Business News in Brief

NATION

Office bullies gain control

NEW YORK — The recession is creating a “blank check” for office bullies, said one employee advocate.

The downturn’s layoffs — job rolls have shrunk by 6 million since the recession’s start — may make a bad situation worse for victims, said Gary Namie, director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group.

The “absolute control of an employer is more apparent in a recession,” he said. That means workers are feeling the heat, as the bulk of workplace harassment cases involve superiors taunting their employees, he said.

Business-school grads taking new career paths

NEW YORK — The collapse in global financial markets is skewing where one prominent business school expects its graduates are going to wind up as companies cut hiring.

London Business School said it expects a big drop in the number of this year’s crop of graduates who will go into financial services. More students this year are interested in working for start-ups, starting their own businesses as entrepreneurs, or working for pharmaceutical or consumer-goods companies, said the school’s career services director, Diane Morgan.

Associated Press