Bullying and harassment at work

Bullying and harassment at work are serious issues that can have profound negative effects on the mental health, job satisfaction, performance, and overall productivity of the employees. Understanding these behaviors and recognizing their various forms is crucial for creating a safe and respectful workplace.

What is workplace bullying?

Workplace bullying involves repeated, unreasonable actions directed towards an employee or group of employees, intended to intimidate, degrade, humiliate, or undermine them. These actions can be verbal, physical, social, or psychological and typically involve a misuse of power or position. Some characteristics of workplace bullying are:

• Repetition: Bullying involves repeated behavior, not just isolated incidents. It is persistent over time.
• Misuse of power: Bullying often involves an abuse of power or authority. Having said this, sometimes it can also occur among peers.
• Unreasonable behavior: These are actions that a reasonable person would consider offensive, humiliating, or intimidating.
• Impact on health: Bullying poses a risk to the physical and mental health of the targeted individual(s).

What is workplace harassment?

Harassment includes unwelcome behavior or conduct based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. Harassment can take many forms, including verbal, physical, and visual conduct, and it can be perpetrated by supervisors, coworkers, or even non-employees such as clients or vendors. The key characteristics of workplace harassment are:

• Unwelcome conduct: The behavior or conduct is not desired or invited by the recipient and is regarded as offensive or inappropriate.
• Protected characteristics: The behavior is based on characteristics that are legally protected under anti-discrimination laws, such as race, gender, age, or disability.
• Hostile work environment: The conduct creates a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive.
• Impact on employment: Harassment can affect the victim's job performance, mental and physical health, and overall work experience.

Both behaviors are detrimental to the work environment and can lead to severe emotional and psychological distress for the victims. According to a report, 90% of the workplace harassment is never officially reported.

Various forms of bullying

• Verbal abuse: This includes yelling, swearing, or making derogatory remarks. Verbal abuse is designed to belittle or humiliate the targeted person. If a manager frequently shouts at an employee in front of colleagues, calling them incompetent and worthless, it is a classic case of verbal abuse.
• Intimidation and threats: This involves threatening an employee with job loss, demotion, or other negative consequences without justification. A supervisor sometimes threatens an employee with firing if they do not complete unrealistic workloads.
• Exclusion and isolation: Deliberately excluding someone from meetings, social gatherings, or important communications can make them feel alienated. An employee who is consistently left out of team meetings and social events, is made to feel ostracized.
• Spreading rumors: This involves spreading false or malicious information about someone to damage their reputation. Spread rumors about someone's work habits or personal life leads to a hostile work environment.
• Overloading with work: Assigning excessive workloads or impossible deadlines to cause stress and failure is one of the forms of bullying and harassment. For example, an employee is given an unreasonable amount of work that cannot be completed within the assigned time frame, leading to chronic stress.
• Undermining work: This includes deliberately sabotaging someone’s work, setting them up for failure, or constantly criticizing their performance unjustly. For instance, a colleague intentionally withholds important information, causing an employee to miss deadlines and make errors.
• Physical aggression: Any form of physical violence or threat of violence. For example, a pushing, hitting, or physically intimidating another employee.
• Cyberbullying: Bullying through digital platforms, such as sending threatening emails or messages, spreading malicious gossip online, or excluding someone from virtual group communications. For instance, a manager sends a threatening emails from company email id to a team member.
• Microaggressions: Subtle, often unintentional, behaviors or comments that demean or belittle an individual, particularly those from marginalized groups. For example, making jokes about someone’s accent or questioning their professional capability based on their race or gender.
• Retaliation: Punishing someone for making pointing out mistakes or complaints about bullying or harassment. For instance, an employee who reported a mistake made by the manager is subsequently given poor performance reviews or undesirable assignments.

Impact of bullying/harassment:

• Mental health: Increases stress, anxiety, depression, and a decrease in overall well-being.
• Physical health: It increases health issues such as headaches, sleep disturbances, and high blood pressure.
• Job performance: It decreases productivity, higher absenteeism, and potential job loss.
• Work environment: It creates a toxic workplace culture that can affect all employees, not just the victims.

Addressing bullying and harassment

• Develop clear policies: Organizations should establish clear anti-bullying and harassment policies outlining unacceptable behaviors and consequences.
• Promote awareness: Conduct regular training sessions to educate employees about recognizing and preventing bullying and harassment.
• Encourage reporting: Create a safe and confidential reporting system for employees to report bullying and harassment without fear of retaliation.
• Take immediate action: If someone files a complaint, the HR and/or the investigating representative should investigate all complaints promptly and take appropriate disciplinary actions against perpetrators. By not taking any action, you are supporting such behaviors.
• Support victims: Provide support for victims through meetings, counseling services, and ensuring they feel safe and respected in the workplace.
• Foster a positive culture: Promote a culture of respect, inclusivity, and support. Encourage team-building activities and open communication.

Bullying and harassment in the workplace are detrimental to both individuals and the organization. Recognizing the various forms these behaviors can take is the first step in addressing and preventing them. By developing clear policies, promoting awareness, encouraging reporting, and fostering a positive work culture, organizations can create a safe and respectful environment where all employees can thrive.