November 21st, 2011
7 ways to end workplace bullying: Anderson
7 ways you can put an end to workplace bullying
by by Megan L. Anderson, Esq., Business Management Daily, Nov. 21, 2011
The effects of bullying on children have made headlines in recent months, but workplace bullying is an issue that doesn’t receive much attention. Yet, it’s a growing problem, partly because Internet cyber-bullying can reach beyond the workplace walls and into employee’ private lives.
Costs of bullying
According to surveys by the Workplace Bullying Institute (www.workplacebullying.org) and the Employment Law Alliance (www.employmentlawalliance.com), between 33% and 44% of employees have experienced bullying at work.
Victims can suffer physical or emotional harm that interferes with their professional and personal lives. Employers, in turn, may suffer the costs associated with decreased attendance, increased medical and insurance claims, legal claims and lost productivity and opportunity costs resulting from demoralized and distracted workers.
Studies also show that employees working in intimidating environments are less likely to speak out about potentially dangerous or otherwise costly errors.
All of this can affect an employer’s bottom line and competitive edge.
Will legislation help?
A movement to legislate against workplace bullying is gaining momentum. In May 2011, Minnesota became the 21st state to propose a workplace bullying law. While no state has yet passed legislation, New York came close last year.
Advocates of such legislation argue it is needed to address legal gaps. While the most extreme bullying and bullying based on protected class status may be unlawful under current laws, it is generally not against the law to be an equal opportunity jerk.
Opponents of anti-bullying legislation counter that it is impossible to adequately define illegal bullying and that the bar for claims will be set too low. Employers, mindful that it’s impossible to ensure universal workplace civility, worry that anti-bullying laws will generate a flood of frivolous litigation stemming from legitimate actions, such as efforts to discipline poor performers.
Despite the ongoing debate, the proposed legislation in New York drew bipartisan support. That proposed law, which was similar to legislation proposed in other states, required that bullying be severe, carried out with malice and unrelated to any legitimate business interest. It also modeled employer obligations after existing obligations under discrimination laws, providing employers with legal defenses for their efforts to prevent and promptly respond to bullying. It is not yet clear whether workplace bullying legislation will be enacted, but New York’s near-passage of a law has led some commentators to predict such legislation is in our future.
There appears to be public support for such legislation. In 2010, surveys by the Workplace Bullying Institute and the Sunday newspaper magazine Parade indicated that as many as 90% of respondents favor such legislation.
7 steps to stop bullies
Given these trends, employers should, if they have not already done so, start paying attention—both to get ahead of potential legal obligations and to mitigate the high business costs of bullying.
Some steps employers might consider taking include:
1. Adopt a “no jerks” rule. That’s the first step advocated by Robert Sutton, author of the colorfully titled book The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. Sutton defines a jerk as someone who oppresses, humiliates, de-energizes or belittles a subordinate or a colleague.
[WBI comment: Better and more practical still is the employer roadmap found in The Bully-Free Workplace: Stop Jerks, Weasels & Snakes from Killing Your Organization.]
2. Adopt and enforce an anti-bullying policy. Such a policy should include reporting and response procedures akin to those used for harassment. To avoid contract claims, however, policies should include contract disclaimers.
[WBI: Anderson is right about this. See our approach at Work Doctor, Inc.]
3. Avoid hiring bullies in the first place. Including potential peers and subordinates—not just potential managers—in the interview process may help prevent bullies from being hired. Studies indicate that bullies often target those with less power, so peers and subordinates may be better positioned to spot troubling behavior in interviews.
4. Treat bullying as a performance problem. Don’t reward or promote bullies. Doing so sends a message that bullying is accepted and not a bar to success. Instead, reform or get rid of bullies whenever possible. No matter how valuable an employee seems, the real and significant costs of bullying, if quantified, often outweigh a bully’s perceived value.
5. Train your employees on the company’s expectations regarding bullying. You might also train employees on how to engage in constructive, respectful confrontations and debates.
6. Use available counseling resources. Those might include anger-management counseling and employee assistance programs.
[WBI: This advice is much shakier.]
7. Take steps to prevent violence. Most bullying does not turn violent, but bullying can be a precursor to violence by the bully—or by the bully’s frustrated and angry target. Consider forming a threat-assessment team to address violence risks as they may arise.
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Author: Megan Anderson, Esq., is a principal at Gray Plant Mooty in Minneapolis. She concentrates her practice in employment law counseling and litigation. Contact her at (612) 632-3004 or megan.anderson@gpmlaw.com.
