How To Deal With Workplace Bullying
Are you being constantly bullied in your workplace? Do you regularly feel intimidated, insulted, yelled at or let down by your coworker or your boss? Do you get talked over at company meetings, get criticized or have all your credits stolen? For most people, these are common events that they need to face every once in a while. If these are regular incidents that occur to you too, you’re one of the 54 million Americans who’re facing workplace bullying.
For most part, you’ll feel emotionally drained, have lower morale & productivity and you’ll be less willing to work in the company. You may experience depressions and have questions about your capabilities and skills. Nonetheless, workplace bullying can be very costly to an individual and the company as a whole.
Workplace Bullying: What You Need To Know
Bullying in the workplace is a very common phenomenon that occurs to most employees, either by experiencing it or watching a colleague get bullied. Recent studies on workplace bullying shows that more than 75% of the employees are subjected to bullying someway or the other.
Other than being widespread, workplace bullying is often overlooked by employers because of the private settings and often by a person who is in a higher rank than the person who’s being bullied. For this reason, the bullied worker doesn’t report for the bullying and this keeps on going as it was.
So, what are the examples of bullying?
Bullying can be of different kinds. It may be both obvious or subtle, including offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behavior, humiliation, or misusing of power through different measures. Often people do not understand that their coworker or colleague is bullying them, so they fail to take proper steps against it.
The Workplace Bullying Institute lists out the top workplace bullying examples and tactics, some of which include:
- Spreading false rumors, gossips or malicious comments
- Isolating someone socially
- Deliberately undermining or impeding someone’s work
- Intimidating or physically abusing
- Constantly changing workplace guidelines
- Giving impossible deadlines and setting up penalties
- Spying, pestering or spying on someone, hence breaking the privacy
- Yelling at the person
How Should You Deal With Workplace Bullying?
Dealing with workplace bullying can be very tough – you’re dealing with someone who has higher authority over you. More often than not, you will find yourself in a situation where you can’t even talk over the person because of the higher rank. This surely adds to the challenges of dealing with workplace bullying.
So, how should you deal with such bullies?
An article by the Financial Times suggests that you at first let the management know of the situation you’re facing. This may include the HR department, your manager or your boss. Gather proper evidence against your coworker, and complain it to the management. Let them handle the situation and see if they’re able to fix the issues.
What if your management fails to tackle the bullying?
Sometimes the management will fail to tackle the bullying. This may be due to several reasons, including inefficient management team, good relations with the bully or if they think that the bully is a valuable employee that they should not lose.
In such cases, there are certain things that you can try. Firstly, you can try talking to the bully and let him/her know that this behavior isn’t appropriate. This might include you approaching the person after the incident and politely informing how it is affecting you and your work. Confronting the bully can be a good way of handling such situations.
If he/she persists bullying you, you can also hit the bully back with similar behavior. For example, if the bully is criticizing you and complaining about your work, you can ask directly for recommendations. In such cases, the bully will have very little to say.
Documenting The Bully’s Actions
Any documented records carrying the evidence of being bullied can be important against the bully. Whenever you think that you or your coworker are being bullied, you should try to document the actions taken by the bully. This can be hidden video recordings, audio tapes, emails or any other kind evidence that can prove the bullying. If you seek out help from the management, or file a legal complaint, these evidence can be crucial to prove it.
Consulting With A Lawyer
Workplace bullying can have detrimental effects to your mental and physical health. When dealing with such a bully, you might not know what to do and/or how to tackle the situation. You’ll feel broken apart, and you might get depressed or fall into anxiety. Whenever you’re unsure about how to tackle such bullies and want to take the matters to court, you should consult with professional workplace injury lawyers who knows exactly what to do. Moreover, they can help you get out of the grips of such a bully and help you to take legal actions against them.
Other than that, the workplace injury lawyers will help you restore a proper working environment within your office and ensure that no one bully you any more. This is another way of tackling with workplace bullying effectively.
