How To Identify And Stop Workplace Bullying

Workplace bullying is surprisingly common, with approximately 30% of the United States workforce, or 48.6 million Americans, falling into the victim of workplace bullying category. Considering the majority of the workforce are adults, these numbers can be worrying. Despite this, workplace bullying isn’t an issue that’s addressed nearly enough, with many complaints going unnoticed or unanswered by management.

A workplace that allows a culture of workplace bullying isn’t usually a place employees feel much loyalty to, and this bullying can quickly escalate into low retention rates and low productivity and output.

Maintaining an environment where employees feel comfortable is key to keeping your business running smoothly, and employees who are frequently bullied at work will either perform poorly or just outright quit, especially when management is informed but doesn’t take action.

What Constitutes Workplace Bullying?

Workplace bullying is a broad term for numerous types of behaviors, making it difficult to identify sometimes. Unfortunately for many, some think bullying isn’t a serious problem at work, and instead a way to motivate employees to do better work. This is harmful thinking, as it perpetuates the thought that any type of harassment or bullying is welcome in the workplace, no matter the intention behind it.

Bullying can range from obvious behaviors like screaming, yelling, name-calling, harassment, physical attacks, or making fun of an employee’s appearance. Oftentimes, though, workplace bullying is much more discrete, and can easily go unnoticed. Low performers are more likely to be victims of workplace bullying, but it rarely helps improve their performance, and instead usually produces the opposite effects.

Bullying also includes less obvious behaviors such as gaslighting, spreading rumors, blaming others, sabotaging peers, withholding important information, or manipulating things in a way that will inconvenience others intentionally. These behaviors are hard to spot, making them the ideal avenue for many wishing to bully their peers without consequence. Unfortunately for the bullied employees and the business as a whole, this takes a huge toll on output and productivity and can be detrimental to the company.

How To Stop Workplace Bullying

Once you’ve recognized that there are definitely some issues with bullying in your company, you can start to put together a plan of action for stopping the bullying, and making the workplace an overall safer, more comfortable place for your employees. The very first place to start when preventing or stopping workplace bullying is the hiring process. Take care when hiring that all employees have the proper soft skills, and don’t possess any of the traits commonly associated with bullying or harassment at work, especially at the leadership level. For example, if a prospective employee has the appropriate hard skills but is arrogant, they might not be the best fit for your company, as arrogance coincides frequently with poor cooperation and leadership. Because any employee you hire has the potential to eventually move into a leadership role, be sure to keep that in mind when you’re interviewing.

If it’s too late for a proactive approach, consider offering non-violent communication and problem-solving training to your current employees. This type of training can give employees healthy ways of expressing themselves and their work-related concerns without resorting to bullying, or negative behaviors.

Additionally, the bullying might reflect an even bigger problem in the company, such as too much stress, or unreasonable workloads. Chronic stress, burnout, unreasonable deadlines, and too much work and not enough time can all contribute to employee stress, which can quickly turn into anger and resentment that gets released on peers.

In Summary

While addressing workplace bullying is never easy, it’s necessary if a company wants happy, engaged employees and consistent output. Bullying of any kind never belongs in the workplace, regardless of the intentions behind it, including bullying done with the aim of greater output or quality of work. Management of companies with overt or covert bullying should immediately address the problem by assuring their employees receive proper non-violent communication and problem-solving training. If a company wants to continue to be successful and keep employees around, they need to address and stop all bullying in the workplace.

Article Link - How To Identify And Stop Workplace Bullying

Author - Staff Writer

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