Most people think that bullying is something that only happens at school, sadly it can happen to anyone at any time in their life.You might even realise this can occur in the workplace and can influence some of your employees.
A common misunderstanding is that bullying always takes place in plain sight. In reality, it is often subtle and insidious. So much so that it might be happening in front of you without you realising.
In most cases, bullying is not black and white. You probably will not witness one big act of bullying. It is more of a pattern of incidents that occur over an extended period of time. Because of this, it frequently goes unnoticed in the office, leaving employees to suffer in silence.
What exactly is workplace bullying?
Bullying in the workplace refers to the persistent abuse of an employee at their place of employment. It can take many forms, including verbal, nonverbal, physical, and psychological harassment. Bullying in the workplace can be carried out by a single individual or by a group, and it can take place either one-on-one or in front of other people, such as customers, teammates, or clients. Even while everyone is capable of engaging in bullying behaviour at work, the vast majority of bullies are in positions of authority such as managers or supervisors. At the workplace, one person may bully another for any number of reasons; nonetheless, the bully's personality is frequently the primary motivating element.
Workplace cyber-bullying
Even if a lot of workers have transitioned to working from home or in a hybrid arrangement during the past several years, your company may still face issues of bullying in the workplace. Bullying at work can take place not only in an actual workplace, but also in a digital workspace if it is not addressed.Work place cyber-bullying can be carried through e-mails, video chat meetings and instant chat texting. Even if it takes a different form to ‘traditional bullying’, it is still bullying.
A problem that follows victims home
Even though the bullying technically takes place outside of work, bullying that occurs between two or more of your employees is workplace bullying. This is the case even if there are no witnesses to the bullying. Bullying can also happen during company social activities such as team-building exercises, work trips and company parties. It can also take the form of exclusion from work related social events. Work place bullying is a problem that will impact victims in many ways and areas of their life and it is not confined to work places and hours.
How to identify workplace bullying?
Because there are a variety of ways in which bullying can manifest itself in the workplace, it is essential to be on the lookout for a variety of undesirable behaviours that could occur anywhere within your workforce. Get yourself and your team educated on the different kinds of acts and behaviours that are considered bullying in the workplace.
Negative behaviours that can indicate workplace bullying are:
- Comments or actions that are threatening, demeaning, intimidating or hostile
- Recurrent humiliation and/or teasing
- Recurrent unfair blaming and criticism
- Sabotaging of one’s work
- Unrealistic expectations and demands
- Aggressive communication
- Exclusion or isolation
- Direct or passive-aggressive insults and comments
- Taking credit for victim’s work and achievements
- Shaming
- Turning employees against one another
- Withholding of information
- Making someone feel useless
- Threats
- Blocking growth
- Using someone as a scapegoat
- Minimising one’s concerns and feelings
- Deceit
Keep open lines of communication with your team to prevent anyone from becoming the target of these activities. Keep in mind that everyone can become a victim since bullying can happen in either a real or virtual work environment. Encouraging employees to report abuse as soon as they notice it is a great way to prevent things going too far. Once you identify a case of bullying, it is really important that you put effort to stop it. You must make sure to support the victim(s) and must sanction the perpetrator(s).