Beating bullying in the workplace

It happens. Bullying in the workplace is a problem. Does your organisation understand the risks and do they know what can and should be done to manage the issues?

Workplace bullying is the repeated “unreasonable behaviour” directed towards a worker or a group of workers, that creates a risk to health and safety. An employer’s failure to take steps to manage the risk of workplace bullying can result in a breach of Work Health and Safety (WHS) laws.

Under WHS laws workers must also take reasonable care that their behaviour does not adversely affect the health and safety of other persons. Workers are required to cooperate with reasonable policies and procedures, such as a Workplace Bullying Policy.

It’s important to note that bullying does not include reasonable management action, such as the following:

• A manager can enforce policies, rules and regulations.
• Transferring, rostering/allocating and delegating tasks to employees is not bullying.
• Deciding not to select a worker for promotion and/or implementing organisational changes or downsizing is not bullying.
• The employer may reprimand, demote, discipline, retrench or counsel staff if they’re acting reasonably.
• Managers are entitled to set performance goals, standards or management processes and enforce deadlines.
• Single instances of inappropriate behaviour are not bullying.
• Occasional differences of opinion, non-aggressive conflicts and problems in working relationships is not bullying.

What is bullying?

Bullying is the indirect or direct act of belittling someone else or making them feel inferior. It can be verbal, emotional, physical or cyber. Unreasonable behaviour includes victimising, humiliating, intimidating or threatening.

Bullying can take many forms:

• False accusations
• Yelling, shouting and screaming
• Exclusion and the ‘silent treatment’
• Put-downs, insults and excessively harsh criticism
• Withholding resources necessary to do a job
• ‘Behind the back’ sabotage and defamation
• Unreasonably heavy work demands
• Behaving aggressively
• Teasing or practical jokes
• Pressuring someone to behave inappropriately.

Bullying can cause a range of responses:

• Clinical depression
• Severe anxiety
• Irritability
• Harm to personal relationships
• Symptoms consistent with post traumatic stress disorder
• Loss of confidence and self-esteem
• Withdrawal
• Breakdown
• Suicide.

Anxious people don’t perform well, so the impact on business can include reduced productivity.

Potential performance issues include:

• Inability to make decisions
• Incapacity to work or concentrate
• Loss of self-esteem
• Lost time — sick leave and avoiding certain work situations.

Figures released by overcomebullying.com suggest that as many as 70% of bullied employees leave their employers. It’s also common for staff that witness bullying to leave an organisation. Every time an employee leaves the workplace, there are replacement costs associated with recruiting, hiring and training new staff. In addition, morale can suffer, further increasing staff turnover.

What can you do?

If you’re being bullied at work:

• Check the company policy on bullying and harassment
• Report what happens and when
• Talk to people you trust — whether it’s a friend, counsellor or other support person
• Tell a manager or supervisor. If you can’t resolve the issue in your workplace, you can talk to the Fair Work Commission, speak to a union rep or — if the bullying is violent or threatening — go to the police.

As a provider of HSEQ solutions, myosh offers a set of cloud-based tools and resources that make it easy for managers to identify, nurture and improve workplace mental health. Learn more at one of our free webinars using this link.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Tom Wang