Tags: Megan L. Anderson, Workplace Bullying Institute
This entry was posted on Monday, November 21st, 2011 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Bullying in the News, Legislative Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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I would love to see more thought to including a bully as an organizational psychopath. My doctor thought the various dictionary definitions of an organizational psychopath form the basis for recognizing when you are being bullied and harrassed. Someone needs to start a comprehensive list of behaviours that can become a reference tool for possible targets/victims of bullies.
Moving the bully out of supervisory, managerial role and into an advisory, technical role will provide relief to employees and provided the bully with incentives to clean up his/her act.
i would like you to hear me out.
bullies don’t change, it’s not in their nature.
it’s a lose,lose situation for the target.
13 years in health care, 6 of which i was the target. in the end i did’nt have a friend in the world but my mom. and yes i was the one who was fired, i had finally had enough and lost my way to cope.
I have worked in the financial field for over 15 years and this was the first time that I ever experienced workplace bullying. It was such a horrendous experience; being constantly disrespected and harassed by so-called colleagues. I kept a work diary and took vast notes of each unprofessional, backstabbing encounter I had with KD the “office manager” and her dim-witted cronies. Everyone in the office could not tolerate KD; she was pushy, rude, tactless and unprofessional. She was known as the “crazy bi-polar bitch who micro-managed her amateurish crew”. Unfortunately, the “office manager” had no social skills and/or personality and her main goal was to micro-manage everyone in the office and make their lives a living hell! Apparently, the way she obtained this position was by using her fellatio skills on her boss. I was always extremely professional towards the office manager and her pathetic group of subordinates. But as always there is a boiling point, and I had enough of her arrogance and the tyrannical and detrimental work environment that she created. I stood up for myself and of course went to HR with my grievance and informed them that the office manager is a liability rather than an asset to the firm and unfit for her position due to her lack of maturity and management skills, but the reality is that HR does not give a damn about the employees, their main concern is to protect the company’s interest and reputation. I was fortunate that I had a good rapport with the head of HR and was able to come to an amicable separation agreement. After this experience, I realized that KD and her sad amateur crew, were intimidated by my polished appearance, my social and emotional intelligence/ skills are definitely suited to any business and my professionalism and years of experience overrides their pathetic knowledge of the financial field. In a way justice was served by the company having to hire two EA’s to carry out the responsibilities that I was skillfully handling on my own without the assistance of this inept team. I believe in the old saying “what goes around, comes around” or KARMA as it is called, sooner or later this bully will get what she deserves…a good kick up her @$$ out the door and standing in a long unemployment line and having to eat some HUMBLE pie! I feel that I made the right decision to leave the unbearable, dysfunctional and toxic work environment that was created by KD since it was affecting my health and well being. I am fortunate to be working in the finance field with a genuine group of professional colleagues that treat each other with respect, compassion and kindness.
I feel sorry for KD since she is such a miserable human being who lives in a ghastly, crime-ridden neighborhood and probably is not loved by her own family but only tolerated due to her cruel outlook on life and she probably has no friends or even doesn’t have someone special in her life that will love her for that matter…I cannot see anyone wanting to be friends with this crazy, psycho LOSER!!!
I’m being bullied by 3 co-workers right now. I was fired until management finally listened to my side. I am back to work.
Bullies want to manipulate you into taking the fall for when they make a (human) mistake and if you do cower they will do you the “favor” of keeping it between us– but if you stand up for yourself–tell them they can’t talk to you in such a disrespectful manner and lay it out how it is– they have been angry and arguing for years. They sound much more convincing with management. Yesterday, one of my bullies took an hour long coffee break when we both should have been working on our project. I continued on the path of our original assignment. When the bully returned she called me stupid for not checking to see if the project had changed and told me I was not involved or proactive (ask the other 10 people I work with and they will say just the opposite about me and my work ethic). I took her on and at the end she promised to have me fired. I just recently started becoming assertive (no yelling and screming on my end). They don’t like that and yeah, I lost sleep and belive I may be fired today. Of course she could be bluffing because I can’t imagine how she will cover her one hour long break when she said she’d be back in 5 minutes. The down side to my sudden assertivness rather than doormat mentality is now it looks like I am the common denominator in all 3 accusations. I’m small and quiet and way too nice. Easy pickings in the mind of a bully. My guess anyway.
I feel bad sticking up for myself. I know after I tell a friend they applaud me. I need to figure out how to intrinsically be proud of treating myself with the same respect I always treat others.