Once in a while, every employee has suffered workplace bullying or harassment, producing an extensive level of demotivation and self-question. Unfortunately, it is not merely a childhood dilemma but in adulthood too. According to some studies, bullying is the reason behind someone’s mental problems, suicidal acts, and emotional stress encompassing the globe.
Technically bullying in the workplace is defined as an abuse of power. It can be humiliating, intimidating, and degrading employee behavior, creating a sense of helplessness on target.
Bullying is different from aggression. Aggression may mean an individual act. Whereas bullying involves repeated attacks against the victim, creating an ongoing pattern of behavior.
Workplace bullying is a dominant matter of concern for organizations and causes a downward slope in the productivity and efficiency of employees. Sounds haunting, right?
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at terms related to bullying in the workplace, the laws surrounding them, and how to overcome them. If you want to know how to avoid workplace bullying and its side effects, hop along with this article.
Exemplification Of Term Workplace Bullying & Its Types :
Defining workplace bullying can be a persistent pattern of behavior that causes physical or emotional stress and humiliation. It can be of companions and occasionally assistants. It leads to non-productive behavior towards the organization.
Here is an example of some workplace bullying are;
- Unwanted criticism
- Criticize without factual justification
- Being managed differently than the rest of your workgroup.
- Being cursed at
- Being screamed at or being denied
- Being the target of practical jokes
These are some actions involved in workplace bullying, and, at certain times, it comes from unethical behavior from the employees and results in targeting individuals. Some types of workplace bullying let us, witness, so please keep reading along;
Few Types of Workplace Bullying
Assertive Bullying: The most common image that appears in the mind when someone mentions bullying is the situation of bosses yelling at their employees, screaming, and getting angry at small ignorable things. The side effect of bullying does not threaten the targeted person nor all the co-workers who might get intimidated by the subsequent victim.
Institutional bullying: Occurs when the workplace permits, recognizes and even encourages bullying. This type of bullying can include nonsensical result objects, quarrying, and intolerable forced overtime.
Verbal bullying: This type of bullying could include humiliation, personal jokes, gossip, or other spoken abuse, leading to targeted personal demoralization and insulting situations. Verbal bullying can leave persistent scars that damage the victim for time. Many tormentors practice their verbal messages to injure or insult the target. Therefore, technically physical and verbal bullying often go hand-in-hand.
Prejudicial Bullying: Teasers based on someone’s culture, spirituality, or sexual orientation are ordinarily considered prejudicial bullying. Prejudicial bullying majorly consists of physical, verbal, or cyberbullying. Targeting someone who acts or looks differently or favoring someone and degrading someone is prejudiced bullying.
What Are The Consequences Of Workplace Bullying?
Workplace bullying creates team turnover, desertion, and the productivity level goes downhill. Employers encounter complex problems and cause the organizations to carry a bag of losses and suffering. Undoubtedly, bullying in the workplace not only brings suffering to employees but also to employers too.
Here are the after-effects of bullying for both employers and employees.
Bullying in the workplace has side effects on employees-
- Stress
- Emotional trauma
- Anxiety
- Sleeping problems
- Lack of self-esteem
- Suicidal thoughts
Bullying in the workplace has side effects for employers-
- Low productivity level
- Towering absenteeism
- Depressing work environment
- Constant searching for the replacement
- Expense over legal actions and investigations
You might think that people at work are selecting the victims or somehow hunting the most vulnerable for bullying. Well, it is not always the case if you have been bullied or abused and doubt own-selves. Why me?
We have listed 04 reasons why people become the target of workplace bullying.
Proficient Employees
Majorly the targets are the skilled and talented workers who receive a lot of attention and are knowledgeable, dedicated, and creative. Employees who get an appraisal regarding their hard work and creative minds attract workplace bullies to an extent.
There is also some evidence that depression and other stress-related conditions might attract the attention of bullies. If you are living with any of these conditions, it is vital to take treatment. Talk to your healthcare provider about your symptoms. Depression, anxiety, and stress-related problems should never be left untreated. What’s more, bullying will exacerbate your symptoms.
Admired or Genuine People
Compassionate, kind, and supportive employees are on the mark. Victims are the most talented, kind, and popular employees. However, this does not mean that you need to adjust your behavior or manners but try to gain insights into being targeted and bullied.
Non-Confrontational or Vulnerable
Discouraged, introspective, and submissive employees might bring the attention of bullies toward themselves. Very depressing, stress-related dilemmas and precarious employees are most bullied and abused not in the workplace, but also in their daily lives.
