Bullying in the Workplace

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Bullying in the Workplace

• The Reality and The Solution

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• Never be bullied into silence. Never allow
  yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's
  definition of your life, but define yourself.
• - Harvey S. Firestone

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Forms of Bullying

• Source www.bullyonline.org
• Corporate bullying This type of bullying in the
  workplace occurs when the employer abuses
  employees knowing that people will be afraid to
  stand up to them for fear of losing their job.
  Instances of corporate bullying are Forcing
  employees to work more than 60/70 hours on a
  regular basis, indicating to those that refuse
  there are plenty of people out there who would
  work those hours given the chance. Denies
  employees annual leave or sick leave to which
  they are entitled to. Sees any employee as weak
  or inadequate if they are prone to stress, while
  denying and refusing to take responsibility that
  they are a cause of the stress. Encourages an
  employee usually with promises of promotion or
  threats of disciplinary action to make complaints
  about colleagues.
• Client bullyingThis type of bullying occurs
  when employees are being bullied by those they
  serve for example a teacher being bullied by
  pupils, nurses and care takers being bullied by
  those they take care of or shop staff being
  bullied by customers.
• Secondary bullyingThis type of bullying usually
  is unwittingly done and often occurs when
  bullying is rife in the workplace and the general
  behaviour of all employees decreases to the point
  when they start turning on others

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Forms of Bullying

• Gang bullyingGang bullying is often predominant
  in cooperate bullying and bullies will work in a
  gang to accomplish what they want to achieve. A
  common tactic used by gang bullying is telling
  everyone a different story, usually about what
  each have said about the person to get them
  against each other. Gang bullying is also called
  mobbing and usually involves victimization and
  scapegoating Vicarious bullying is where two
  parties are encouraged to engage in adversarial
  interaction or conflict. Similar to gang
  bullying, although the bully may or may not be
  directly connected with either of the two
  parties. One party becomes the bully's instrument
  of harassment and is deceived and manipulated
  into bullying the other party. An example of
  vicarious bullying is where the serial bully
  creates conflict between employer and employee,
  participating occasionally to stoke the conflict,
  but rarely taking an active part in the conflict
  themselves.
• Regulation bullying is where a serial bully
  forces their target to comply with rules,
  regulations, procedures or laws regardless of
  their appropriateness, applicability or
  necessity. Legal bullying - the bringing of a
  vexatious legal action to control and punish a
  person - is one of the nastiest forms of
  bullying.
• Residual bullying is the bullying of all kinds
  that continues after the serial bully has left.
  Like recruits like and like promotes like,
  therefore the serial bully bequeaths a
  dysfunctional environment to those who are left.
  This can last for years.
• It is thought that the majority of all cases
  reported of bullying in the workplace are done by
  managers or supervisors and that bullying is more
  wide spread than documented, the main reason for
  bullying in the workplace not being reported is
  fear of losing the job and further victimization.

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Examples

• Spreading malicious rumours, gossip, or innuendo
  that is not true
• Excluding or isolating someone socially
• Intimidating a person
• Undermining or deliberately impeding a persons
  work
• Physically abusing or threatening abuse

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Examples

• Removing areas of responsibilities without cause
• Constantly changing work guidelines
• Establishing impossible deadlines that will set
  up the individual to fail
• Withholding necessary information or purposefully
  giving the wrong information

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Examples

• Making jokes that are obviously offensive by
  spoken word or email
• Intruding on a persons privacy by pestering,
  spying, or stalking
• Assigning unreasonable duties or workload which
  are unfavourable to one person (creating
  unnecessary pressure)

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Examples

• Underwork, creating a feeling of uselessness
• Yelling or using profanity
• Criticizing a person persistently or constantly
• Belittling a persons opinions
• Unwarranted or undeserved punishment

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Examples

• Blocking applications for training, leave, or
  promotion
• Tampering with a persons personal belongings or
  work equipment

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Bullying Statistics

• SOURCE www.bullyfreeworld.com
• Bullying in the workplace varies from country to
  country, in Norway 5 of the workforce admit to
  being bullied while in the UK and USA 20 of the
  workforce say they have encountered bullying in
  the workplace.
• 1 in 30 workers are serial bullies.
• Bullying can continue for years.
• 84 of workers at some time in their life
  encounter intimidating behaviour.
• 73 of the workforce are unhappy and say the
  workplace is oppressive.
• 65 of the workforce wont speak up out of fear.
• 43 felt a great deal of pressure especially
  when it came to meeting unrealistic targets.
• 40 of the workforce say they have encountered
  abusive language.
• 38 of the workforce have been on the receiving
  end of hurtful jokes or have been the victim of
  pranks.
• 23 have come across threatening behaviour in
  the workplace.
• 15 have been on the receiving end of a physical
  assault.
• 66 of the bullies encountered within the
  workplace were managers or supervisors.

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Setting up a bully-free workplace

• Source http//www.bullyfree.com/resources/teache
  rs.php
• Educate staff on bullying in the workplace
  (through PD initiative)
• Train staff on how to deal with workplace
  bullying
• Hang anti-bullying posters in staff room
• Have the staff sign an anti-bullying pledge
• Department Heads and Administrators need to be
  approachable
• Do activities that promote staff unity (ex staff
  retreats)
• Have teachers start an anti-bullying campaign
• Administrators should address workplace bullying
  at the first staff meeting in September (and
  remind staff about the issue throughout the
  school year).

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DO

• Encourage everyone at the workplace to act in a
  respectful and professional manner towards
  others.
• Have a workplace policy that includes a reporting
  system.
• Educate everyone that bullying is a serious
  matter.

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DO

• Try to work out solutions before the situation
  gets serious or out of control.
• Educate everyone about what bullying is, and to
  whom they can go for help.
• Treat all complaints seriously, and deal with
  complaints promptly and confidentially.

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DO

• Train managers and supervisors in how to deal
  with complaints and potential situations.
  Encourage them to address situations promptly,
  whether or not a formal complaint has been filed.
• Have an impartial third party help with a
  resolution if necessary.

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DO NOT

• Ignore any potential problems.
• Delay resolution. Act as soon as possible