Susan Steinman

Susan Steinman is bringing together people and resources from South Africa and around the world to create collective action against trauma caused by physical and emotional violence in the workplace.

Susan is working to establish a culture of dignity and respect in the workplace by forming pressure groups, raising public awareness, and lobbying for legislation on the neglected issue of workplace trauma. She is also providing sustainable assistance and empowerment directly to victims of workplace trauma. She believes that by eradicating negative behaviors and influences from the workplace positive change will follow. Susan's effort is the first and only initiative addressing workplace trauma in South Africa, and her research on the subject is the first in the so-called developing world. Since workplace trauma has been largely ignored, Susan's model is gaining national and international attention.

Workplace violence has become an alarming phenomenon worldwide. Because the real size of the problem is largely unknown, there is currently a worldwide movement to collect data on the problem. In South Africa, workplace bullying, harassment, victimization, discrimination, and mobbing are issues that are largely unrecognized as trauma. Susan defines workplace trauma as a situation in which one or more individuals feel subjected over a period of time to unfair, prolonged, persistent, calculated negative behavior or actions from another person or persons, affecting the victims' dignity, health, safety, and career prospects and in which victims are unable to defend themselves.

Until Susan began to explore the issue, there had been no formal investigations either to determine its scale or to establish resolution mechanisms. Susan's early research showed that 35-45 percent of South Africans had experienced hostile behavior at work. According to a survey of healthcare workers that asked respondents whether they had experienced physical, psychological, or emotional violence between September 2000-2001, 71.1 percent of public health workers and 51.6 percent in the private health sector reported they had experienced at least one type of abuse.

The problem is compounded by current economic woes. With the unemployment rate hovering around 45 percent, employed victims and others concerned about the problem are reluctant to aggressively seek resolution for fear of "retrenchment." However, though the abused may remain silent, the resulting trauma–manifest as low self-esteem, poor motivation, stress, and absenteeism–negatively impacts the overall performance of institutions, as well as the well-being of individuals and families. In the latter case, for instance, it has been shown that children of parents who suffer traumatic events are more likely to suffer from depression. In more exacerbated forms, stress in the workplace leads to violence both inside and outside the domestic arena.

Susan is employing a comprehensive, sector-by-sector approach to eradicate physical and emotional workplace violence and the trauma it causes. She has instituted a research model that actively involves her constituency and is backed by reputable partners. Responding to the needs of victims of workplace abuse, she works with them to lobby for change. In addition, she works with labor institutions to develop and implement prevention methods.

Susan conducted extensive research on the topic of workplace trauma for a book she coauthored in 1997. The book served to raise public awareness and to build a reputation for Susan as an expert in the field. The background research gave her deep insight into the problem and won her international acclaim and recognition, providing a launching pad for subsequent activities. Susan draws in renowned partners to assist in and lend credibility to her research. For example, to establish the extent of workplace violence in the health sector, Susan partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to conduct a survey that represented all levels of workers.

Susan also raises awareness by organizing and participating in conferences. In November 2000, she organized the first South African conference on work trauma. The conference, which was attended by delegates from around the world, helped lay the groundwork for a capacity-building, advocacy network for the Southern Hemisphere. She also holds regular workshops for businesses and other organizations–with the core message that workplace trauma is too expensive financially and emotionally to remain unresolved.

In addition, Susan works directly with victims of workplace physical and emotional violence. She has set up a telephone and Internet advisory service and has thus far assisted over 4,000 victims of workplace trauma. She facilitates reconciliation between perpetrators and victims in cases of conflict. To protect those most vulnerable to workplace abuse, she has become involved in the local branch of the African National Congress to empower domestic workers to act against workplace bullying and sexual harassment. She also provides training as preparation for trade unions and trade union federations to become active on the issues.

To prevent workplace violence and provide a means for legal recourse, Susan lobbies for policy and legislative changes. During 2001 and the first part of 2002, Susan worked with various organizations to develop a Workplace Code of Conduct whose objectives are to discourage and eliminate violence in the workplace and provide appropriate procedures to deal with the problem and prevent its recurrence. The code has now been accepted by and integrated into the human resource policies of the Department of Labour and by the world's largest diamond mining house, De Beers. Susan is now actively lobbying for inclusion of the code in national legislation.

Given the magnitude of the problem, Susan is approaching it on a sector-by-sector basis. She is piloting and refining her strategies first within the health sector across the country. Once she is satisfied that the problem has reached a manageable level among healthcare workers, she will focus on other sectors.

Susan's life experiences have generated a passion to establish a culture of human rights in the workplace, with specific attention to the dignity of workers. When she was 12, her father succumbed to "miner's" tuberculosis. Though she did not quite understand the cause of her father's death, she had a nagging sense that something was wrong at the workplace. This vague sense of injustice took defined shape when she herself witnessed and suffered humiliating workplace indignities. Though she engaged workers and employees about the problem, she found that there was a great deal of resistance and denial. She found that most victims and others in the workplace had accepted harassment as an unfortunate but integral norm. In other words, there were no consistent and systematic efforts to address the problem.

Her initial forays into resolving the problem were frustrating because, as an employee, she could not engage management without fear of jeopardizing her job. At the time, her job security was important since she was supporting her daughter through school. In 1994, when her daughter completed formal education, Susan stepped out of the system to devote herself full-time to raising awareness about the issue and implementing strategies to restore dignity in the workplace. Her efforts are yielding noticeable results. In 2000 a leading South African television station featured a newsmagazine program in which Susan was recognized as a trailblazer in the field.