Photo by Nuttawan Jayawan
Must see five tips for victims and five tips for managers.
About 52 million Americans have experience with workplace bullying. Incredibly, at least 30 percent of American workers have been adversely affected by intimidation, degradation or humiliation. Nearly half have been targets or witnesses, according to the Workplace Bullying Institute.
There are many types of workplace bullying: Power manipulation, physical and verbal abuse, social isolation and work sabotage. Both men and women are bullies — bosses, peers, or even subordinates.
So it’s a widespread problem for employers and employees, alike. Workplace bullying is a costly threat to an organization’s teamwork and productivity. In fact, it hurts retention of all employees.
It can also cause legal issues, for which best practices in workplace investigation are needed.
Note: If a company is lacking in teamwork, morale is weak and profits are weak, chances are you there might be problems with workplace bullies.
If so, this means you probably to improve your organization’s culture. Be forewarned, changing a culture is a monumental chore because it will take strategic planning and super powers of persuasion. There are six steps to necessary to implement a cultural change for profits.
Remember, victims have rights and employers must take steps to need to deal with bullying and prevent it, as it involves physical and mental abuse.
Remember, victims have rights and employers must take steps to need to deal with bullying and prevent it, as it involves physical and mental abuse.
Do not tolerate it. Make it a formal policy.
- Write a detailed record of every bullying episode. Include dates, times, and precisely what happened. Save emails, texts, or notes as proof.
- Set your limits with a calm, voice to tell the person their words are not okay. Maintain eye contact. Stay focused strictly on the job.
- It’s important to remain calm. Do not show any anger or fear. By not showing emotion, bullies often stop.
- Don’t be alone. Get support from your trusted family members, friends and a mental health professional.
- In order to utilize your recordkeeping, with your documentation report the behavior to your human resources department immediately. If HR fails to promptly act, go to the highest-possible management. Of course, if you don’t have an HR department, take your complaint to management.
- Continually monitor for issues. Be cognizant of sudden drops in team mood, conflicts or ostracized employees. In other words, employees who are shut out, ignored or left out of a group on purpose.
- Immediately deal with bad behavior whether you see it or hear about it. For moral and legal reasons, never wait for a formal complaint.
- Listen to a targeted employee with compassion. Immediately hold a private discussion with the targeted employee. Carefully listen, take notes and be certain not to blame the victim.
- If you haven’t already, establish a strict code of respect. Enforce clear rules. Using your HR policy, punish bad behavior fairly and openly.
- Carefully protect your workers who report bullying. Make certain they aren’t continuously face bullying from their peers or managers.
Conclusion
To eliminate long-term stress and a toxic work environment, recognize and deal with harmful behavior by employees. Solving workplace bullying necessitates documentation, firm boundaries for victims, swiftly intervene and with a zero-tolerance policy.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are relevant strategies employees and managers:
Do You Have A Toxic Relationship With Your Boss? — This may be the 21st century with a cornucopia of management textbooks for bosses, but a significant number of employees still complain about their supervisors lacking in professionalism. That’s according to a study by Wayne Hochwarter, a professor in management at Florida State University.
How to Deal With An Oppressive Employer — In the private and public sectors, organizational performance is strong when employees are managed properly. In turn, employees perform well and they are confident in their employers. So it was disturbing when someone asked me what to do about an abusive boss.
Strategies to Make Change Management Programs Work — Management is mostly to blame because most change-management programs crash and burn. Why? It’s up to management to hire the right people, and to invest in the right tools while inspiring employees to accept and drive change. Here’s how.
Manage Health Costs by Improving Your Culture 3 Ways — Is your company saddled with high health costs? By improving your culture in three ways to minimize stress, your company will improve performance and long-term sustainability.
“Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
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