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The
Equal Opportunity Harasser Part 1
(workplace bully)
Dr. Joni Johnston
(written for HRlook.com)
If
you would like Dr. Joni Johnston to speak to your group on a similar
topic to this Click Here
For every harassment
complaint and discriminatory situation I've helped resolve, I've
dealt with ten incidences involving the equal opportunity harasser.
Some of us have been unfortunate enough to meet the boss who constantly
criticizes, demeans, and undermines his employees, or the supervisor
who takes delight in overworking and exploiting subordinates. In
short, the workplace bully.
With all the
recent focus on the potential legal consequences of workplace bully
, the last thing HR professionals need is another version to deal
with. It's easy to think that rudeness or incivility is an inevitable
part of people working together, after all many people get snapped
at by a stressed-out boss or co-worker.
But bullying
is not occasional rudeness or incivility, nor is it a misguided
attempt to get things done through tough management. The bully wages
an ongoing and systematic campaign of interpersonal destruction
against employees. It tends to be an accumulation of many incidences
over a long period of time, and in its own context a single incident
would not necessarily constitute grounds for disciplinary action.
Taken together, these instances add up to persistent, abusive behavior
designed to make the target feel upset, humiliated and threatened.
For example,
according to the U.S. Hostile Workforce Survey 2000, the most popular
bullying tactics include:
- blaming others
for errors
- raising false
concerns about or criticizing the work of others
- making unreasonable
demands
- yelling and
screaming threats of job loss, insult, or put-downs
- inconsistent
enforcement of arbitrary rules
- social exclusion
- stealing
credit for another's work.
Studies vary
as to who is most likely to be a bully - some studies say that both
men and women are equally likely to misbehave while other studies
indicate that 70% of all bullies are men. There is little controversy,
however, that the bully is most likely to be the boss and that,
male or female, the boss is most likely to bully a woman. There's
also consistent evidence that workplace bullying is common - and
that it hurts the bottom line.
Bullying/general
hostility is 4 times more prevalent than illegal discrimination
and harassment. In fact, a February 2000 study funded by the British
Occupational Health Research Foundation revealed that out of 5300
employees in 70 organizations, 47% reported witnessing bullying
in the past five years, 1 in 10 said they'd been bullied in the
last six months, and 1 in 4 said they'd been bullied in the past
five years.
Here Are A Few
of the Costs to the UK:
On June 12,
2000 a report Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace by the London
Chamber of Commerce found that bullies cost UK industry around £2
billion a year. Around 19 million days are lost because of abuse
that results in accidents and mistakes, increased sick leave, lost
productivity and higher recruitment costs.
52% of bullying
victims spend company time worrying about their tormentor rather
than working - and 28% of them actually miss work to avoid that
person. Twelve percent change jobs.
Psychologists
at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
(UMIST) found that victims of bullying take seven days off sick
a year more than those who had not been bullied.
Unlike illegal forms of harassment and discrimination, bullying
isn't directed at a person because of his or her religion, gender,
age, race or other demographic variable. S/he isn't interested in
obtaining sexual favors or dominating a vulnerable group. In fact,
the target of bullying is most likely to be selected because of
popularity and competence, which is perceived as a direct threat
to the bully.
Unlike a sexual harasser's need to take advantage of someone in
a vulnerable position, bullying is an effort to control a threat
- and prevent exposure of inadequacy. Unlike the power motive behind
harassment and discrimination, envy and jealousy are the primary
drivers of bullying behavior. And, unlike the racial slurs or sexual
comments found in illegal forms of harassment, workplace bullying
tends to appear as petty criticism: the withholding of critical
information, and/or false allegations of underperformance.
Another difference between generic bullying and hostility directed
at a protected class is the availability of legal remedies. Discrimination
law does not cover bullying. If the behavior does not have a sexual,
racial or physical component, neither U.S. nor U.K. laws are set
up to deal with an incompetent or cruel supervisor bullying a subordinate.
However, bullies may not completely escape the long arm of the law.
In the United States, I see more and more stress-related workmen's
compensation claims and intentional infliction of emotional distress
lawsuits because of workplace bullying. A few years ago, two employees
in Texas were awarded $250,000 in damages after a supervisor continually
yelled at them, put his head down and 'charged at them like a bull,'
and made at least one employee wear a sign that said 'I quit.' A
council official in Hampshire was recently awarded £200,000 damages
for psychiatric problems that he says were caused by a bullying
boss.
Given the statistics of workplace bullying, chances are that there
is at least one bully poisoning your organization. Here are three
ways you can begin to assess how bully-tolerant your work environment
currently is:
Conduct an
anonymous employee satisfaction survey, asking questions specifically
about employee experiences of common bullying tactics.
Conduct regular
exit interviews and ask specifically about interpersonal problems
that might have led to their resignation.
Keep track
of turnover statistics by department, by manager, and by unit. As
the old saying goes; numbers don't lie. In this situation, they
might be telling the truth about a bully in your midst.
In the next part of this article, we'll talk about how to set a
corporate ethos that won't tolerate bullying behavior - and how
to handle the bully who is already there.
If
you would like Dr. Joni Johnston to speak to your group on a similar
topic to this Click Here
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