Lesley Ann Cunnah - Bullying in the work place

Lesley Ann speaks about her personal experience of bullying in the workplace. 

Transcript

My name is Lesley Ann Cunnah and I am the head of Volkswagen Commercials vehicles and I have been part of the Motus family for three years, I have worked in the motor industry for 25 years, and have held senior management positions for over 20 of those years.

Listening to the other podcast on this issue over the last few weeks and reading the statistics on our screen saver, I want you to know that I am one of the 23% of people who have been bullied at work.

I didn’t even realise it was happening, it was subtle at first , everyone knew this person was hard to work with, and everyone excused his behaviour and the more they (and that includes me ) did the more his influence grew. 

We had work together for a quite a few years, and even now when I reflect back I can’t pinpoint the moment where there was a change. 

I was a head of a franchised dealership, I mention the role held, when you think of bullying people make assumptions, I want you to know that regardless of your role in the team it can be happening to your, or your colleague.  Where you see it, please call it out.

When it was happening, I hadn’t discussed it with my family, other than sometimes to say I had a tough couple of days at work, or that the person was an arse today or I didn’t say anything I just got quieter and quieter. 

When I finally came to realise that I had been subjected to systematic and continuous bullying I was embarrassed, I was embarrassed it took a member of my team to call me out on it, I was embarrassed that I hadn’t seen it happening to me and others around me.  I was embarrassed I had let it happen.

Even then it took me several months after to speak up, initially with two of my colleagues in the business before then having the courage to reach out to the HR team. They were very good when I did, but they did not have the support mechanisms in the business to help spot bullying earlier, to make it easier to reach out, in my old place of work it was easier if everyone ignored it pretending that it wasn’t happening.

I am so grateful to my team member, who asked me why I let someone treat me the way he did.

I now work for a group where we have all those things, it still takes a little courage though, and I would encourage you to do so to speak out for yourself, for others and for those around you. 

Everyone is impacted bullying, and it has no place in our place of work or our society.

Thank you for taking the time to listen.