To quote Lewis Maltby in an interview from the Regional Labor Review:
“When companies can hopscotch around the world in the blink of an eye, national laws aren’t very effective, and it progressively does less and less good to have national laws. We (also) need international laws that protect fundamental human rights on the job.”
One of those ‘human rights’ that Maltby is referring to is ‘chronic bullying’. Bullying in the workplace is a reality that employers are failing to address. Did you know that there is a Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI – www.workplacebullying.org) that is devoted to addressing the issue and presence of bullying at work. According to the WBI, bullying is four (4) times more common that either sexual harassment or racial discrimination on the job. They feel that the reason bullying occurs so frequently in the workplace is that bullying is not yet ‘illegal’. No U.S. state has an anti-bullying in the workplace law in place as of this writing, nor is there any national law on the horizon.
Workplace bullying occurs when an employee experiences a regular pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes harm. It can cover the gamut of tactics such as verbal, psychological, physical abuse and humiliation. The effects of bullying are broad to an organization…sometimes it is reported to have been by someone with hiring authority over a target or completely missed by the superiors of the target. It can be known by many in an organization and negative effects are certainly not limited to the targeted individuals.
Bullying is repetition (occurs regularly), enduring and increasingly aggressive. There is also a definitive power disparity between the target and the person doing the bullying…..and in many instances, the bullied individuals are labeled as insubordinate when they resist the bullying treatment.
According to the WBI, women appear to be at a greater risk of becoming a bullying target…
This fact is based on reporting…men are more likely to participate in aggressive bullying behavior, however, when the bully is a woman her target is more likely to be a woman as well. There are many additional statistics that could be noted also….divorced or separated workers, the slightly better educated and those less than 65 years of age were more ‘targeted’ than other groups…Statistics are also available for bullying by race and work positions.
It turns out that bullies are always aware of what they are doing…they deliberately set out to harm their victims and they target an individual or a type of individual that has some kind of underlying personality flaw, insecurity or disorder. This is not always the case….in some instances, ‘the bully’ has the need to control.
The main relationships among participants in workplace bullying are: supervisor/subordinate, co-workers and employees/customers. The prevalence of this bullying depends upon the organizational culture and the geographical culture. A culture of fear exists when individuals that are targeted recognize the bullying behavior for what it is….people generally walk on eggshells when they are the target or perceive themselves to be a target…
The workplace bully generally knows how to work the system…whether they are a supervisor or a co-worker and the examples that one can find on the internet of types of ‘bullying’ is amazing…
Productivity is seriously affected with a ‘bully’ on the workforce and the costs of decreased productivity due to workplace bullying is becoming a staggering number…
The general direction of this BLOG is to hope the readers become aware of the issues surrounding workplace bullying and that there is an organization that offers webinars, classes, ongoing information and support to organizations that are dealing with the bullying. Please note that the individual workplace bully, just like the individual with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) has a form of mental illness, mild or severe….it is not the place of the employer or HR representative to determine that….it needs to be addressed, channeled and ‘helped’ in whatever form possible. The Workplace Bullying Institute can help.
If you are being bullied in the workplace, please attempt to follow the reporting channels within your organization; if you are being ‘bullied’ by a supervisor or superior and do not know which direction to take, please contact me, Rosanne Bennett at info@scbhrserv.com or at 484-798-1236. If you are a business owner and sense that bullying is occurring within your workforce, please contact the Workplace Bullying Institute for ways to begin correcting this behavior.
“When companies can hopscotch around the world in the blink of an eye, national laws aren’t very effective, and it progressively does less and less good to have national laws. We (also) need international laws that protect fundamental human rights on the job.”
One of those ‘human rights’ that Maltby is referring to is ‘chronic bullying’. Bullying in the workplace is a reality that employers are failing to address. Did you know that there is a Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI – www.workplacebullying.org) that is devoted to addressing the issue and presence of bullying at work. According to the WBI, bullying is four (4) times more common that either sexual harassment or racial discrimination on the job. They feel that the reason bullying occurs so frequently in the workplace is that bullying is not yet ‘illegal’. No U.S. state has an anti-bullying in the workplace law in place as of this writing, nor is there any national law on the horizon.
Workplace bullying occurs when an employee experiences a regular pattern of mistreatment from others in the workplace that causes harm. It can cover the gamut of tactics such as verbal, psychological, physical abuse and humiliation. The effects of bullying are broad to an organization…sometimes it is reported to have been by someone with hiring authority over a target or completely missed by the superiors of the target. It can be known by many in an organization and negative effects are certainly not limited to the targeted individuals.
Bullying is repetition (occurs regularly), enduring and increasingly aggressive. There is also a definitive power disparity between the target and the person doing the bullying…..and in many instances, the bullied individuals are labeled as insubordinate when they resist the bullying treatment.
According to the WBI, women appear to be at a greater risk of becoming a bullying target…
This fact is based on reporting…men are more likely to participate in aggressive bullying behavior, however, when the bully is a woman her target is more likely to be a woman as well. There are many additional statistics that could be noted also….divorced or separated workers, the slightly better educated and those less than 65 years of age were more ‘targeted’ than other groups…Statistics are also available for bullying by race and work positions.
It turns out that bullies are always aware of what they are doing…they deliberately set out to harm their victims and they target an individual or a type of individual that has some kind of underlying personality flaw, insecurity or disorder. This is not always the case….in some instances, ‘the bully’ has the need to control.
The main relationships among participants in workplace bullying are: supervisor/subordinate, co-workers and employees/customers. The prevalence of this bullying depends upon the organizational culture and the geographical culture. A culture of fear exists when individuals that are targeted recognize the bullying behavior for what it is….people generally walk on eggshells when they are the target or perceive themselves to be a target…
The workplace bully generally knows how to work the system…whether they are a supervisor or a co-worker and the examples that one can find on the internet of types of ‘bullying’ is amazing…
Productivity is seriously affected with a ‘bully’ on the workforce and the costs of decreased productivity due to workplace bullying is becoming a staggering number…
The general direction of this BLOG is to hope the readers become aware of the issues surrounding workplace bullying and that there is an organization that offers webinars, classes, ongoing information and support to organizations that are dealing with the bullying. Please note that the individual workplace bully, just like the individual with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) has a form of mental illness, mild or severe….it is not the place of the employer or HR representative to determine that….it needs to be addressed, channeled and ‘helped’ in whatever form possible. The Workplace Bullying Institute can help.
If you are being bullied in the workplace, please attempt to follow the reporting channels within your organization; if you are being ‘bullied’ by a supervisor or superior and do not know which direction to take, please contact me, Rosanne Bennett at info@scbhrserv.com or at 484-798-1236. If you are a business owner and sense that bullying is occurring within your workforce, please contact the Workplace Bullying Institute for ways to begin correcting this behavior.
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