Does Bale-Style Bullying Go On Anywhere Else?

Nothing's private in the workplace anymore. Carol Thatcher, the daughter
of former PM Maggie and a presenter on the One Show on the BBC, was fired for making an after-show comment in the Green Room about a tennis player's hair being like that of a "golliwog" -- a racist term.

But that leak -- by one of her colleagues, presumably -- is as nothing compared to the explosion that is actor Christian Bale's expletive-ridden tirade against a crew member while on set. Bale's rant has spread like,
well, a virus across the internet and has now been committed to music and spawned a mini-merchandising boom that includes an "official T-shirt for those who shan't be working with him again."
It's a meltdown so extreme I wondered if it was a bizarre PR gimmick, but it also got me to thinking (hoping) that acting may be the only profession where totally unhinged behaviour of this type is still tolerated.

While Thatcher's off-set (and possibly innocent) indiscretion will likely harm her career, and the crew member who so riled Bale may be so cowed as to want to change jobs, Bale's career's unlikely to suffer from his howler. An assistant director on the film defended the actor -- a "consummate professional", apparently -- noting that he was in a highly emotional scene and that acting isn't "paint by numbers".

But what about other professions? Can anyone afford to blow a fuse so spectacularly in today's workplace? CEOs were once given some room to push their weight around and in the past, physicians were known for their adherence to a strict hierarchy that, if broken, could incur the senior doc's wrath.

Likewise, we revel in the tough talk of business celebrities such as Gordon Ramsay and Sir Alan Sugar ("Mary Poppins I am not"). But they stop short of bullying -- and there's an element of playing to the camera in their on-air antics, anyway.

In the real world, though, does anyone at work still get away with Bale-like meltdowns?

(Photo: Thorsten Becker, CC2.0)