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Thought you had left the schoolyard bully behind? Unfortunately, the schoolyard is not the only place to find bullies. They are also terrorizing the workplace. Just like back in the schoolyard, a workplace bully can terrorize the people around them. They’re able to make even the best and brightest cower in fear. |
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In Canada, one in six employees has been bullied, according to the Canadian Safety Council. The organization also reports that 75% of victims of bullying leave their jobs, and that workplace harassment is four times more common than sexual harassment or workplace discrimination. Workplace bullying saps the energy out of your workforce for both the person being bullied and those who witness the behaviour. Workplace bullying increases stress levels and decreases confidence and trust in the workplace. Bullying can turn an otherwise exceptional employee into a low performer, even resulting in post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide.
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Witnesses of bullying often suffer from increased stress at work; they themselves do not want to be a target. This keeps them on guard and prevents them from fully participating as a team member and from sharing their true thoughts and ideas in the workplace.
What constitutes bullying?
Bullying at work can take many forms. It can involve:
• undervaluing a person’s contribution and not giving credit where it is due;
• deliberately withholding information;
• ignoring or excluding someone;
• spreading malicious rumors or gossip;
• humiliating someone in public;
• constantly giving someone unachievable or meaningless tasks, setting them up to fail; and
• undermining integrity.
Tackling Bullying in Your Workplace
The first step is to devise and implement a bullying and harassment policy. Every organization should develop such a policy and put it in writing. This document should be the foundation of an employer’s violence-prevention program and should communicate the organization’s commitment to preventing workplace violence, provide an overview of its violence-prevention program, and establish clear standards of behaviour that apply to all employees, managers, contractors and clients.
Companies also need to promote a culture where bullying and harassment is not tolerated. This can include:
• accepting that bullying can occur in any organization;
• understanding what bullying and harassment are and what the consequences can be;
• consulting and discussing with your staff;
• devising a policy and ensuring managers and supervisors are trained to implement it; and
• promoting and enforcing the policy within the organization.
When bullying or harassment is occurring in the workplace, employees are often pit against each other. This leads to decreased productivity, increased employee turnover and an increase in workplace safety incidents, all of which have a financial impact on the company.
Financial reasons aside, as an employer you have a duty to protect your staff from the harmful effects of workplace bullying and harassment. The workplace should not become a schoolyard.
 We also have additoinal articles about the topic of Workplace Violence in our January newsletter.
Leasa Hachey
Manager, Communications and Marketing
leasa@safetydriven.ca
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