Bullying in the orthopaedic workplace

The British Orthopaedic Trainees’ Association (BOTA) recently commissioned a members’ survey to identify and quantify the presence and extent of bullying in the contemporary workplace. This highlighted a number of complex issues that are relevant to trauma and orthopaedic surgeons in particular but may also have implications for the medical profession in general. The survey was simple, asked binary questions and identified that 73% of respondents had witnessed bullying, harassment or undermining at some point. Harassment had been witnessed by 37%; sexist, racist or homophobic language had been witnessed by 23%; and 17.4% had witnessed a colleague being undermined. This paints a bleak picture of the professional health of trauma and orthopaedic surgery in this country, and many professional bodies have rapidly aligned to demand change. A statement from the Joint Surgical Colleges and Joint Committee on Surgical Training “welcomed” this survey and this has led to a greater focus on eliminating this behaviour from clinical practice. The British Orthopaedic Trainees’ Association have responded with the “Hammer It Out” initiative and a mission statement that aspires to create a positive workplace culture and a balanced and representative workforce, in which individuals are empowered to speak up when unacceptable behaviour is witnessed. It is perhaps more straightforward to deal with overt nastiness, including acts of public humiliation and discrimination based on gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. This is something that tends to be visible and is simply not tolerated in contemporary society. We are, however, a complex group of individuals and there will be a proportion in whom bigotry is an unmodifiable character trait. This initiative will not make these people good but, in order to succeed, it just needs to stop them being bad in public. Even the most naive among us, irrespective of their actual opinion and structure of …