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June 24, 2008
From the Playground to the Boardroom: Workplace Bullies
Apprehensive about going to work? Filled with anxiety once you're there? You may simply be stressed out from your workload. Or these signs could be indicative of something far more insidious.
Bullying in the workplace is a lot more common than many people realize.
In what's considered the largest scientific study conducted in the United States on the topic, 37 percent of American workers said they have experienced workplace bullying. That's nearly 54 million people who have been bullied on the job.
Yet bullying in the workplace is a global epidemic, albeit a "silent" one. Unlike the playground bully who often resorts to physical threats, the work bully's tactics are often subtle.
Workplace bullying is generally defined as "repeated, malicious, health-endangering mistreatment" of one or more employees or employers directed towards another employee or employees, which is intended to intimidate and create a risk to the health and safety of the employee. It can take the form of verbal abuse; offensive conduct/behavior that is threatening, humiliating or intimidating; and/or work interference — sabotage — which prevents work from getting done.
In March, University of Manitoba researchers reported that the emotional toll of workplace bullying is more severe than that of sexual harassment.
Many such situations involve employees bullying their peers, rather than a supervisor bullying an employee. However, very often this type of harassment stems from an abuse or misuse of power. According to the massive survey mentioned above, from the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) and research firm Zogby Interactive, the stereotype is real: most bullies are bosses. While 55 percent of those bullied are rank-and-file workers, 72 percent of bullies are bosses.
In today's corporate culture, supervisors may condone bullying as part of a tough management style. To help determine if you are a target of workplace bullying, Dr. Gary Namie, cofounder of the WBI and author of the book Bully at Work, offers the following telltale signs:
- Agenda-less meetings where you're humiliated;
- Unwarranted or invalid criticism;
- False accusations of incompetence (blame without factual justification);
- Never being left alone to do your job;
- Exclusion or social isolation;
- Excessive monitoring;
- People feeling justified screaming or yelling at you in front of others, but you're punished if you scream back; and
- Everything done to you is arbitrary and capricious, based on a personal agenda that undermines the employer's legitimate business interests.
Forty-five percent of bully targets suffer stress-related health problems, psychological-emotional injuries and other financial effects, according to last fall's WBI-Zogby survey and other research.
Problems can include cardiovascular problems (hypertension to strokes and heart attacks), immunological impairment (more frequent infections of greater severity), fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, panic attacks, clinical depression and even post-traumatic stress disorder. Victims of bullying can also experience reduced self-esteem and increased self-blame, musculoskeletal problems, sleep disturbances, digestive problems and, due to absence, financial problems. (Source: Washington State, Department of Labor and Industries)
At the same time, companies should be concerned about bullying, "if for no other reason than its potential to damage the bottom line," notes Monster.com.
Bullying can lead to such heavy tangible costs as those brought by downtime and workers' comp awards, as well as turnover (Who wants to work in a toxic and hostile workplace?) and resultant new-recruitment time and fees.
Yet there are also those intangible costs: tainted reputation, staff resistance and even sabotage by fearful employees who know no alternatives when management fails to punish or purge the bully.
What can companies do to prevent this kind of abuse in the workplace? "As with any form of harassment, management's vigilance is key," with the employer close enough to day-to-day operations that such harassment is recognizable, says Monster.com.
Yet even this will not necessarily end abuse.
Several states in the U.S. have introduced anti-bullying bills and similar measures — so far without any real success. In fact, America lags far behind the rest of the Western industrialized countries both in acknowledging bullying at work and in legislative measures that address it on a societal level. Currently, there is no anti-bullying law in any U.S. state.
Business groups often argue that existing laws are adequate to protect workers. But bullying generally transcends sex, age or race, which have protected status in the courts. Instead, many hostilities in the workplace occur simply because one person doesn't like another.
Fortunately, increasingly more employees and employers are acknowledging this epidemic and trying to understand and fight it. As recent as May 2008, a paper titled "Nightmares, Demons and Slaves: Exploring the Painful Metaphors of Workplace Bullying" was the most downloaded article for the journal Management Communication Quarterly.
