Psychological Warfare at Work: How to Deal with Workplace Bullying?

Workplace bullying isn't a rare phenomenon. A study conducted by researchers Richa Gupta, Arti Bakhshi, and St?le Einarsen five years ago, with 1,053 employees from various public and private organisations, found that up to 46% of the workers were exposed to bullying at work either occasionally or frequently. 27% of respondents said they experienced workplace bullying sometimes, but 19% said it was severe. Workplace bullying is conduct that may be aggressive and intimidating, characterised by persistence and unfair power dynamics. In the Indian context, workplace bullying entails the targets being relentlessly picked on, insulted, and humiliated in public based on caste, colour, and region, shouted at for silly reasons, ignored purposefully, blamed for others' mistakes, and subjected to wildly arbitrary deadlines and intolerable workload.

Workplace bullying may seriously impact survivors' mental health if they are routinely humiliated, offended, or intimidated. Survivors of workplace bullying frequently experience PSTD, panic attacks, depression, and other mental illnesses. We're all aware that depression can have negative results and ramifications, particularly if the person experiencing it chooses to keep his shame, guilt, and suffering to himself. Traumatic events negatively impact workplace culture and productivity and affect the survivor's physical and mental health. According to Stanford University's Bill Sutton, bullying can reduce workplace productivity by 40%.

(Standen, Peter and Maryam Omari. "Psychological Warfare at Work: The Destructive Cycle of Reciprocal Bullying.")

To prevent the effects of workplace bullying, human resource departments and safety management in every industry must act immediately. Workplace bullying puts workers at a higher risk for workplace accidents because their problem-solving skills, creativity, and attention are engaged in organising their thoughts around surviving the day and avoiding interactions with the bully. Bullying has elements of psychological warfare. Psychological warfare employs propaganda, threats, and other psychological strategies to deceive, intimidate, demoralise, or otherwise impact an adversary's thoughts or conduct. Bullies frequently trivialise or demonise their survivors in front of their coworkers, which causes the survivor to become isolated, lose their support, and lose their credibility. Bullies are waging a propaganda war against their opponents.

Here is a list of bullying behaviours to be aware of:

• Unwarranted or invalid criticism
• Blame without factual justification
• Treating specific individuals differently than the rest of your workgroup
• Swearing at others
• Exclusion or social isolation
• Settling unreasonable or impossible deadlines
• Assigning excessive workload
• Humiliation or shouting at others
• Excessive monitoring or micro-managing
• Threats
• Spreading vicious gossip

Since the survivors of workplace bullying are frequently reluctant to speak up and voice their concerns, addressing the issue can be challenging. Fear of losing their jobs, reviews, projects, etc., may cause this. Organisations must create stringent compliance requirements and corporate ethics and assign an individual staff for the function to support employees in sharing their worries and anxieties. The team must report to a board of directors or the highest leadership level to ensure fair and impartial operation. Additionally, organisations need to provide training on stress management, awareness of negative behaviour, and better workplace engagement. Companies must react appropriately to documented workplace bullying by providing the survivor with the necessary help and disciplining the offender.

Here are some actions organisations can take to protect the work culture from bullying behaviours:

1. Establish a "Zero Tolerance to Bullying" policy and make it clear in employee handbooks. Send regular internal newsletters as a follow-up. List the behaviours that constitute bullying.
2. Use progressive discipline to root out bullies and stamp out the bullying culture.
3. Encourage anyone who sees bullying to help the survivors and report it. One of the best strategies for stopping a bully is peer intervention. After all, if nobody speaks up, it suggests that bullying is okay.
4. Use safety meetings to inform workers about the dangers that workplace bullying poses to their mental health. Encourage acceptance of the idea that a bullying-free workplace protects everyone's health and well-being.
5. Regular multicultural training sessions encourage mutual respect and recognition of diverse ideas and values.
6. Set up a POSH committee if you haven't already. Periodically review your POSH policies and ensure stringent implementation of the guidelines.

What are the other ways in which we can tackle the problem of workplace bullying? Write to us at [email protected].