Is there a Bully at Work?

Workplace bullying is real and takes place more than we may think or are willing to accept. The work of Dr. Judy Bland from the University of Phoenix indicates that 75% of employees are either directly (as the target) or indirectly (as the witness) affected by workplace bullying. I know that bullying takes place from the schoolyard to the workplace, but I couldn’t believe that 75% of employees experience it in one way or another. But then I started to think about my experiences with negative employees, those with bad attitudes, and how many excuses I have heard from leadership about clashes of personalities. You have heard similar excuses. “That’s just the way they are” or “They’re a good employee and we can’t afford to lose them”. Sound familiar?

What is Workplace Bullying?

The Workplace Bullying Institute (yes, it exists because bullying is such a problem), provides this definition of workplace bullying: “Workplace bullying is the repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators. It is abusive conduct that is: threatening, humiliating, or intimidating, or work-interference, i.e. sabotage, which prevents work from getting done”. This type of bullying is less physical and more psychological, emotional, mental and verbal in nature.

For bullying to be effective, it must be repeated over time and take place regularly. It involves behaviors that can be seen or heard. Such behaviors can escalate over time and become increasingly more intense. Under certain circumstances, emotional bullying can lead to physical violence. An underlying theme to workplace bullying is a struggle to maintain intentional power and coercion over another person or group. The Workplace Bullying Institute reports that bullying is more common than sexual harassment or racial discrimination at work, as a matter of fact, four times more common.

Who is the Bully?

Most workplace bullies go after someone who is a threat to them. It may be a person in charge, a leader, who is the target. This may be counterintuitive, because we might assume that bullies go after weak people. This is not the case in the work environment. Persons who are smarter, more skilled, or liked by others tend to be on the bully’s radar. Why? To the bully, everything is about competition and he or she doesn’t feel smart enough to compete fairly, so control and manipulation seem to be pretty good methods of beating the target down. The ultimate goal of any bully is to maintain a sense of power.

Bullying is Expensive

Budgets are tight enough without the additional costs created through a bully-friendly work culture. How would you like to engage in a possible lawsuit between coworkers and colleagues? The costs involved would not just be financial. The stress and anxiety involved could produce one big headache that lasts for a long time. There are also the costs of good people leaving, calling off, and talking about it in the community.

How does bullying good employees impact performance or quality of care? It’s very difficult to place a price tag on this. When other employees see this culture of bullying impacting job performance, a decline in morale and job satisfaction are bound to occur. Employees who are bullied have more on their mind than doing their job. They’re concerned about the next run in with the bully.

Allowing bullying to take place over the course of time can lead to a very unfriendly, toxic and negative culture. Everyone becomes affected by this and for the most part, nobody wants it. Do you take sides with the bully or the victim? Do you bring it up and do something about it or remain quiet? The amount of conflict in such a culture will cost plenty. Do you allow this cycle to go on and once new employees are hired to replace the victims, will they become a new target of workplace bullying?

Final Words and Some Solutions on Bullying at Work

We know bullying is real and causes real problems. Now what? Find out who they are. Leadership is responsible for doing something about this. Create and reinforce a “No-Bullying” work environment. Stress that you will not tolerate bullying whatsoever and that there will be severe consequences if bullying takes place on your watch. Sit the bully down and give clear behavioral changes and goals that must take place. If they change, fine. If not, they have to go.

If you would like to learn more about this topic and others, go to collinslearning.com. We’ve got some good courses that your entire team can benefit from. It can become a part of your “No-Bullying” culture.

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