What is the definition of workplace bullying?
Bullying in the workplace is damaging, targeted behaviour that occurs at work. It could be corrosive, insulting, ridiculing, or frightening. It usually follows a pattern and is focused on a single individual or a small group of individuals.
Here are a few examples of bullying:
- Practical jokes with a specific audience
- Being intentionally deceived about job responsibilities, such as erroneous deadlines or imprecise instructions
- Threats, humiliation, and other verbal abuse, persistent refusal of requests for time off without an adequate or valid cause
- Excessively severe or unreasonable criticism
Bullying isn’t necessarily interpreted as extensive performance monitoring, criticism, or surveillance. It does not include objective and constructive criticism or disciplinary action in response to workplace behaviour or job performance. Bullying is described as unjustified criticism intended to intimidate, humiliate, or single out someone.
It is also not always visible to others because it is verbal or psychological.
Continue reading to understand how to spot workplace bullies, how workplace bullying can affect you, and how to adopt safe anti-bullying measures.
Detecting bullying in the workplace
Bullying can take many forms. Consider how others could see what’s happening while you’re trying to spot bullying. This can, at least in part, be determined by the circumstances. Bullying is most likely when most people perceive certain conduct as illogical.
Types of bullying
Verbal
Examples of verbal abuse include mockery, humiliation, jokes, gossip, and other forms of slander.
Intimidating
This could include threats, social marginalisation at work, spying, or other privacy invasions.
Workplace performance is a factor
Unjustified blaming, interference in or sabotage jobs, and stealing or taking credit for ideas are all instances.
Retaliatory
Speaking out against bullying could lead to accusations of lying, further exclusion, rejection of promotions, or other forms of retaliation.
Institutional
Institutional bullying occurs when a workplace supports, allows or even encourages bullying. Unrealistic output goals forced overtime or singling out individuals who can’t keep up are all examples of bullying.
Bullying is a pattern of behaviour that occurs repeatedly. This distinguishes it from harassment, which is frequently limited to a single incident. Persistent harassment can turn into bullying, but unlike bullying, harassment is prohibited since it involves behaviours directed against a protected group of people.
Who is the bully, and who is bullied?
Bullying is something that anyone can do. According to Workplace Bullying Institute research from 2017, about 70% of bullies are male, 30% are female.
Bullies, whether male or female, like to target women. Superiors or employers are responsible for 61% of all bullying. Coworkers make up about 33% of the overall workforce. The remaining 6% occurs when persons at lower levels of work intimidate their bosses or those in positions above them.
Bullying occurs more commonly in protected groups. Only 19% of those who were bullied were Caucasian. Managerial bullying can be unfairly low-performance ratings, threats of firing or demotion, denial of time off or a transfer to another department.
What impact does bullying have on your health?
Bullying can have significant consequences on one’s physical and emotional health. While leaving a job or switching departments may be the best approach to stop the bullying, this isn’t always doable. Even if you can remove yourself from the abusive environment, the effects of bullying can persist for a long time.
Does bullying harm mental health?
Bullying can have the following psychological effects: Thinking and worrying about work all the time, even when you’re not at work, loathing work and wishing you could remain at home, needing time off to recover from stress losing interest in activities you used to enjoy, the greater risk of depression and anxiety, thoughts of suicide, poor self-esteem, self-doubt, or questioning if the bullying was all in your head.
Does bullying have physical health consequences?
Feeling ill or anxious before work or when thinking about work experience physical symptoms such as digestive problems or high blood pressure have a higher risk of type 2 diabetes have difficulty waking up or sleeping well suffer physical symptoms, including headaches and a loss of appetite.
Conclusion
In many businesses, bullying is a severe problem. Even though many firms have a zero-tolerance policy, bullying is difficult to detect and establish, making it difficult for management to respond. Anti-bullying policies may or may not exist in other firms.
Taking actions to avoid workplace bullying can benefit both businesses and their employees’ health. If you’ve been bullied, know that you can take action to stop it without having to approach the bully. Always remember to put your health first.
