There is still a taboo on talking about bullying in the workplace. A target of bullying usually tries to publicize his difficult position as little as possible. For example, because he expects little or no support from his colleagues because they do not recognize the undermining behavioral patterns. Or because these employees are afraid of becoming victims of the bully in question. It sometimes even happens that the person being bullied is accused of instigating the bullying himself. According to research, one in ten employees experience bullying and the financial damage to a company due to bullying at work is high. The first step to taking action against bullying in the workplace is to recognize bullying behavior.
Is bullying tough, funny, cowardly or counterproductive?
It is a misunderstanding that bullying is little more than tough or challenging behavior. On the contrary, bullying behavior shows a shocking lack of respect for other people. Bullying has nothing to do with clashing personalities nor with miscommunication.
The initiative to bully comes entirely from the perpetrator of the bullying behavior. Unlike a persistent prejudice, its target does not provoke the bullying. While children who are bullied often find that the bullied child is ‘different’ (for example in appearance, clothing and/or academic performance) than his peers, this is not always the case with bullying at work.
Bullies usually overwhelm their victims with unexpected and covert acts. Most of the time they are too cowardly to bully openly. Their bullying is often routine and always deliberate and malicious in nature. These people consciously try to harm certain people. If bullying continues for a long time, they often achieve their goal with this form of psychological violence. Their victims may suffer from reduced emotional stability for a longer period of time. Furthermore, complaints such as poor concentration, headache, insomnia, exhaustion and depression are common. Other medical complaints can also be the result of bullying behavior by one or more colleagues or a manager.
What’s the difference between normal teasing and workplace bullying?
The main difference between teasing and bullying is that teasing is incidental, short-term and more or less harmless and that bullying is structural, long-term and harmful.
Workplace bullying is characterized by the following five factors:
- Someone is being bullied repeatedly (the repetitive and aggressive and intense nature of the bullying).
- This happens over an extended period of time (unlike the occasional workplace teasing).
- Escalation occurs. Bullying is becoming more and more serious. Bullying is actually a form of psychological violence.
- There is often an inequality of power between victim and perpetrator. This difference in power may be formal. Then the bullying person is often the boss or superior of the person being bullied. But often it is about an informal power difference. The bully is often a colleague of the bullied person.
- The victim suspects intent on the part of the perpetrator. The bullied person is convinced that the harasser is deliberately behaving maliciously and intends to harm his victim.
Bullying is economically expensive for the company
Various studies have shown that approximately ten percent of employees in companies experience bullying.
If there is a culture of bullying within a company, this is at the expense of work performance, the innovative capacity of the company and the positive working atmosphere in general. In a competitive market, turning a blind eye to bullying for a company can lead to that company’s demise.
Bullying employees paralyze their employer’s productivity and innovation opportunities. In addition, bullies often target high- or high-performing colleagues whom they experience as a threat. Bullying causes the loss of valuable human capital due to reduced productivity and creativity of employees.
It is therefore important that the management of an organization takes action against bullying behavior by its staff. Bullying figures are not interested in compromises to achieve workable situations. This makes negotiations with perpetrators of bullying completely pointless. If a harasser refuses to stop his undermining activities, it is in the company’s interest to explore the options of terminating the harasser’s employment.
Every company in the Netherlands has a legal obligation, in the context of Article 4(2) of the Working Conditions Act, to implement a policy to protect its personnel against, among other things, aggression and violence. Bullying is considered to be aggression and violence as referred to in the Working Conditions Act. The question remains, of course, to what extent such a policy actually prevents bullying in practice or is merely a paper tiger. There is a role for the labor inspectorate here.
How do you recognize bullying behavior within a company?
According to a number of experts, an adult bully is primarily interested in maintaining his power and ability to control. Bullying people are essentially insecure and fearful cowards. They wage a secret war against employees or colleagues who often have better diplomas or professional or social skills. Bullies often see these people as a threat to their position, especially if they are not submissive or even slavish towards them.
Overt and covert bullies
Relatively few bullies get away with using rude insults toward their victims at work. Many bullying colleagues or bosses work subtly. Outwardly they behave reasonably and sociably, but in the meantime they engage in such things as character assassination, making fun of or subtly humiliating their victims and making disparaging remarks that may not mean much in themselves, but which, everything together, over time, poisoning the atmosphere for those affected.
Do you have a bullying loner or a bullying group in front of you?
Bullies can operate alone or in a group. You encounter them at every level of an organization. A bully can be your boss, but also one or more of your employees or colleagues. If the bullies operate as a group, your position as a target is even more difficult than if you are dealing with a bullying individual.
Are you the target of a group of bullying colleagues?
