Bullying can cost productivity
About once a week I get a call from someone who feels he or she is being harassed at work. Not sexually harassed. Not harassment targeted toward his or her ethnicity, religion or the like, but indeed harassment. I call it bullying.
Bullying can be characterized as the deliberate, repeated, hurtful mistreatment of a person (the Target) by a cruel perpetrator (the bully), driven perhaps by the bully’s insatiable need to control others.
Bullying can be subjecting an employee to a hostile work environment, but not necessarily one grounded in the person’s status, such as sex or race. As such, bullying involves status-blind hostile work environment conditions. The problem facing the target is there are no laws to protect the target from such bullying. The discrimination laws (both state and federal) do not aid the target in this situation. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination will not likely entertain a complaint based solely on bullying which does not have a protected class component violation allegation.
Common bullying behaviors include unfair blame for “mistakes,” insults and put-downs, yelling and screaming, excluding or “icing out” the victim person from normal circles of communication, imposing the silent treatment, unfairly denigrating the target behind his or her back, and the like. The perpetrators of workplace bullying are often supervisors, but co-workers and even subordinates engaged in these practices as well.
It is a costly, counterproductive phenomenon that sometimes destroys lives and careers of individuals and drains organizations of productive, committed people.
Workplace bullying is a phenomenon infecting businesses nationwide. Judging solely by the phone calls to my office, certainly an unscientific approach, women are just as likely to be bullies as men.
What should companies do? I would suggest companies create a procedure for workers to report bullying behavior, much like they have for sexual harassment. Unfortunately, few businesses encourage reporting bullying despite knowledge that it exists in their work environment. True, there are no laws mandating such a policy, however, it is a humane approach. Well-operated companies will substantially curb any existing or potential bullying problems with such a policy.
As the target, you may try to turn things around, however I know that is easier said than done.
The target can try to stay out of range of assaults and avoid one-on-one opportunities to get blasted in private. Also, for your self-esteem, don’t be isolated. Maintain social relations. Don’t let the bully deny you your social rights.
Second, the target can try to get the bully off your back by engineering a planned counterattack. To do so however, you need to find a person senior to the bully who will side with you for economic as well as sympathetic reasons. If none can be found, and the bully doesn’t back down when you personally confront him or her about the irrational mistreatment, you might have to work elsewhere. When the bully has the backing of the organization, you will live a life filled with a daily misery and distress you don’t deserve. Get out for your sanity and dignity.
Overall, the employer organization should take the reigns and create a bullying policy for the benefit of its employees.
