July 2007

Workplace Harassment
How big of a problem is workplace bullying?

By Joe Pisciotto
Staff Writer

Bullying: It’s not just for kids. A couple of recent studies show that workplace abuse is a significant problem in need of immediate attention by company leaders.

In the February issue of Communication Currents, a journal published by the National Communication Association, Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik, an assistant professor of Communication at the University of New Mexico, reports that one in ten U.S. workers feel bullied at work and one in four work in an “extremely hostile environment.”

She defines bullying as “hostile communication and behavior [that] can consist of excluding and ignoring certain workers, throwing things and destroying work, public humiliation and embarrassment, screaming and swearing, and occasionally even physical assault.”

According to Lutgen-Sandvik, workplace bullying is especially troubling because it is often continuous, affecting victims daily for months or even years.

In a recent poll of 1,000 random U.S. adults commissioned by Employment Law Alliance, a global employment law practice, 44% say they have worked for an abusive boss or supervisor. Abuse included verbal and physical threats, intimidation, and other demeaning behavior. 

The poll targeted abuse that does not already fall under special legal protections (for example, victims of gender and racial bias currently have formal protection under the law). Sixty-four percent of respondents indicate that they think victims of workplace abuse should be allowed to sue the abuser and/or employer.

Lutgen-Sandvik reports that most people who have been bullied believe they can’t reasonably do anything to stop it. It can be hard for an individual to resist a bully. Those who tried to resist on their own were fired 20% of the time. Many will simply quit their jobs to get back at employers who wouldn’t stand up for them.

Lutgen-Sandvik claims that victims who document the abuse, get a decision maker’s attention, and gain allies in the workplace stand the best chance of satisfactorily resolving the situation.

Employers, however, can be proactive to minimize abuse in the workplace.

Identify Bullying

Before workplace bullying can be dealt with, company leaders must identify it—which can be trickier than it might seem. Not only do employees have a hard time reporting bullies—for fear of some form of retaliation—but also bullies use their charm to “hide” their domination. Bullies often establish a type of order that colleagues and/or subordinates rely upon or buy in to, and only individuals who reject bullies’ authority are aware of their dual nature.

Bullies desire and strive to develop a self-perpetuating power structure that looks normal from the outside. Company leaders must therefore learn to look below the surface. Here are some telltale signs of a bully:

• Active bullies are generally incompetent at work; however, they strive to mask their incompetence with intimidation.
  
  
• They gravitate toward rule-based jobs. If they are taken out of their element, their behavior will usually be exposed.
  
  
• Bullies avoid taking responsibility for their actions and decisions. When confronted they will deflect blame off of themselves, display emotional outbursts, distort and fabricate facts, reflexively counterattack, and/or claim they are victims of persecution.

Establish a System of Reporting

It takes guts for employees to stand up to bullies. So, companies should make it easy for their people to report bullying behavior. A formal system of reporting wherein everyone in the workplace knows what to expect is crucial. All employees should be encouraged to report any form of mistreatment and to document the situation as it is happening.

Decision makers tend to want to immediately determine whether a complaint is valid. But care should always be taken so that they give each complaint careful, due consideration. If you have established the importance of documentation, you should have enough initial information to decide whether an employee’s claim of abuse is serious.

Once you deem a complaint valid, explore it with an established decision tree, which will likely include the following steps:

1. After a preliminary exploration of the abusive situation, decide if you can do something to immediately resolve it.
   
   
2. If not, then personally document the circumstances surrounding the abuse.
   
   
3. Interview all individuals involved.
   
   
4. Try to determine the root causes of the behavior.
   
   
5. Implement an appropriate solution as quickly as possible in accordance with company policies.
   
   
6. Monitor the solution to ensure negative behavior has ceased and victims are satisfied.

Stand Firm

While bullying as a category does not fall under the guise of any particular facet of occupational law, bullies’ actions (e.g., physical abuse) can open a company up to litigation. And, just as serious, bullying will slowly destroy any workplace environment. So, when confronting bullies, do it firmly.

There should be zero tolerance for workplace abuse of any kind. The first rule to remember: never appease a bully. No matter what assurances they make, their abuse almost always continues behind the scenes.

Bullies should be dealt severe consequences for their actions. They should feel that they have no choice but to adjust their behavior. If appropriate, make their employment contingent upon them seeking professional help.

Again, document everything that is done. Accurate records can, if necessary, establish the basis for terminating a bully and show that the company was doing everything it could to resolve the situation.

Good employees will often either quit or continue on unhappily in order to avoid the all-too-common difficulty of exposing a bully (especially one of superior rank). Rigorous, open and well-informed leadership can prevent such undesirable outcomes.