If you are the target of a group or group of bullying colleagues, you will notice this, among other things, by the following. You hear veiled allusions made to your performance and you discover that you are the object of gossip and backbiting. Your colleagues cover for each other in their harassing behavior, so it is very difficult to put your finger on it. They even try to get other people on their side to try to get you out of their neighborhood or even out of the company, whether or not on your own initiative or that of your boss.
If a company’s management is already prepared to combat bullying in general, you are more likely to receive serious intervention from the company if you deal with one bullying colleague rather than a bullying group of colleagues, especially if the Bullies in other areas appear to deliver decent work performance.
The six types of bullies at work according to Dr. Harvey Hornstein
According to Dr. Harvey Hornstein, author of the book Brutal Bosses and Their Prey: How to Identify and Overcome Abuse in the Workplace, bullies fall into six categories (according to Simon Legree).
- Conquerors
- Actors
- Manipulators
- Deniers of their target’s humanity
- Accusers
- Rationalizers
Conquerors
These are the classic schoolyard bullies. They harass you with words and make you feel small. They want you on your knees. Conqueror type bullies are only interested in power. They want to defend their territory and have complete control over it. They do this by trying to make others feel less powerful. Sometimes they bully in a direct way. That is, through insults and/or rough language or rude gestures. Sometimes they bully in an indirect way. Consider organizing mutual battles. They watch with pleasure how the participants try to undermine each other.
Actors
These are the bullies who suffer from a great lack of self-esteem and who feel constantly threatened. They act like they are big and strong. They like to pretend they are big and strong, but they don’t feel that way. They want to live up to their ideal image by trying to portray you as small and weak. They attack anyone they view as competitors and engage in belittling, antagonizing, and upsetting their victims. They sometimes do this openly and sometimes secretly. If a bully of this type is your boss, you should expect him to put negative comments about you in your personnel file without informing you.
Manipulators
Manipulator type bullies take credit for your work. They blame their mistakes on you and they slander you. They are only interested in themselves. They quickly feel threatened and are vengeful. They are very skilled at lying, cheating and betraying.
Deniers of their target’s humanity
Bullies who do not see certain fellow human beings as people, but only as a thing and treat you as such. It is easier to get rid of a thing than a person.
Accusers
The bullying from accusers is accompanied by the view that you are to blame for the bullying. When they hit you on the head, they are having fun in their mistaken belief that you have gotten what you deserve. They are often very adept at making you feel like their unpleasant behavior is your own fault.
Rationalizers
They speak ill of you under the guise that it is for your own good or that it is in the interest of the company. They justify themselves with statements such as: It had to be said. Someone had to do that. The company comes first, you know? All of these types of bullies can be guilty of one or more of the following examples of psychological violence.
Examples of psychological violence
As a form of psychological violence, bullying can take many different forms. Gary and Ruth Namie wrote the book The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job . In it they describe, among other things, various behaviors with which bullies try to torment their potential victims.
These behaviors include, for example:
- Constantly criticize
- Exhibiting dual behavior: friendly, but false
- Isolate
- Intimidate by word and gesture
- Recognizing bullying behavior as a first step against bullying in the workplace
Constantly criticize
Bullying can consist of constant or frequent criticizing or belittling or insulting or even calling someone names. The target finds his ability and skills being questioned at every turn. The bullied person is also often blamed for things that are not their fault. Such a bully stares at his target or consciously avoids eye contact when his victim is speaking. To the target’s contributions to a discussion, the bully responds with sighs, frowns, or a sour face.
Exhibiting dual behavior: friendly, but false
Some bullies behave in a friendly manner while undermining their target’s position. This way they can act in a supportive and stimulating manner, while at the same time they secretly try to saw out the legs from under the victim’s chair. For example, by ensuring that their target does not have the right resources to do their job.
Isolate
There are perpetrators of harassment who deliberately ensure that their target does not have the right information or access to people with the necessary information. He often tries to silence his victim to death.
Intimidate by word and gesture
A form of bullying consists of trying to intimidate a potential victim through words and gestures. For example, such a bully poisons the working environment with angry outbursts. He also repeatedly interrupts his target during meetings and other consultations or discussions. He has no respect for his target’s thoughts or feelings.
So much for the examples of psychological violence by colleagues or managers.
Recognizing bullying behavior as a first step against bullying in the workplace
The harmful effects of bullying in the workplace are described above. The first step to combating bullying behavior is to recognize it. Unmasking bullies can be difficult, because many bullies are extremely adept at camouflaging their undermining behavior by acting friendly and helpful and showing a great willingness to cooperate.
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- Do you suffer from bullying at work?