Workplace bullying resources

As beating the office bully explains, workplace bullying is common. In fact, it is far more common than most people suspect. Depending on which research and statistics you accept, it could be responsible for 40 percent of all resignations.

Apart from being unjust and unpleasant for the people on the receiving end, bullying also damages the business where it takes place. By definition, a company that tolerates bullying cannot be meet its full productivity potential. And the physical and emotional energy that could be put to better use elsewhere is wasted by both the bully and the bullied.

This productivity loss is magnified for knowledge workers, who need mental space and a degree of inner peace to operate at maximum capacity. Managers who indulge in bullying behaviour or turn a blind eye when others bully are less likely to get results.

Here are some on-line resources to help you deal with workplace bullying.

Is office bullying making a comeback?

According to Is the office bully back? the economic crises has the potential to unleash a new wave of bad behaviour in the office. Hence this neat package of related stories on workplace bullying from bNet.

I don’t know if the credit crunch has triggered more bullying than usual — the problem seemed bad enough in the good old days of the boom — but the tightened job market means the victims of workplace bullying have fewer escape routes. Bullying has always been one of the main reasons people leave jobs.

If you’re a manager worried about bullies you should read the complete set of stories. Every manager should read the workplace bullying primer.

I particularly this list from the how to handle a workplace bully section:

How managers unwittingly encourage bullying

1. Pit workers against each other or emphasize a competitive work style.
2. Have a lax management style, so that employees must fill in the blanks themselves regarding what is acceptable and what is not.
3. Make unreasonable demands and goals of employees and managers.
4. Fail to give supervisors the authority to reprimand problem workers.
5. Set impossible deadlines or provide too little funding to accomplish a goal.

Useful anti-bullying tips from the BBC

BBC news: How to resolve bullying at work contains some useful tips including the following piece of wisdom:

Keep a detailed diary of every incident. Note down dates, times, who was involved and what happened – this could be crucial evidence for an employment tribunal.

These are what lawyers sometimes call contemporaneous notes. Basically, you should write notes close to the time something happens and include the time and date. Here’s a good piece on how to take these note as a PDF document.

Busting the office bully

How to bust the office bully is another useful PDF download. Not surprisingly this 2007 report from The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University reads like an academic project complete with citations. The document explains techniques allowing victims of workplace bullying to tell their stories to other people in plausible ways, something that can be the first step towards dealing with the problems of bullying.

Australian employment law and bullying

In this simple, but effective post, New South Wales lawyer Frank Egan points out employers risk legal exposure if they tolerate bullying. In plain English this means bosses who allow bullies to operate can end up being sued by their employees.

No complaints doesn’t mean no problems

Britain’s Andrea Adams Trust provides sound advice for employers and employees who face bullying, including yet another downloadable PDF fact sheet. There’s also a telephone hotline for people living in the UK. It even manged to enlist Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a supporter of its Ban Bullying at Work Day campaign. In a recent press release, the trust quoted the results of an on-line survey of 10,000 people, including:

• 92 percent of workers felt they are currently being bullied.
• 49 percent of those indicated that their immediate manager was the bully.
• 56 percent of  respondents stated  that  in  their workplace bullying  is a serious problem.
• 47.8 percent of  respondents  stated  that  when  they  made  a  formal  complaint
• procedures were not followed correctly.

Beyond bullying

Beyond bullying is a New Zealand-based website which advocates “zero tolerance to workplace bullying in New Zealand”. There’s also a book. While useful with links to Australian and New Zealand legal material, the website appears to be neglected, the most recent material I could find was from 2006. Like most of the other workplace bullying sites, there’s a PDF download, but unlike the other documents, this reads more like a PowerPoint presentation than a tract. One particularly interesting point made in the presentation is that bullying is often a consequence of weak, rather than strong, management.

NZ Department of Labour

This 2005 report (downloadable PDF) written by New Zealand’s Department of Labour defines workplace bullying in legal terms and then looks at the rights of employees and employers when it takes place.

NZ Public Service Association

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the best New Zealand sources of material on workplace bullying is produced by a union.  For example, the downloadable workplace bullying is not OK is one of the most comprehensive and readable documents I’ve seen on the subject. For example its definition of what workplace bullying (called harassment in the material) is not:

• Friendly banter, light hearted exchanges, mutually acceptable jokes and compliments
• Friendships sexual or otherwise, where both people consent to the relationship
• Issuing reasonable instructions and expecting them to be carried out
• Warning or disciplining someone in line with organisation policy
• Insisting on high standards of performance in terms of quality, safety and team cooperation
• Legitimate criticisms about work performance (not expressed in a hostile harassing manner)
• Giving negative feedback including in a performance appraisal and requiring justified performance
• improvement
• Assertively expressing opinions that are different from others
• Free and frank discussion about issues or concerns in the workplace, without personal insults
• And targeted EEO policies, parental leave  provisions or reasonable accommodation and provision of work
• aids for staff with disabilities.

Five HR responses to workplace bullying

Finally, on a lighter note, Scottish Boomerang has outlined five hr responses to workplace bullying including the mafioso:

Perhaps the worst stance, the Mafioso HR Department knows there is a problem with workplace bullying and actively participates or supports the abuse by bringing false, fabricated or unnecessary proceedings against the targets of bullying, supporting the culprits, joining in “the fun”. Their typical way is to issue threats to targets and abuse procedure. They are the harbingers of doom to any firm and and they ride in on the pale horse.

Oh, yes, you know who you are. And so do we. We can tell by the attrition rates, the number of lawsuits, and the fact that you can smell the fear and tension the moment you walk through the door.

Further reading:
Beating the office bully