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Flashbacks
From the Schoolyard
For
every harassment complaint I've helped resolve, I've dealt with
ten incidences involving the equal opportunity jerk. The boss
who constantly criticizes, demeans, and undermines his employees.
The supervisor who takes delight overworking and exploiting subordinates.
The employee who taunts and intimidates his coworkers. In short,
the workplace bully.
Unfortunately,
you can't send your workplace bully to the headmaster or make
him stay in for recess. The good news is that, as a human resource
professional, you have the power to implement the necessary strategies
to prevent and/or alleviate bullying in your workplace. In this
article, we'll look at how you can use policies, hiring, and top
management support to create a bully-free workplace.
Beating
Up the Bottom Line
It's
easy to think that rudeness or incivility is an inevitable part
of people working together; after all, who hasn't been snapped
at by a stressed-out boss or coworker? But bullying is not occasional
rudeness or incivility, nor is it a misguided attempt to get things
done through tough management. Bullying is an ongoing and systematic
campaign of interpersonal destruction. It tends to be an accumulation
of many incidences over a long period of time which, taken together,
these instances add up to persistent, abusive behavior designed
to make the target feel upset, humiliated, and threatened.
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.
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
Bullying
Versus Harassment
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 her 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 versus hostility directed
at a protected class are the available legal remedies. Discrimination
law does not cover bullying. If the behavior does not have a sexual,
racial or physical component, U.S. laws aren't 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. Courts
are handling more and more stress-related workman's comp 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."
Spotting
The Bully at Work
Given
the statistics of workplace bullying, chances are 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:
1.
Conduct an anonymous employee satisfaction survey, asking questions
specifically about employee experiences of common bullying tactics.
2.
Conduct regular exit interviews and ask specifically about interpersonal
problems that might have led to their resignation.
3.
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.
Is
the Finger Pointing Back at You?
"You've
got to sit on people to get the job done." "If you don't boss
people around, they don't respect you." "We run a tough ship around
here." How many times have these beliefs been used to justify
inappropriate management conduct? Worse yet, how many times has
it been rewarded?
A
study that looked at predictors of job satisfaction across cultures
found that the quality of the employee/supervisor relationship
was one of two consistent factors across twenty countries. Employees
who feel supported, encouraged, and treated fairly by their direct
supervisors develop a sense of organizational commitment. Yet,
while at least fifty percent of all turnovers are due to poor
management practices, the mythical link between inappropriate
behavior and productivity still lingers. If your corporate environment
seems to be stuck in survival-of-the-fittest mode, it may be time
to work with senior management on assessing your corporate values
and realigning them with the realities of today's workplace.
There's
another way your corporate environment can unintentionally foster
bullying - through job strain. One of the most common problems
I encounter is the situational bully, i.e., the valuable manager
who, because of an excessive workload or unrealistic deadline,
becomes a domineering tyrant. If you observe an increase in inappropriate
workplace behavior, do a little investigating to see what's underneath
and what you can do about it. If your business is cyclical for
example, consider partnering with an EAP program before your busy
season and offer self-development seminars on coping with stress,
time management, and other helpful topics. If the behavior seems
to come primarily from new managers, reevaluate your management
development program to see where communication skills are lacking.
Supervisors are often promoted because of their technical expertise
and, if they lack the management skills to be effective leaders,
can resort to bullying in an attempt to establish authority. If
inappropriate workplace behavior is a symptom of a deeper problem,
it's one worth finding and fixing.
Don't
Forget to Put It in Writing
Workplace
conduct policies rarely work unless the behaviors they request
are supported and modeled by senior management. When they are,
they can communicate the message that employees are as valuable
as customers - and should be treated with the same respect. Given
that there is a direct link between customer satisfaction and
employee satisfaction, perhaps this message is consistent with
reality. While an extensive discussion on policy development is
beyond the scope of this newsletter, here are six guidelines to
help you get started crafting your workplace conduct policy:
*
Outline clear examples of what workplace conduct violates the
policy
*
Detail the disciplinary procedures for policy violation.
*
Provide a procedure for reporting and investigating concerns about
workplace behavior.
* Outlines
guidelines for multiple channels of reporting to individuals who
feel the policy has been violated.
* Assure
complainants that the matters will be treated as confidentially
as possible and that no one will be punished for reporting a workplace
conduct violation.
* Begin
with a message from your CEO, affirming employees' rights to be
treated with dignity and respect, and linking the policy to the
bottom line and to company values.
Taking
a Stand
Like
it or not, it's impossible for corporations to take a neutral
position regarding workplace bullying. To your employees, ignoring
it is condoning it. And a policy is no substitute for people;
the best antibullying policy will be viewed with skepticism if
your corporate culture rewards bullying managers. The good news
is that you're in a valuable position to beef up the company's
bottom line. Eliminating inappropriate workplace behavior will
reduce turnover, increase job satisfaction, and help your organization
get back some of the 18 million work days lost each year because
of it. At a time when human resources are increasingly being asked
to justify their existence, the opportunity to show the bottom
line impact of your efforts is something worth shouting about.
Just don't do it at work. *********************************************************************************
WORKRELATIONSHIP
TRIVIA: Do your managers know how to deal with substance abuse
at work? If you're a small business, they'd better. Fifty-six
percent of employed illicit substance abusers work for companies
with less than 25 employees, compared to 13 percent who work for
companies with more than 500 employees.
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