Bullying

Surely, in this day and age we are too enlightened and our structures too robust for bullying to continue in the workplace?

Alas, no, it still goes on, and as we are now learning, even in the highest offices in the land.

There is no excuse for bullying, and everyone deserves to live their life with their dignity intact.

Bullying is a difficult thing to recognise and to address, yet we must learn to deal with it supportively and make it easier for victims to flag up instances without feeling threatened.

Do bullies know what they’re doing? I think the answer is mixed; some do, some don’t.

I speak from personal experience, as I have been bullied in local government on two occasions.

On the first occasion a new boss was in at the deep end and lacked the competence to manage the operation. Although I tried to support him in his new appointment he couldn’t cope and blamed everything on me. I don’t think he was aware that he was bullying but was seeking to protect himself. This was quite easy to spot and I was able to react to defend my position. Ultimately I managed to direct all of the work that required decisions to my boss and forced him to face the music. Within a short time he was removed from the post and replaced with another.

The second occasion was far more complex and was difficult to identify.

My boss welcomed me to the team and, on the face of it appeared to be lively, sharp, intelligent and wishing me well.

Over time, a number of behaviours became apparent, but still below my self-protection radar. I have often wondered how I didn’t spot things earlier and flag them up in my normally assertive manner.

On reflection I think there were a few things at play. One key personality characteristic is agreeableness, and I am aware that I have that in my make up; I am never keen to put anyone down and I try to see the good in people.

In a newly promoted position I was keen to please, and saw criticism as a way of learning and improving my performance. I think I was trying to be a good team player and one who genuinely took advice from all quarters.

I had temporarily suspended the modus-operandi that had proved successful for me over previous years.

The first sign of things going awry were repeated requests from his office to go to immediate ad-hoc meetings with no knowledge of the subject; this always maintained his control and put me on the back foot.

In addition to this, any work I or my team did was never good enough and had to be repeated numerous times in vain attempts to hit unachievable outcomes.

In large meetings I would be put on the spot and asked to lead on discussion topics that I had little or no knowledge of, making me look ill-prepared or incompetent.

Any work I was trying to do with my team was undermined and deemed unsatisfactory, and managerial meetings were rigged so that my peers were pitted against me under the guise of healthy challenge.

For at least two years I didn’t twig what was actually going on and worked long hours to try to keep all the balls in the air. Despite my hard work, my appraisals were used to flag my perceived shortcomings, I never received any praise and was never in line for performance related pay increases.

Only after a meeting chaired by my boss did the penny drop, when one of the attendees came up to me afterwards and said, “are you alright”?

She had recognised that I was being undermined in front of other people.

Why hadn’t I, as a reasonably intelligent chap, realised what was going on?

Bullies are devious and they pick on those who they think will let them get away with it. Also, they keep sapping away the resistance with their relentless negativity. In the words of Jethro Tull, they know how to hurt without leaving a mark.

Once you recognise that you are being bullied, what do you do? I found it extremely difficult to find anyone to talk to who was able to support me and deal with the situation. There is an assumption that because the company has created policies on the subjects of bullying and dignity at work, there is no chance of problems arising; how wrong that is!

As my own case progressed, I learned of other cases of bullying in the council and stories of my boss bullying staff before me. No-one, of course had felt able to raise the issue.

This then brought into question the conduct of the senior staff and the culture they were content to foster.

Bullying is like any whistleblowing situation and the way out for the whistle-blower needs to be made quicker and safer. The way to prevent it in any organisation is to constantly look for problems by asking people directly - “are you ok, are you or any of your colleagues being bullied“? and then having people and procedures in place to manage a resolution. Another is to recruit the right people who aren’t bullies.

In this country we are so used to assuming that things are hunky dory - this has led to abuse of many kinds, including child sexual abuse.

In my case, the bully was moved sideways and eventually out, but the fundamental issue was never really addressed.

I am fortunate that I have a stable, resilient character born of strong parenting. I have suffered no ill effects - many are not so lucky!