for most of us bullying was a terrible experience to be a victim of and many of
us took comfort in the knowledge that we would one day be free of bullying once
we were done with school imagine our shock and disappointment when we
graduate and enter the workforce only to discover that bullying can sometimes
even continue on in the adult world if you're a recipient of bullying at work
it can be hard to figure out what your next step should be
fortunately bestie is here to hopefully shed some light on this problem and
offer some potential ways to hopefully improve situations and involve bullying
in the workplace before we continue you may want to
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while most of us associate examples of bullying with playgrounds and
schoolyards cases of bullying in the workplace are actually a lot more common
than you might think according to research conducted by dr.
Judith blando from the University of Phoenix a whopping 75% of all workplace
employees were found to have been affected by workplace bullying either as
a target or a witness in a 2017 survey from the workplace bullying and trauma
Institute it was found that 60 million Americans are affected by bullying in
the workplace of those 60 million twenty-nine percent of targeted bullying
victims chose to remain quiet about their experiences and 40 percent of
bullying targets experienced mental health issues related to stress as a
result with such shockingly high statistics related to bullying and
harassment in the workplace you would think that employers are pulling out all
the stops and doing everything they can to crack down on bullying and make their
places of work less toxic environments for the sake of both mental health and
employee productivity so are they well the answer is yes and
no while 20 years of addressing and suggesting preventive measures for
bullying has made us what psychologist Izzy
Almond describes as the most anti bullying culture in history others
remain skeptical as to whether or not most widely accepted means of preventing
and punishing bullies are really as useful as we'd like to believe and some
may even make the argument that these techniques and strategies actually
inflict more harm than good to gain some further insight into the issue of
workplace bullying and its many nuances let's take a closer look at what
bullying in the workplace looks like and wait the options suggested by people as
to how to prevent or correct it the workplace bullying Institute defines
this particular type of bullying as repeated health harming mistreatment of
one or more persons by one or more perpetrators it is abusive conduct that
is threatening humiliating or intimidating or work interference ie
sabotage which prevents work from getting done according to Christine
comma Ford in Forbes article on workplace bullying one of the biggest
ways to differentiate workplace bullying from the type of bullying many of us
suffered through in school is that workplace bullying tends to be less
physical in nature and more psychological or verbal , Ford also
makes the claim that while you might expect most bullying victims to be
individuals who have a hard time fitting in socially victims of workplace
bullying are actually often among the most skilled proficient and sociable
individuals in the workplace this according to comma Ford is because
bullies in the workplace select their targets based on who they find the most
threatening almost as a way of trying to knock them down a peg these claims are
backed up by research findings from the workplace bullying Institute which
suggests that the majority of bullying targets in the workplace appear to be
highly skilled employees and employees who hold veteran positions in the
respective groups thus workplaces bullies are often highly competitive but
also highly insecure individuals who resort to bullying and harassment as a
means of building themselves up by bringing down highly skilled peers
make matters worse employers can often turn a blind eye to examples of
workplace bullying by framing it as personality conflict between the bully
and victim usually because the bully in this situation is considered too
valuable to be terminated from the workplace so now that we know how to
identify bullying in the workplace as well as when how and why it's most
likely to occur now that we have this information what are some of the best
and most effective strategies to use when faced with an office bully well
that's where things can get a little more complicated as opinions on the best
course of action in these situations and actually vary quite a bit let's weigh
our options in another article from Forbes Marc Murphy writes on five ways
he believes are the most effective when it comes to shutting down workplace
bullying in addition to knowing how to identify a workplace bully Murphy
suggests that employers and managers should establish a strong definition of
workplace civility provide organization-wide training for all
employees on the subject of bullying address instances of bullying as they
occur and develop a script for talking to bullies on that last point
Murphy elaborates that a prepared anti-bullying script should establish a
candid context describe the issue in a timely objective and specific manner
handedly eliminate the status quo and calmly offer the bully a choice with a
24-hour option all of this information seems useful if you are an employer or a
manager in your workplace but what in the victims of the situations do to help
themselves human resources consultant Susan Heathfield suggests that the best
ways for the victims of workplace bullying to fight back are to set limits
on what they will tolerate from a bully confront the bully on their behavior
document the bully's actions and pay attention to whether or not the bully
targets your mutual coworkers as well as a way to establish safety and numbers to
build a case that you can bring to the HR department while Heathfield suggests
that confronting your bully's behavior directly is the best course of action
she also advises not to rule out the possibility of a lawsuit
especially if the bully is proving to be a threat against your job security all
of these options sound like valid and viable courses of action to take when
faced with a workplace bully however some researchers on the topic
have actually made opposing claims warning that filing complaints on
lawsuits as a response to the workplace bullying might not only proved to be
ineffective but also carries the possibility of a spectacular backfire in
her book mobbed what to do when they're really out to get you anthropologist
Janice Harper unpacks what she sees as some of the most misleading and harmful
misconceptions regarding the subject of bullying in the workplace while Harper
vocally and wholeheartedly takes the side of the victim in bullying
situations she warns the strategies of other researchers suggest to combat
bullying will only serve to escalate the levels of aggression and potentially
even turn the victim into another aggressor
one of the biggest hindrances Harper identifies is that people perceive
bullying as wholly a result of our upbringing in culture and that the best
way to prevent bullying is to offer higher amounts of education and training
against it as an anthropologist Harper argues against the widely held claim and
she instead takes up the stance that suggests that bullying is both nature as
well as nurture she identifies that bullying and mob mentality behaviors are
common in other animals besides humans such as our primate relatives indicating
that the elimination of bullying culture is not enough to stop the problem for
good Harper suggests and warns that amassing evidence for complaints and
teaming up with co-workers to confront a bully can actually cause the situation
to get worse before it gets better and in reference to her own experience
rights had I simply ignored the small in justices I never would have experienced
the great ones she also strongly argues against filing a lawsuit in response to
workplace bullying as the legal process involved will most likely drag on for
years only to serve to label you as the enemy for your former company so now
that we've laid out what researchers and consultants have said about bullying in
the workplace now it's time to ask who do you most agree with do you think
it's best to take assertive and confrontational action against a
workplace bully or is it safer and more strategic to pick your battles more
carefully and prevent the conflict from potentially escalating into something
that gets much worse if you've been a victim of bullying in your place of work
what did you do when faced with this situation and based on the outcome would
you recommend that for others to do the same if you're comfortable with sharing
your thoughts and experiences we would like to strongly encourage you to keep
the conversation going the comments section below hopefully this video is
able to provide you with some greater insight into a very real problem that is
workplace bullying as well as some potential leads you can pursue in order
to find possible solutions enjoyed this video hit the like button and share with
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for watching