Perception Business Psychologists
Psychology at work

Bullying and Harassment
Research from the Dept of Health indicates that the cost of sickness absence for stress is more than £5 billion a year. Bullying a major cause of stress, costs the UK economy £1.3 billion a year.

Bullying and harassment occurs when one person or group intimidates, insults, abuses or misuses their power over another person or group. It is a common precursor to stress and may be an indication that the perpetrator is suffering from stress.

Bullying is a form of violence that may take many forms; in a workplace it is seldom physical but a psychological form of aggression. It can be verbal either face to face or by telephone, through memo’s or e-mails. Often it is a number of small incidents that add up to demoralise or humiliate the target person.

The Health and safety Executive define Bullying as:

"Persistent, offensive, abusive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, abuse of power or unfair penal sanctions, which makes the recipient feel upset, threatened, humiliated or vulnerable, which undermines their self-confidence and which may cause them to suffer stress."

 As with harassment, bullying is defined largely by the impact of the behaviour on the recipient, not its intention. Bullying at work can take many forms. The following are just some of the most common ways:

Your working relationship feels different from any you have previously experienced

• Using aggression, threats, shouting, abuse, and swearing at their target

• Publicly humiliating people

• Subjecting their target to excessive supervision and being critical about minor things

• Take the credit for other people's work but never the blame when things go wrong

• Overriding or overruling the person's authority

• Removing areas of responsibility from the person

• Constantly criticising people's work

• Marginalise people or dealing with them through a third party

• Dispensing punishment out of the blue

• Refusing reasonable requests for leave, training etc, or block a person's promotion

• Withholding work-related information

If any of these sorts of things are going on in your workplace, you are perfectly justified to take matters further - they are all examples of behaviour that is totally unacceptable, no matter what the reasons for it are.

Maybe it's not happening to you, but you see it going on. The bully might not even realise that they are a bully. But if bullying is allowed to carry on over time it can be very damaging, not only to the victim but also to their colleagues too.

Dealing with Bullying
Some people may believe they are using strong management rather than bullying and would be horrified to think that they are bullying people. In these cases any problems can usually be resolved by speaking to the perpetrator and pointing out the effects they are having on other people.

Dealing with a serial bully is more difficult. This type of bully is often adept at hiding their dark side, they are charming when dealing with people who they see as being useful to them only using bullying tactics with subordinates. An organisation must and can deal with these people. The first stage is to make sure that everyone knows that bullying will not be accepted in your organisation, you will need a policy on bullying, usually called a 'Dignity at work' policy. This should clearly state how you expect employees to communicate with each other and that any infringements may result in disciplinary proceedings. Along with the policy you should appoint one or more people that can act as a reference point for people subjected to bullying, so that employees who are being bullied can report their situation to an independent person.

If you are the subject of bullying you must tell someone that you are being bullied. Also keep a record of what is happening to you, that way you will have evidence to back up your case in any disciplinary action against the perpetrator.

Organisational Actions
Research has shown that an organisation's culture has a large influence on the amount of bullying that occurs. For example bullying tends to occur where there is:

• high levels of competition

• excessive workloads

• insecurity (eg a threat of redundancy)

• hierarchical structures

• a strong style of management

• no policies to tackle bullying behaviour

If any of these factors are prevalent in your organisation the environmental background is such that bullying is more likely to occur. You should take steps to minimise the effects of these factors and monitor employee relationships, for example by using 360 degree feedback.

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