Neutrality and Workplace Respect

 

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality”.

Desmond Tutu, Social Rights Activist and retired Archbishop, South Africa

This quote applies to bullies as well as it applies to elephants. Bullying can be as harmful in the workplace and on projects as it is in schools and other areas of soceity causing the well understood harmful physical and emotional impacts plus a long list of challenges for project managers and the organizations where it is taking place.  Sadly, the rates of workplace bullying across the globe, despite efforts to eliminate it, are increasingly dramatically. Projects are subsets of workplaces and since project management is, for the most part, an activity that involves working very closely with others, the impact of a bully in a project is potentially lethal to project success.

There is also an important connection between the "Neutrality isn't an option" expression and ethics. The PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct included as part of the standard for Responsibility the statement "We report any illegal or unethical conduct. " In other words, the Code says that neutrality isn't an option.