Resources
Half of Working Americans Affected by Workplace Bullying
Workplace Bullying Institute and Zogby Interactive, Aug. 30, 2007
Bullying More Harmful Than Sexual Harassment On the Job
The University of Manitoba (via American Psychological Association), March 8, 2008
Workplace Bullying: What Everyone Needs to Know
Washington State Dept. of Labor and Industries, April 2008
Bullying Defined
Workplace Bullying Institute
How Employers Pay for Bullying
Workplace Bullying Institute
Negative Health Impact on Bullied Targets
Workplace Bullying Institute
Workplace Bullying: What Can You Do?
by John Rossheim
Monster.com, Jan. 20, 2007
Workplace Bullying: Who's Your Bully?
by John Rossheim
Monster.com, Jan. 20, 2007
Psychiatric Distress and Symptoms of PTSD Among Victims of Bullying at Work
by S.B. Matthiesen and S. Einarsen
British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, August 2004
Nightmares, Demons and Slaves: Exploring the Painful Metaphors of Workplace Bullying
by Sarah J. Tracey, Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik and Jess K. Alberts
Management Communication Quarterly, 2006
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10 CommentsWorkplace bullying take many forms. Some companies have cliques of like-minded people who only show up for the check. They work hard at covering up like-minded people who screwup. Others actually arrive to do a job. These are the people who are most likely to be bullied. When part of the clique starts high up and is protected by lower levels of people, many problems are hidden.
When those who come to work to do a job have to depend on the efforts of people in the clique, the work does not get done. Repeated attempts to get the needed information falls on deaf ears. The job is delayed. The real worker gets blamed. The clique covers it own tail.
Prices of the product/service goes up.
June 24, 2008 2:45 PMHaving been on the job market for over forty years, I have witnessed my share of workplace bullies. While many were in direct superior roles to their subordinates, I have often seen that they were nothing more than conduits to a management style of bullying that transcended all the way to the top.
I once witnessed a CEO of a Fortune 50 company, who shall remain nameless, publicly state that his management style was based on a four letter word: FEAR. We have seen examples of that style in every walk of life. It rarely works. When a manager sends the message of intimidation to his subordinates, it only creates angst and inferior results. Suddenly, there is no time for preparation or quality inspection.
Bullied workers will often find the point of least resistance, even if it is the wrong solution, as long as they meet the demands of their boss. I personally subscribe to the happy cow theory. The bull can't be kicking the herd without ending up with a bunch of sour milk.
June 24, 2008 3:31 PMExcellent article. Most of the countries that make up the rest of the western industrialized world have legal recourse related to workplace bullying. In the U.S. it is perfectly legal.
Discrimination and harassment laws are narrowly defined (gender, religion, race, disability, etc) and only apply if an action is related to that category. Thirteen states are in some stage of legislative action to stop such behavior in the workplace. Some will say that it will open a floodgate of frivolous litigation, but of course that can't be determined prior to having a law in place.
The fact is that no law would be necessary if workplaces had and enforced policies that would not tolerate bullies and bullying behavior.
June 24, 2008 4:37 PMThe Healthy Workplace Bill needs to be introduced in every state. Please note this is a NON-PARTISAN bill that is friendly to business. If anybody has a problem understanding how that is so, you can email our group at stopthebullies@comcast.net
We are a group of civil servants from Washington who were targeted for expulsion or mistreatment in our jobs, but we will forward anybody to other websites and stakeholders. Washington workers can join the Yahoo group WashingtonStateAgainstBullying and don't forget the Namies website at www.bullyinginstitute.org
Thanks for article
June 25, 2008 3:24 AMThank you for publishing this well documented article. Those of us who have been bullied by people using bullying as a management style have virtually no recourse. There are no magic replies, no appropriate behavior such as standing up for yourself, no way to use high self-esteem to deal with it, and so on. People who recommend such things simply don't understand that targets are powerless under these circumstances.
My only real recourse was to join others in starting a grassroots movement to promote legislation to correct and prevent bullying in the workplace. Our group constructed a website at www.bullyfreeworkplace.org as a resource for those who are still suffering. Thank you again for publishing this timely article.
-Michelle Smith, California Healthy Workplace Advocates
June 25, 2008 10:14 AMPerhaps if enough of these jerks were exposed via Youtube, they would become more fearful themselves.
June 26, 2008 3:39 PMI need to share this with everyone. There is an explosive new eBook written by an employment law attorney called 'Work Laws Exposed' that gives step-by-step instructions for dealing with bullies, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, stress and more. This is information your boss hopes you never find out. It's really that powerful. No employee should enter the workplace without having this information.
He got fed up with representing big companies and teaching them how to skirt employment law when one of his relatives got the shaft at work. Now he represents the employees in the trenches and teaches workers their rights and how to enforce them.
Since HTML is being stripped out of this comment, just click on my name for the link to the book.
July 20, 2008 5:05 PMThis article is a bunch of garbage you sisies need to suck it up. some one needs to make money in the office.
If you just came in an hour early and left an hour late and worked through your vactions you'd be fine. If I were working at your offices I would cut all your commision pay!!!
Please note, for those in Washington this group has a new website. They have done research and used the public disclosure process to discover and expose workplace bullies. Good resource for employers or employees.
http://stopthebullies.home.comcast.net
They also have an email address for private sector employees at stopthebullies@yahoo.com
