If you can’t take the stick . . .

It does look as if he's condoning bullying and no, he isn't right to do do.

That's a lot of resignations from one town council.

Sadly when people don’t stand up to bullies and back away, all that’s left are bullies.

Why on earth has this chap been allowed to stay in post when a further eight people have resigned (or have I misread?)?

Bullying is not acceptable in the workplace or anywhere else. If someone is a repeated offender they should be sent on courses to teach them better ways to deal with people, and if that fails they should be sacked.

It is not easy to know if bullying is really what's happening, or if the complainer is using the accusation maliciously (or is just so sensitive that they perceive any disagreement or management of their performance as bullying), but when more than eight people have accused the same man (if that's the case) then action definitely needs to be taken.

I’m not certain that Mr Lawson was the only one accused of bullying, but he was accused of “orchestrating” the abuse towards the town clerk and other members of the council, (many but not all of them, women).
It was his comment about ‘taking a lot more stick’ as part of the job and ‘if you can’t take it, you shouldn’t have joined’ that seems to sanction bullying and I think it an unacceptable attitude.

is this a case of the old acronym, NFN, =normal for norfolk ?
i heard incoming GPs, docs, not grans, would often put it in notes, but not since patients can ask to see them ...
what does it really mean. how did it arise.
any examples ?

Jobs shouldn't have inbuilt 'stick'. Some roles will have awkward customers/clients that go with the territory, but colleagues should offer support not add to the issues.

It sounds as though he should be sacked, or at the very least retrained.

I think he probably means ‘responsibility’ and before it gets to the point of frustration when concerns are not addressed - and failing to apologise when culpability is proven.

Sounds like they are a gutless bunch if he is the only one left and they have all gone. Why didn’t they group together and make a complaint ?

I live in Norfolk and have read about this in the local paper. I don't know any of the people concerned as this council isn't in my part of the county but I have to say I'm not convinced by the accusations. Unfortunately it's a fact of life that as a councillor you have to deal with some pretty irate and insulting people. You have to have thick skin to do the job. Not unlike the poor souls who work in customer service and get blamed for everything.

I think those who stand for public office do need to have a ‘robust’ attitude but having worked in Local Government all my life I can say that some of these roles seem to attract bullies. I haven’t read the article so am not sure if the bullying claims etc are directed at those within the Council or not. I think councillors can expect to deal with frustrated residents ( but not offensive residents) and that’s why I say they need to be robust but bullying within the council should never be tolerated. In the end more time is wasted due to this than is spent on actually working towards the good of the community. Something most elected councillors claim to want to do prior to being elected……..

Yes you do have to have a robust attitude, I worked in a inner city school, children with many problems and mothers who were either drunk, taking drugs, or violent. So yes I had to stand my ground.
I am afraid this is life now.

No it's not acceptable at all. Parish and Town Councillors are all volunteers doing a complex job for the public and deserve support. They quite often get accused of inaction for things for which they are not responsible (things which are within the remit of district or county council's) and some residents can be rude and aggressive.

Is this a similar situation to the Jackie Weaver zoom incident last year? One big loud voice attempting to intimidate others.

Well now. A bit riveted by this as an ex Norfolkian, so I’ve wasted time doing a bit of research into past events. Social media posts, the Eastern Daily Press and the minutes of meetings.

The town seems quite split between long standing residents who want to hold on to the town they know and incomers who want to change things quite radically.

Quite extreme political views have been expressed at both ends of the spectrum.

There have been a number of complaints from residents of the town about the Mayor and her vision for the town and about her supporting colleagues. There was a meeting where residents raised a protest and were reported to the police.

And that’s about as far as I got.

Hard to tell what’s really going on. Obviously I’m going to be on the side of the locals?

The mayor and her deputy are amongst those who resigned.

Obviously, he is condoning bullying and no, he is not right.

For years we were told that children have always been bullied at school - as if it was good for character or morals.

We know better now, I hope.

It would be nice if all adult places of work tried to controll bullying too.

Pity there's nobody prepared to go head to head with the nasty bloke(ahem). I was famed for my put downs of those chaps/ chapesses who had the misconception that coworkers et Al were there to be preyed upon. He's so wrong and bit disappointed nobody has sorted him out Yet?

We don’t actually know if there has been bullying. The people who resigned also spoke about misogyny (always a useful thing for a woman to accuse a man of if he disagrees with her) and homophobia. Most of those who resigned were women. They looked to me like people well able to stand their corner, not shrinking violets. Whether anyone was gay I don’t know. It could well be that those who resigned are bullying the man they have accused. ‘We’ll show him …’. All rather petty.

Yes, more than one side to this I think.

The people who resigned were those who residents spoke of as not listening to local people, attempting to silence them with threats of prosecution and police involvement.

The “bully” was not allowed to speak at the council meeting when the group made their allegations of bullying.

Like I said, I’m obviously going to be on the side of the locals so I am partisan. But it seems the bullying isn’t all on one side.

Not awareness of the article though would agree in public service you do need to be pretty thick skinned at times. The public can be vicious when they don't get what they want. It's different with colleagues though, there should be respect no matter the other fellow's point of view.

Jackie Weaver would sort them all out !

Thisismyname1953

Jackie Weaver would sort them all out !

???

PEPs are supposed to have thick skin - but that does not mean they ought to be bullied. The thick skin is there to hnelp them negotiate the perils of their jobs. THis chap has never heard of esprit de corps.