Workplace Bullying is a reality but very often leaders are not able to recognize their own behaviours which end up bullying people. I have put together a few which i have seen a lot in my life. Take a look and add in some that you have faced or witnessed.
Bullying is usually seen as acts that could ‘mentally’ hurt or isolate a person in the workplace. Workplace bullying usually involves repeated incidents or a pattern of behaviour that is intended to intimidate, offend, degrade or humiliate a particular person or group of people. It has also been described as the assertion of power through aggression.
While bullying is a form of aggression, the actions can be both obvious and subtle.
I have put together a list of 10 which I have seen happening around me – this is not a checklist, nor does it mention all forms of bullying. These are some workplace bullying examples which may happen in a workplace. Also remember that bullying is usually considered to be a pattern of behaviour where one or more incidents will help show that bullying is taking place.
Examples include:
1. Excluding or isolating someone socially.
I knew of a woman whose boss insisted on discussing soccer with her colleagues – something which she had no clue about. While she should have politely requested him to change the topic she drowned herself in learning soccer trivia which only stressed her out
2. Intimidating a person.
Intimidation could be a look, a posture, even physical proximity or the tone of one’s voice or one’s choice of words. I have seen managers pulling up their teams for performance issues but choosing to look at a few individuals only when they would scare them with dire consequences
3. Undermining or deliberately impeding a person’s work.
Not giving data in time for someone preparing a report. If its general inefficiency its different but if it is with malicious intent, it is bullying.
4. Removing areas of responsibilities without cause.
Principles of natural justice demand that you inform and explain to people when you lessen their responsibilities. If not done it can tantamount to bullying. See the other person will get ulcers wondering “What next?!”
5. Constantly changing work guidelines.
I have known sales managers who would keep changing the formats of the report so often that sales folks get less time to sell than make reports
6. Establishing impossible deadlines that will set up the individual to fail.
This is the most common one and when one suspects that the deadline seems impossible it is important to negotiate. Come performance planning time HR needs to be extra vigilant about this one
7. Withholding necessary information or purposefully giving the wrong information.
This happens frequently and it is difficult to spot this ‘cos its it one person’s word against the other. But leaders & HR should be quick to spot a pattern, and deal with it upfront with some clear conversations.
8. Under work – creating a feeling of uselessness.
There are certain organizations which are known to frustrate (even senior people) with less or no work – only to pass a judgment on the person’s poor productivity later.
9. Yelling or using profanity.
This is an organizational culture issue. We have come across cases where managers find it ok to yell into a telephone to a person 1000 miles away using all profanities on the pretext of a man to man performance conversation. Some people really don’t mind but there are others who get sleepless nights apprehending another rough conversation
10. Belittling a person or a person’s opinions.
I recall a sales person mentioning that the client was attending to his sick mother in a performance conversation. After that the manager made it a habit to always ask him of any client “I hope his mother is not ill”. While all standing around would laugh this fellow would squirm.
These were just a few – if you are not sure an action or statement could be considered bullying, you can use the “reasonable person” test.
Would most people consider the action unacceptable?
