Bullying is most frequently associated with children, however, cases have become increasingly common in the UK workplace; Philip Andrews a Behavioural Psychotherapist looks at the problem and reports on what can be done to manage it.
Thirty million working days were lost last year (according to the Health & Safety Executive), as a result of working related illness. Much of this absenteeism can be attributed to stress, but increasingly bullying has forced employees to take drastic action. Bullying can occur between employees at a similar level, but also at a management level, where a direct abuse of authority can prove even more difficult to deal with.
Bullying involves any persistent form of abuse that makes the victim feel singled out from his/her colleagues. In the workplace, incidents of bullying are generally subtle enough for the person at the receiving end to feel unable to complain.
Nevertheless, continued fault-finding can have serious damaging emotional, psychological and physical effects. Common symptoms include headaches, nervousness and more extreme manifestations such as alopecia and coronary problems.
In the workplace, bullying usually focuses on distorted or fabricated allegations of under-performance. Other examples include autocratic management styles, which fail to allow for personal initiative, sexual harassment and excessive workload (failing to consider additional commitments – both internal and external).
Bullies can be motivated by a number of different reasons. Despite the façade, all bullies have issues with self-confidence and low-esteem. Bullies are often jealous of other peoples’ ability, success and popularity. These types of people often feel inadequate and are unable to fulfil the duties and obligations of their position. As a result, they fear being revealed and use bullying as a tactic for displaying power.
Without doubt, certain working environments are more prone to bullying, these are typically businesses with high levels of competitiveness, a fear of redundancy/losing one’s position and lack of training/competence. However, one of the most challenging aspects of being bullied is knowing how to deal with the perpetrator. Having the courage to admit you are being intimidated by a colleague is the first step.
It is absolutely crucial that each incident is documented, including specific details such as time, date and location. The next step is to confront the bully in a calm, dispassionate manner, explaining that their treatment is not only unfair, but harmful.
This is of course easier said than done, but highlighting that there is a problem is extremely important. If the bullying continues, the next step is to approach a line manager (unless this manager is the cause of the problem, in which case a superior can be contacted). Continuous bullying is a serious issue for both employer and employee and it is the responsibility of the company to resolve any conflict quickly and amicably.
Bullying in the workplace can have particularly long-lasting and far-reaching consequences, but it is important to remember that anyone can fall victim to a bully. It isn’t just those who might come across as being particularly susceptible to bullies, even the most confident people can find themselves at the receiving end.
It is never easy to deal with and surprisingly common. Good communication is the key, discussing the problem forces it into the open and any good company will have a procedure or better still a policy to rectify the issue.
5 Responses
Individually based responses not enough
I am pleased that Phillip’s clients are able to find better ways of responding to bullying so that they do not, for example, become prone to anxiety and panic attacks. Also I have left an organisation due to bullying which made the real resource constraints unbearable. However, I think that in many cases [perhaps not that of the CEO who bullies board and staff alike]such a situation will not be ended without the use of a grievance and preferably one taken on a collective basis. Whilst not pretending that unionised workplaces [nor necessarily the internal activities of Trades Unions themselves]are bully free zones the involvement and support of a Union in such a process can be invaluable.
After all whilst the internal response of the victim may not be helping her/him the problem is the actions of the bully and if they are not altered – either by reflection and change on behalf of the bully or because of sanctions – then it has not been solved.
Bullying CEO’s
Hi Nik,
It’s so sad to hear about what happened to you and your colleagues. Sadly, this is not an uncommon situation. I am seeing a lady currently who lectures at a local college. Very resourceful in terms of her career…HR and Marketing expert with her own successful companies in the past. However, her life was been made a misery by the ‘management team’ to the extent that she was off sick with depression and panic attacks. However, she has managed to turn it around and now sees these people, and her boss in particular, for what they really are and is coping with it all, having learnt new strategies. Unfortunately, raising a grievance is not usually the way to tackle this kind of problem and can make matters a whole lot worse, but in order to take forward to a tribunal, this procedure has to be used. I agree, that legislation may be the driving force for change but I wonder how difficult that may be to implement on a practical level. I am glad to hear that you are no longer having to experience that daily trauma though Nik.
Thanks
Thanks again for that. Fortunately the situation of CEO as bully is not one I’m currently working under. However I did work for a bullying CEO previously in my career – who believed that his “honest and open communication style” was completely justified – despite the fact that it left almost all his board and senior management team emotional wrecks. In the end it was easier to move on then confront the problem head on – I don’t like being reduced to tears on a weekly basis and I don’t like seeing it happen to my colleagues either, so I quit.
Sadly I think it’s probably time that effective anti-bullying legislation was put in place to deal with this kind of individual.
A bullying CEO
Hi Nik,
Thank you for your kind comments about the article! This is a really difficult one. A CEO has the ultimate control and power in the organisation and it may be really difficult to effect any changes in the CEO’s style and attitudes. I hope that you are able to get support from your work colleagues. In my experience, in my clinical practice of dealing with people who have become the targets for the bully, the key thing is to deal with what the bullying ‘means to you’. By this I mean what emotional responses does it make you feel, what are your negative thought processes that make you feel like this and what behaviour reults from these thoughts and emotions? Ultimately, it about changing the negative self beliefs that people hold that are activated by the bully’s behaviour. Quite often these relate to previous negative experiences that stay with the person. It is quite possible to make the changes that help in being able to cope with this type of behaviour. I hope that this helps.
Kind regards…..Philip
Good Advice
It’s a really good article. I’ve just got one question how do you handle a bully when they are the CEO of the company?