Bullying in the workplace
Published
12th Dec 2006
by Admin
Bullying is not just a problem for the school playground. It haunts the workplace too, with at least one in four people claiming to have been persecuted at work over the past five years.
And the suffering extends beyond the victims. British businesses are footing the bill for 18.9 million lost working days a year because of intimidation, according to the employment advisory service Acas.
The good news is that as the problem has grown so have the information and support networks to help both victims and employers. Most prominent of the helplines is the Andrea Adams Trust, an anti-bullying charity named which organises the Ban Bullying at Work Day.Trust chief executive Lyn Witheridge says:
“Bullying has become one of the most destructive forces eroding the lives of people who have to go to work. Bullies will give somebody tasks they know cannot be achieved in the time given. They also remove responsibilities, constantly change instructions, persistently nit pick or freeze the target out.”The small details build into a bigger picture that can overwhelm the victim, so even if they are brave enough to speak out it sounds like neurotic whingeing. Unfortunately, the persecutor is likely to be a manager or supervisor who is misusing responsibility in order to undermine or humiliate the victim. A further complication is that some managers don’t actually intend to cause distress. They think that enforcing targets or standards without explanation or mimicking scenes from The Apprentice is what is expected in a competitive climate. This means the early signs of bullying can be difficult to detect.