You may or may not be surprised to hear that bullying doesn’t just happen at the playground of the local public school or in a high school cafeteria. The act of bullying is seen everywhere – at schools, social gatherings and even in the work place.
In the workplace, bullying is defined as a persistent pattern of mistreatment from others that causes harm. It can include such tactics as verbal, nonverbal, psychological, physical abuse and humiliation.
Some examples of workplace bullying include:
- Spreading malicious rumours, gossip, or innuendo that is not true.
- Excluding or isolating someone socially.
- Intimidating a person.
- Undermining or deliberately impeding a person’s work.
- Physically abusing or threatening abuse.
- Establishing impossible deadlines that will set up the individual to fail.
- Withholding necessary information or purposefully giving the wrong information.
- Making jokes that are ‘obviously offensive’ by spoken word or e-mail.
- Intruding on a person’s privacy by pestering, spying or stalking.
- Underwork – creating a feeling of uselessness.
- Yelling or using profanity.
- Belittling a person’s opinions.
- Unwarranted (or undeserved) punishment.
- Blocking applications for training, leave or promotion.
- Tampering with a person’s personal belongings or work equipment.
Workplace Bullying Solutions
The solutions available to combat workplace bullying are plentiful, but the tactics used definitely depend on who the bully is. With most cases of workplace bullying, there are things that can be done to help the situation by all those involved from the staff level to management.
If the workplace bully is a manager or a people leader, the best solutions for an employee, outside of making a formal complaint to upper management, is to try to intervene and change the dynamics early on. For example, if you know your boss resorts to bullying under stress, try to minimize the stress factors. If the boss is having a bad day, reschedule unnecessary meetings until their mood is better. However, these solutions are temporary, getting to the root of the problem is key. After exhausting other solutions such as setting limits or speaking to your co-workers, the next logical step is to make a formal complaint.
As a manager who has to deal with a workplace bully, work with the parties involved to address the issue and come up with a solution that works for everyone. Speak privately to both parties. Ensure that the person who is being bullied does not retaliate and keeps a log of all incidents.
Management’s Role
While bullying is a form of aggression, the actions can be both obvious and subtle. It is important to note that bullying is usually considered to be a pattern of behaviour where one or more incidents will help show that bullying is taking place. As a leader in your organization be acutely aware of changes in dynamics or other factors that could mean a bullying situation is happening. Workplace bullying can quickly escalate if the behavior is not challenged. Identifying and managing a workplace bully early on, helps to lessen the impacts on the work environment. Failure to act by management on any known cases of workplace bullying could have a huge impact on staff morale, performance, sick leave and staff turnover.
