How To Manage Workplace Bullying (With Examples)
Indeed
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Feeling comfortable and happy at work can be challenging if you have to deal with a workplace bully. Negative behavior or harassment can prompt you to search for a more respectful work environment–even if you really like your job. In this article, we define what a workplace bully is and common types to look out for, plus examples of workplace bullying and ways to deal with it.
What is a workplace bully??
A workplace bully is someone who consistently bestows harm or mistreatment to other employees and brings them physical or emotional pain. Workplace bullying can come in all forms, including nonverbal, verbal, humiliation, psychological and physical abuse. A person at any level in the office can be a workplace bully, from coworkers to managers.
Types of workplace bullies
Bullies exist in many forms in the workplace. It's important to identify this behavior and take action to stop it. Here are some common types of workplace bullies to look out for:
The blatantly insulting bully
This type of bullying usually comes from those in a supervisor role. They may yell or scream at employees or otherwise try to use fear to manage them. Many of these bullies believe they'll receive little to no consequences for their actions since they're typically in a higher-ranking position. Blatantly insulting bullies attempt to establish dominance or control by making their employees feel smaller through harsh and belittling comments.
The passive-aggressive bully
These bullies make comments that may seem like compliments but are actually hidden insults. These can be comments like?"Good job on the presentation, you did surprisingly well."?Some passive-aggressive bullies may unintentionally harm others by using sarcastic statements without realizing they're insulting people.
The scheming bully
A scheming bully attempts to be more subtle with their mistreatment of others. They're often nice to the employee when they're face to face, but undermine them when they're away from them. They may engage in tactics like gossiping and spreading false rumors about the employee.
If the bully is a manager, they may abuse this power by giving an employee undesirable shifts, excluding them from important meetings or assigning them many difficult and time-consuming projects with little to no guidance on how to complete them.
The unintentional bully
Most of these bullies are unaware of how unfairly or harshly they're treating others. Many of them make unfiltered comments without thinking about their words before speaking. They typically don't make statements to harm or hurt others, which means they're usually unaware of the impact their words have on others.
It's important for those who are experiencing unintentional bullying to speak up to the bully or human resources (HR) to make the bully aware of the harm they're causing. Knowing their words are hurting people's feelings may cause these bullies to assess their behavior, apologize and discontinue these harmful actions.
How to stop workplace bullying
Some bullies target specific employees to offend, degrade, humiliate or offend them. Others are intentional bullies who may cause harm to other employees without realizing it. When someone's bullying you or others, follow these tips to address it:
15 examples of workplace bullying
Bullying can come in various forms and aren’t always obvious. Here are 15 examples:
1. Abusing or threatening to abuse an employee
This is the most commonly recognized form of bullying, and generally the only type that has the potential to face legal repercussions. Some bullies cause or threaten to cause physical harm to an employee. Most who do so use this as a way to manipulate the other employee into giving them something they want.
2. Spreading rumors or gossiping
This type of bullying can occur both in person and virtually. A bully may spread rumors about someone in the workplace, through text messages or on social media.
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3. Purposely excluding an employee
These bullies may blatantly ignore an employee to make them feel left out by starting workplace cliques, refusing to invite them to meetings and excluding the employee from participating in workgroups or committees.
4. Using an aggressive or intimidating attitude
Some bullies, including supervisors and employees, enjoy intimidating others by making them feel small or inadequate. They often do this by putting them down in front of others or insulting their appearance.
5. Undermining an employee's work
This type of bullying behavior may come from employees who are intentionally trying to make an employee look bad in front of a supervisor. They may do this to receive a promotion over others or seem more skilled than them. Undermining behavior includes taking unearned credit for projects, placing undeserved blame on others or interfering with an employee’s work or productivity.
6. Giving employees impossible deadlines
Some supervisors may intentionally bully an employee by constantly assigning them work, knowing it's too challenging for them to complete. If an employee under-delivers this work, the bully may use this as an excuse to punish them for unsatisfactory results.
7. Withholding information
Bullies who aim to sabotage other employees may do so by withholding information like meeting times or important details about an assignment. They often do this to make the other employee look like they're underperforming in their role.
8. Making an employee feel useless
Supervisors may bully their employees by assigning little work or giving them projects that are unimportant or otherwise seem like busywork. This can make an employee feel insignificant and lower their self-confidence.
9. Telling offensive jokes
Telling jokes that are offensive or inappropriate for the workplace is a form of bullying. Some do this unintentionally, so it's important to address the negative effects of these jokes with the employee or HR.
10. Invading someone's privacy
Some bullies may invade others' privacy by following them around in or outside of the workplace. They may also look through someone's personal items or search for confidential company files or documents without permission.
11. Screaming or using profane language
Some employees use violent tempers in the workplace to discipline or humiliate an employee. Others may also use profane, offensive language.
12. Delivering constant criticism
There's a difference between providing an employee with constructive criticism and constantly insulting their work. If an employee is criticizing the work of someone else without attempting to help them improve or providing any genuine feedback, this can be considered bullying and may decrease the employee’s confidence at work.
13. Belittling an employee's opinion
This can occur when an employee expresses their thoughts, opinions or ideas during a meeting or other workplace situation and is belittled or ridiculed for them. This negative behavior can cause the employee to no longer speak up during meetings.
14. Purposely keeping an employee from opportunities
A supervisor who's bullying an employee may try to find ways to keep them from opportunities. For example, they may withhold information on training or promotions to make the employee feel inadequate in their role.
15. Gaslighting?
Gaslighting often goes unnoticed in the workplace. Bullies use this form of psychological harassment in the workplace to manipulate or attempt to manipulate another employee’s perception of reality. For example, your supervisor may direct you to do something, and then later they tell you they said something completely different. Bullies use gaslighting tactics to shift blame, and it can cause the victim to be penalized or fired for something at no fault of their own.
Credits: indeed career blog