The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) considers bullying to be a form of workplace violence. Many companies have adopted a zero tolerance policy re: violence at work. Even if that weren’t the case, bullying creates a hostile work environment that brings morale and productivity down. Businesses that allow it deserve to find themselves in bankruptcy court.
Bullying in the workplace is a hidden form of workplace violence that needs to be addressed by organizations at the top. It is particulary insidious when done by executives to their management subordinates. There are two reasons for this: 1) Many subordinate directors and managers, as a survival technique, begin to adopt the negative behavior and it is then perpetuated throughout the organization. 2)These executives are smart enough to know that yelling and hitting are quite visible, they also pride themselves in how cleaverly they can (or think they can) belittle and humiliate the victim without others realizing what they’re doing. 3) They don’t target weak individuals, as most authors claim. They target competent and capable individuals. They generally pursue one victim (for the most part) at a time, until they fire the individual or the individual quits. They will then move on to the next target. Bullying is a set of behaviors that stem from fear and feelings of inadequacy. Bullies seek control over others and will try to discredit or humiliate those who intimidate them or who they perceive as a threat(are more competent/more well-liked/etc.)
Most people you talk to will tell the employee to find another job. If there is no one in the organization with authority and willingess to remedy the situation, this is the best answer. But what is the advice to organizations? If you don’t want your fearful and inadequate executive to chase away all your best people (and he/she will eventually do so as well as render them powerless to do their jobs) you must address this. These individuals are hurting your organization in more ways than I can possibly describe here.
Some solutions are 1) release the bullying executive from employment. This is the easiest route and probably your only viable choice. 2) Provide executive coaching with (and only with) accountability measures in place. If you take this route, you must also take steps to rebuild damaged relationships and, again build in accountability steps.
I believe workplace bullying is the greatest threat to organizational effectiveness today. Any organization that wants to be optimally effective will take steps to create an environment where bullying and bullies cannot thrive.
The only solution is to purge the managers who have caused the intentional infliction of emotinal distress. One small company did what was the most honest and truthful response. The bully diregard company policies and their employment contract. Attempted to hold back the employee’s bonus. Ignored the employee’s problems and complaint. Played favortism and fratinized with like origin employees only. Provoked the employee. Now the employee has all his ducks in a row. The problem lays upon the managers whom disregards company policies.
I think it can be difficult to know when to define nasty behavior as bullying, and people need some explicit guidelines to help them identify when that line has been crossed, as bullying is more common than one might think. I had an experience where I was not treated well, and I’m still not sure if it would have qualified as bullying or not. The beahvior was very subtle, and sometimes I think it’s just me that was too sensitive. My boss left and was replaced by someone with no management experience. At first she just seemed cold, emotionless and uncaring, which unfortunately aren’t unusual behaviors in the corporate world. When she began to rip everything I had to say to shreds, I still just thought we had different, conflicting styles. Other people began to notice that she treated me and another co-worker differently than the rest of the team. Her tone of voice would get really mean and nasty and she would just shoot down everything we had to offer, even in staff meetings. When it came to handing out work assignments she would nicely ask the people she liked what they wanted to work on, and then she’d turn to me and in a very nasty, cold tone of voice dictate to me what I would work on. Some of the experiences characterized here as bullying are comparable to how I was treated, but I don’t understand how to tell the difference between bullying, and using a mean critical tone of voice and shredding and rejecting someone else’s ideas and efforts. Is that bullying? Does this really qualify as workplace violence?
Yes, because bullying can lead to mental ditress…but moreover, it sounds like there’s something more to it than that…why would someone start bullying you without a reason? Have you been working there long and hence she feeels threatened by you?
There was an employee who had no management experience, no background experience in HR, and no formal education in the subject. She was promoted to this position because she would do exactly what the CEO wanted her to do. He was the biggest bully and the others began to adopt his behavior.ÂÂ
One co-worker would meet with her and try to provide support. They would leave the meeting thinking that they were on the right track only to find that she would complain to others of how difficult it was to work with the co-worker. There was nothing she could do. Is this a form of bullying? Absolutely! This situation is all to common in workplaces around the country. The victimized employee has no control, she would try using all her skills, and was still being cut out of conversations that affected her work. The CEO had the nerve to tell her that it was her job to make herself a leader and if she didn’t become one it was her fault.
After having left the position and put a year away from the place she recognized exactly that this was bullying. The sad part was that these people are still there, doing lots of destruction to the organization’s enviroment and culture, and have turned a once vibrant organization into one in which people have gone underground and are frightened to open their mouths. So why aren’t they removed? Because the council (this is a municipal government) don’t have the strength or wherewithall to do anything. Meanwhile the citizens have now removed themselves from any type of work with the city. Go figure! It sounds alot like the loony left that we have in this country. They claim that they want free speech by promoting it, then turn around and try to silence people that don’t agree with them. Having people like this in your organization makes for a disfunctional team.
Another employee work had an encounter with a bully when she was working for the city manager of a municipal government. When she was let go on some trumped up charges (ie: they said she didn’t ask for quotes from two sources for a $1500 purchase order (which by the way was never used) she called the mayor. The purchase order was for him by the way to complete a project. He said she knew what was happening, however, two days later she received a notice in the mail that they never had the guts to tell her to her face. She was on a week’s sick leave because it eventually was making her so ill.
To date the manager is still there, the community hates him and wants him gone but the council is so weak they keep protecting him. Meanwhile three other long term employees have been either let go or laid off. The rest of the senior management have taken on the persona of the bully and absenteeism, and stress leave are off the wall. So while we say get rid of the bully it is not that easy - especially when it is the person at the top. This situation sounds like a scene from the movie Pleasantville.
Meanwhile it has taken me a year to get over my feelings of inadequacy. This from a very confident and competent person. I am fearful of entering another organization and feelings of “what could I have done differently” remain. I have restarted my consulting company and I have decided to work for myself focusing on team dynamics in the workplace.
Related links: The Workplace Bullying Institute. Education and research to stop bullying in the workplace.
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Shally Steckl has a passion for global staffing practices and social networking. He has found the January 17th Webinar event sponsored by Worldwide Recruiting Network to be particularly appealing, even more so given the presenter is world renown, Sourcing Guru, Shally Steckerl, Founder of JobMachine.