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The Workplace Bully
You know the
guy: Harry is the
person who prides himself on being “honest,” “no-nonsense,”
and “direct.” He
likes to avoid what he calls “…beating around the bush” in
favor of “getting right to the point.” Now, there is nothing
wrong with any of these strategies when they are used
appropriately and in moderation, but Harry overdoes it and, if
someone objects to his rough treatment, he hides behind the
more positive interpretation. “I was just being
honest with Stan.
He did screw up the numbers in the monthly report. I couldn’t let that
slide,” he will say. True enough, letting a
significant error go without comment could have negative
consequences, but “beating” Stan over the head can create
problems of its own.
Maybe Stan has been
“sliding” for a while and everyone except his boss knows
it. It can feel
good to see Harry balance the books, so to speak, by unloading
on him. But the
problem with Harry is that not only is he the “Swift
Sword Of Justice” (in his own mind anyway), but also
that Harry tends to unload regularly, and usually in an
over-the-top manner, whether the recipient “deserves” it or
not, and whether it is Harry’s responsibility to point it out
or not.
Bullying - The New “Sexual
Harassment”
Thirty years ago,
sexual harassment was just beginning to be seen as a serious
problem, in large part because of the increasing number of
lawsuits it was causing. Before that, it had
been seen as less important simply because few people were
making an issue of it. Today, sexual
harassment is recognized and accepted as a serious issue in
the workplace, and office bullying (the brief technical
definition is, “psychological harassment at work” or simply,
“emotional abuse”) is emerging as the next problem we didn’t
know we had.
A growing body of
research documents the cost to companies of workplace
bullying: costly
and disruptive lawsuits, increased health insurance costs,
increased number of sick days, and increased
turnover.
The Three Main Causes of the
Problem
There are at least
three common causes of workplace bullying. The first cause is a
lack of awareness on the bully’s part. Some people simply
have a tendency to be significantly less tactful than
others. They
don’t see their behavior as bullying; they see it as “being
honest” (Harry might fall into this category.)
The second common
cause can be the culture of the workplace. If Harry happens to be
the boss, then his bullying style can become part of the
culture of the workplace. If “everyone here does
it,” then bullying becomes the norm. The strong survive,
and through their survival reinforce the bullying norm (“See,
it doesn’t bother Frank. So, what’s the big
deal?”)
And the third most
common cause is that there are a few people who actually enjoy
bullying. I
worked for a boss one time who would say things like, “It is
not enough that I succeed; others must fail.” Fortunately, there
aren’t very many people like this.
How to Deal With Workplace
Bullying
As with the issue of
sexual harassment, the first step in dealing with workplace
bullying is to raise awareness of the issue and to label
bullying behavior as inappropriate. Define the behaviors
that are seen as bullying, which can include but are not
limited to:
shouting, verbal abuse, name calling, making threatening
statements, micro-managing, and undermining someone’s
reputation. In
addition, such subtle behaviors as intentionally excluding a
person from meetings he or she legitimately should participate
in, withholding information, or establishing a pattern of
leaving a person off an important e-mail or distribution list
might qualify as bullying (the establishment of intention and
pattern are significant in these cases.)
When you see an
instance of bullying behavior in the workpace, take the
individual initiating the behavior aside and talk to him or
her (tactfully!) about the potential cost to the company (and
to the target of the bullying) of such behavior. Your goals in doing so
are to raise awareness of inappropriate behavior, increase
respect for others, and give the individual an opportunity to
explain the situation from his or her point of
view.
Increase Respect for Others
One approach to
increasing respect for others was illustrated by a study of
eleven work sites in the Veterans Administration system that
was initiated in 1999. The researchers
distributed a questionnaire that measured, among other things,
how often employees felt they were the target of disrespectful
behavior, such as hostile glaring, malicious gossip, and
eye-rolling. A
group of employees were nominated to serve on an “action team”
that reviewed the results of the survey and identified
specific bullying behaviors that were seen by employees as
occurring frequently.
These results were
made known to all employees and a random group of employees
were selected to meet with the center’s assistant director on
a weekly basis.
In these meetings, the group, whose composition changed each
week, brought up instances of disrespect, emphasized the
importance of listening and effective communication on both
sides of the issue, and evaluated ways of dealing with the
problem of bullying. After several of these
weekly meetings, a confidential follow-up survey showed that
bullying and other aggressive behaviors had
decreased.
Focus On Respect For All
Employees
Dr. Kevin Kelloway, a
researcher at St. Mary’s University in Canada who conducts
research on workplace bullying, says, “The way you limit
(bullying) behavior is not by developing an exhaustive list of
things you can’t do, but by taking a more positive approach by
saying, ‘This is the way we treat other people
here.’”
The Final Word
Workplace bullying is
increasingly regarded as a serious workplace problem. According to a study
done by the National Institute for Occupational Health and
Safety (NIOSH), 24% of surveyed companies reported some degree
of bullying in the last year. While much of the
research on workplace bullying has been done in Scandinavia,
the United Kingdom and Canada, the Workplace Bullying and
Trauma Institute in Bellingham, Washington, is a major source
of research here in the USA.
In addition,
legislation called the Healthy Workplace Bill is currently
before Congress.
This legislation seeks to give severely bullied employees the
right to sue the bully or the company. However, in order to
avoid frivolous lawsuits, a company would only be held liable
if it failed to stop the bullying.
Given
the increasing attention bullying behaviors in the workplace
are receiving, now is the time to get ahead of the issue and
make respect for all employees a visible part of the company’s
culture and mission if you haven’t already done so.
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Feature Article: How To Deal
With The Workplace Bully | 
FEATURE ARTICLE: How To
Deal With The Workplace Bully
