What can we do about bullying in theatre? Ellan Parry, 28 January 2013 This was a follow-on from my Dealing With Dickheads session. I came to the conclusion that while there's lots we can do as individuals and companies to tackle bullying and bullying cultures, we do seem to have a genuine, industry-wide problem with bullying that hasn't been acknowledged or addressed in the way that other sectors have managed. Some actions: * Find out about how other sectors deal with bullying, anti-bullying policies in offices, in schools * Find some definitions of bullying *Find some different work-place ‘behavioural guidelines’ and ‘codes of behaviour’ *Talk to Equity, find out more about their anti-bullying policy, find out more about their ‘black-list’ -could Equity help to draw up a ‘code of good practice’ or ‘code of conduct’ which all theatres could be encouraged to sign up to? -could this be something that gets written into the standard contract that Equity provides *Write / encourage somebody better at writing than me to write an article on bullying in theatre, that could be published online and/or in industry publication *Look up a book / study about bullying in the arts by Kerry Nupak *Read session report: ‘Working with Dickheads’ called by someone else in a previous D&D *Start a website similar to the Everyday Sexism Project where theatre workers could share stories - should this be anon or should we name and shame? could be risky for individuals doing the whistle-blowing, could be open to abuse - what are people's thoughts /advice on this? Tags: bullying, dickheads, equity, Equity, ethics