Being Observed as Prejudicially
Bullies target people by gender, age, race, and religion. The reason for bullying can be a disability, illness, or a disadvantage to a person. Until this section, we have learned what workplace bullying means and who are the preferred targets. Let us see how to deal with it and what to do if you witness some of it.
Also, we recommend that you don’t ignore it even if you are not the victim. Because these types of exercise are illegal, although if not stopped early can be turned over to you too.
11 Tactics On How Employers Can Prevent Workplace Bullying
A little slight ignorance of administrators can result in workplace bullies. Organizations have been applying strict workplace policies to avoid such situations. Apart from strict policies, some measures are necessary to dodge this situation in the company.
When witnessing this type of abuse, it is obvious and natural to feel weak and vulnerable, but there is a solution for every problem. So if you are experiencing any bullying, here are some tactics that can help you learn how to tackle it & actions to take to stop it. Some activities to take when you witness bullying are;
01 – Report and Try To Speak About It
As soon as you experience workplace bullying, try to report it on an immediate basis. If you are uncomfortable talking to the supervisor or administrator, the Human resource department is the best place to go. It is always best to report something that traumatizes you instead of suffering it.
02- Document and Collect The Evidence
It is the safest option to prove yourself right, keeping on track of abusive actions. Try to note down the date, the time, the place, and witness that bullying. Remember to keep safe all the evidence related to the bullying, like notes, comments, or emails. These shreds of evidence will help you to prove your case.
03- Seek Help From Your Co-Workers
If you feel relaxed, ask your peers for help. Speaking always helps solve the most mysterious situations. Communicate with professionals, friends, therapists, and anyone you are comfortable to talk. This way, you can find a way to deal with the situation.
04- Legal guidance
Legal actions may not be possible in case of workplace bullying or abuse. Although, seeking legal guidance can help you to sort this situation to a certain point. Look for the workplace policies and any legal issues related to bullying, ragging, and abuse. This way, you can take some low-level actions against the abuse
05- Confront the Attacker
The last action is confronting the attracter, only if you are comfortable doing so. Seeking out the help of your trusted one and defy the attacker with talk and ask to stop it. Remember the old saying that it is always better to confront your situation rather than hide or avoid it.
06- Awareness
One of the efficient methods to deal with workplace bullying is spreading awareness and encouraging the employee to report it.
07- Monitoring
These days, employee monitoring is the most preferred and reliable way of avoiding workplace bullying and abusive situations. Time tracking, monitoring, and managing tools can be the best aids for ensuring the employees should only focus on work and maintain a healthy work environment.
EmpMonitor is cloud-based software to monitor, track and manage major office-related tasks. With this real-time computer monitoring software, you can view activities as they happen and manage them instantly.
08- Attendance Management
No longer need to rely on hard copies to maintain attendance. EmpMonitor tracks accurate work hours and manages the attendance department, removing the cluster work marking the attendance. The unbiased extract ready-made report makes the management task easy, minimizing the chance of tampering.
09- Time Management
EmpMonitor assists in managing the time and tracks the employee’s presence and productivity. The generated report can be accessible to the supervisor which can help to optimize your team efficiently.
10- Auto Screenshot
Customizable monitoring parameters and random screenshot capturing can help ensure that the employees stay on track and productive.
11- Response
Quick and immediate response and actions against it can encourage other staff to speak up against it. Once reported, strict steps are mandatory by transferring or required firing the culprit.
How Workplace Bullying Laws Mess Up With Organizations?
Nearly every country has its laws against workplace bullying in different forms. Queensland, Australia, follows a code of practices, especially for workplace bullying- The Prevention Of Workplace Harassment Code of Practice, 2004. Spreading awareness among the employees about the laws and policies against workplace bullying will automatically discourage the culprits from the abuse.
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Why Is Preventing Workplace Bullying So Crucial?
Workplace bullying is not different than sexual harassment or rape, it is furthermore illegal, and now is the high time for any organization to stop and take precautionary steps against it. However, with the mass strength of workers, no department can keep an eye on the employees, and not everyone dares to complain and speak up against it.
With EmpMonitor, you can track and monitor the activities of the employees, measure their productivity, and idle time wasted on other activities apart from working.
Workplace bullying not only affects the physical and mental health of the employee but also hurts the reputation of the employer. It can dissuade people from entering the company. Additionally, workplace bullying can bring unnecessary legal difficulties that no organization wants to attract. The moral of the story is that workplace bullying can damage the company’s reputation, affect employee productivity, demotivate and bring mental complications for the individuals. Therefore organizations must put an end to this type of illegal activity.
