August 17th, 2009
Business Insight: Bullying thrives in the workplace, especially in a downturn
by Dawn House, August 17, 2009
Gary Namie, author of The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job, calls bullying one the business world’s dirtiest secrets.
Explain how workplace bullying is a silent epidemic.
About 37 percent of the U.S. work force — or 54 million workers — report they have been bullied at work, and 12 percent see it and are vicariously made miserable. Forty-five percent report they haven’t experienced or witnessed bullying, so on the one hand you’ve got an epidemic, while on the other the problem is an “undiscussable” epidemic. Research by the Workplace Bullying Institute also shows that most bullies are bosses (72 percent), more perpetrators are men (60 percent) and most targets are women (57 percent). Bullying is a worldwide phenomenon but it’s extremely common in the U.S. because aggression in the workplace is promoted and rewarded.
Describe differences between male bullies and female tormentors.
They are the same, with minor exceptions. All seek to control other people to drive their personal agendas and to make themselves more important. Where they differ slightly is that women bullies target women (71 percent), whereas men target men (54 percent.) Women also tend to pit women against each other, or they’ll bully to disrupt social relationships in the team. Males tend to use their higher-ranking buddies to crush you.
What are some tips to deal with bullying?
You can check for legal violations, such as civil rights or sexual harassment violations, which would compel employers to rectify the problem. Bullying, however, isn’t illegal, and it’s four times more common than illegal discrimination. The employer is safe to tell you to work it out between yourselves or to grow a thicker skin. You can take time off to check your mental health with a counselor or visit your physician for indicators of stress-related complications — such as high blood pressure, panic attacks or depression — to build a business case that bullying is too expensive to condone. Losses can also come from turnover costs, absenteeism, litigation and worker compensation claims. But confronting the bully may not get you anywhere. You’re targeted for your excellence, not for a deficiency. Workplace bullying is a form of psychological warfare between adults — inflicted by one adult that’s akin to domestic violence — only in this case the abuser is on the payroll.
Do workers’ fears in an economic downturn complicate the problem?
There are reports there has been an escalation in bullying since September, when the economic crisis hit. People are more trapped and there are fewer job alternatives. I wish I could be optimistic, but our research shows that 45 percent of the targets of bullying have stress-related health problems — and once targeted, a person has a 64 percent chance of losing his or her job for no reason.
Tags: Salt Lake Tribune, The Bully At Work
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