03 October 2005
If you are being bullied at work, make a diary entry for 7 November 2005. This is Ban Bullying at Work Day and may be the time to raise the issue with your manager and/or HR department. Similarly, if you are responsible for HR issues in your organisation, this is a good time to ensure that you have effective procedures in place to deal with the impact of bullying.
Bullying can cause significant mental health and social problems to the victim and will often lead to sickness absence, high staff turnover and reduced productivity. It is estimated that bullying costs UK employers over £2 billion a year and this is in addition to the mounting costs of claims of harassment and work related stress. This suggests that the 83% of employers who have a policy on bullying/harassment, are either not implementing it properly or are not providing adequate training to their staff and managers.
Bullying at work involves repeated negative actions and practices which are directed at one or more workers, and may be carried out as a deliberate act or unconsciously. Such behaviour is unwelcome to the victim and causes humiliation, offence and distress. Bullying is therefore widely defined and can include:
- Ridiculing or demeaning comments
- Removing someone’s responsibilities or overloading them with work
- Excluding them or making them a scapegoat
- Unfair and excessive criticism
- Setting unreasonable tasks or deadlines
- Spreading rumours or gossip
In other words, we are not just talking about threats of physical violence, shouting and abuse, but other types of behaviour which can occur subtly over a long period of time.
It is always best to deal with bullying at work informally and quickly. This saves both time and money and provides the opportunity to resolve issues before working relationships are damaged irretrievably. All employees need to ensure that they have a policy for dealing with bullying. This must describe what is regarded as acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and make it clear that all employees are entitled to be treated with respect and dignity. A procedure should be in place to enable victims to report incidents of bullying and for these to be fully investigated. Witnesses as well as victims should be encouraged to come forward without fear of repercussion.
There is little point in having policies and procedures in place if your employees are unaware of them and do not know how to put them into practice. The policy should therefore be circulated to all employees, either by including it in the staff handbook, pinning it on the notice board or putting it on the company’s intranet. Training should be given to the entire workforce and this should cover the outline of the policy and procedures, what constitutes bullying, how to deal with instances where colleagues behave badly and what guidance and support is available to those who believe they are being bullied. Line managers need particular training as they are often in the best place to spot signs of bullying. They therefore need to recognise when relationships within their team are becoming strained and how to deal with any conflict that may arise.
Failure to deal with bullying at work could lead to claims for breach of contract, unfair constructive dismissal, personal injury and discrimination/harassment. These claims can be expensive and time consuming but can be easily avoided if proper procedures and training are in place.