The Bully at Work

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The Bully at Work

• What is a Person to Do?

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Course Outline

• I. Orientation to Employee Assistance Program
• II. Definition of Workplace Bully
• III. NIH findings
• IV. Spotting a Bully Patterns of behavior
• V. Impact on thers and the Organization
• VI. Bullying and Effective Management
• VII. What can a person do?

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Course Objectives

• Participants will be able to identify and respond
  to workplace intimidation.
• Participants with be able to spot a bully by
  noticing behaviors.
• Participants will be able to recognize how they
  and their organization are affected.
• Participants will understand the mobbing process

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Continued

• Participants will understand the differences
  between bullying and a person with poor
  interpersonal skills.
• Participants will have information on healthy
  responses to a bully.

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Definition of a Workplace Bully

• According to a report from CIVI L, the NIH's
  program to prevent and respond to workplace
  violence, "workplace bullying is the deliberate,
  repeated, hurtful verbal mistreatment of a
  person, the target, by a cruel perpetrator."

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NIH Studies' Findings

• A bully can be a co-worker or a superior.
• A bully can be a male or a female.
• Bullying, general harrassment, is more prevalent
  than sexual harrassment and racial
  discrimination.
• One factor that places workers at risk for
  violence is dealing with violent people or a
  volatile situation.
• A recent study estimates that 1 in 5 U.S. workers
  has experienced destructive bullying in the past
  year.

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Spotting a Bully Patterns ofBehavior

• When someone snaps at you or ignores you because
  they are under
• pressure or in a bad mood, that is not bullying.
  Bullying involves
• persistent, abusive, and frightening behavior
  designed to make the
• target feel upset, humiliated, and threatened.
  The following profile fits
• most bullies
• Blames others for errors.
• Makes unreasonable demands
• Criticizes the work ability of others in front of
  others
• Inconsistent enforcement of arbitrary rules.
• Threats of job loss, insults and put downs.
• Downplays or denies accomplishments.
• Social exclusion.

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Behaviors Continued

• Yells and screams at target, often in front of
  others.
• Takes credit for another person's work.
• Women are targets of men 69 of the time.
• Women are targets of women eight to one times
  more often than men are.

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Mobbing

• Definition For the purposes of this seminar,
  mobbing is the process of a bully surrounding
  self with people who will tacitly agree to gang
  up against another worker in order to exclude or
  control or punish that person. It can take the
  form of innuendo, rumors and public discrediting
  and even pushing them out of the office. There is
  generally a leader of the pack, someone who may
  be jealous of the success or personality of the
  other. Their mobbing style takes several forms,
  from forgetting to invite a target to meetings,
  taking credit for work done, or even physically
  segregating the employee from others.

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Continued

• This can occur when a bully wants to be part of
• a social group which wants the other worker
• out. If a supervisor observes the mobbing and
• ignores it, it becomes worse. Often mobbing
• occurs when a conflict becomes personal,
• privatized, and the supervisor denies the
• problem instead of implementing a plan for
• conflict resolution early enough.

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Impact on Individuals and theorganization

• In a survey done by the UNC Business school at
  Chapel Hill, Christine Pearson found that 52
  percent of all targets spent company time
  worrying about their tormentor rather than
  working 28 actually missed work in order to
  avoid the person. More that one in five targets
  decreased the quality of their work. Almost
  twelve percent gave up and changed jobs.

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WHAT CAN A PERSON DO?

• Leave your emotions at the door.
• State your position respectfully, factually.
• Do not take a bully's behavior personally.
• Try to clarify what the other is really saying by
  using mirroring.
• Make no assumptions.
• Ask questions and stay calm until you understand.

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Continued.

• Build trust by agreeing with the other.
• Alert the other to any problem you foresee.
• Do your homework and be well prepared before you
  talk.
• If the other has lost self control, politely
  excuse yourself to go to the bathroom so he/she
  can calm down.
• Agree to do what the person is asking if not
  illegal or unethical.

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Other actions

• Meet with the AP counselor.
• Contact the Early Mediation Program.
• Talk with HR/ER to learn of policy for dealing
  with this behavior at work.
• Consider talking with an EEO counselor to learn
  about their services.