority of a Federal Agency."

In 1988, Judith Wyatt wrote the first paper defining "work abuse," Understanding Work Abuse: Violating Human Needs at Work for the California Legislature's Task Force on Self-Esteem. For a copy of this paper, see the ARTICLES INDEX section of this Web site.

In 1997, based on their experience as licensed therapists treating work abuse for fifteen years, Judith Wyatt and Chauncey Hare published the first clinical manual describing sources and treatment of emotional abuse in the workplace, Work Abuse: How to Recognize and Survive It. The book may best be purchased by ordering the book through the publisher, Schenkman Books, at 802-767-3630. For a description of the book See the BOOK REVIEWS section of the Web site.

PERSONAL COACHING FOR--AND EDUCATION ABOUT---THE SYSTEMS NATURE OF WORK ABUSE

This Web Site Offers The Following:

*Professional Personal Coaching assistance to individuals who have been emotionally abused in the workplace. We also offer work abuse recovery and survival trainings for groups of workers, or for therapists who wish to learn our counseling model--See the SERVICES section of this Web site.

*Educational articles, book recommendations, and links to other Web sites that enlarge people's understanding of the sources and treatment of work abuse with special emphasis on systems sources of abuses like bullying, or more accurately, scapegoating.

*Reports of our research on breaking society's denial of emotionally abusive work. Research on how work abuse relates to, and causes, workplace violence.