Bullying in the Workplace
Are You a Victim?
Workplace bullying, known as psychological or emotional abuse, is a deliberate, repeated mistreatment of a targeted employee by one or more people in the workplace. The bully can be a staff or subordinate, but more than 80% of workplace bullies are supervisors, managers and executives, equally male or female. When a person (target) is being bullied, this damages the targets physical and psychological health, and threatens their job security. Workplace bullying is just the opposite of the typical childhood bullying scenario, were an unpopular and weak child is picked on. In workplace bullying, the victim is usually well educated and very competent in their job, which poses a threat to the bully. As a result, the bully seeks to rid of them. The intimidation and manipulation in workplace bullying are similar to those behaviors observed in Intimate Partner Violence. It is a problem where “boundaries” are crossed, and communication, productivity, and personal health suffer.
Bullying Behaviors
|
Effects on the Workplace
|
Physical
|
Behavioral
|
Psychological
|
Types of Workplace Bullies
The following 4 types of bullies are described below from "The Bully At Work", ©2000, with permission by Gary and Ruth Namie, Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute. It is highly recommended if you are an employee experiencing being bullied or an employer learning how to prevent and address workplace bullying, The Bully At Work is highly recommended (Namie & Namie, 2009). The following is a brief overview of the types of workplace bullies. This will be the beginning of getting the help you need and becoming stronger, but next visit the Workplace Bullying Institute.
Type 1: The constant Critic
This type of bully is an extremely negative, a. nitpicker, perfectionist, whiner, complainer, fault finder, a liar. They are loved by senior management because of their ability to "get people to produce." This type of bully destroys the employee or target of their self-confidence and encourages self-doubt.
They do this by:
They do this by:
- Putting the person down, insulting, making belittling comments, name-calling.
- Constant arguing about Target's "incompetence."
- Makes aggressive eye contact, glaring at Target; demands eye contact when she speaks but deliberately avoids eye contact when Target speaks.
- Negatively reacts to contribution of target [sighs, frowns, peering over top of eyeglasses to condescend, sour face ("just sucked a lemon" look)]
- Accuses Target of wrongdoing, blamed for errors made up by bully (doctored documents, compromised databases, fake witness accounts)
- Makes unreasonable work demands, impossible deadlines, disproportionate pressure, expects perfectionism.
- Sends signals of disrespect through hyper-confident body language - sitting at desk with feet up, showing target bottom of shoes and talking to target through feet, bully grooms' self (hair, nails) while ignoring the Target; making target sit while bully stands, hovering over them
- Over-use of memos, e-mails, messages to bury Target in correspondence.
- Requiring replies personally criticizes aspects of the Target's life that are irrelevant to work--appearance, family, friends.
- Excessively or harshly criticizes Target's work or abilities.
- Engages Target in intense cross-examination to belittle and confuse.
Type 2: The Two-Headed Snake
This bully-type is a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde passive-aggressive behavior-a dishonest style. They often pretend to be nice while sabotaging you. "Friendliness" serves only to give them information that they can later use against you. They often play favorites with staff in the organization.
- Demands that co-workers provide damning "evidence" against Target, uses lies or half-truths, threatens non-cooperators (the "divide and conquer" technique)
- Discriminates against smokers by requiring they gather trash from the parking lot while taking a smoke break.
- Assigns meaningless or "dirty" tasks as punishment.
- Makes nasty, rude, hostile remarks directly to Target while putting on a rational "face" for others.
- Breaches confidentiality; shares private information about the Target with co-workers or other bosses.
- Discriminates against non-smoking Target by permitting breaks only for smokers.
- Creates a special personnel file kept in bully's car or locked in office full of defamatory information to sabotage Target's career inside or outside the organization.
- Steals credit for work done by the target.
Type 3: The Gatekeeper
This is the most transparent of all controllers. The bully makes themselves "one up" on you, to order you around and control you. To the bully, control of all resources (time, supplies, praise, approval, money, staffing, help) is the most important aspect of work. Approval must be solicited from bully at all times.
Type 4: The Screamer
This type of bully is a stereotypical bully who controls through fear & intimidation, emotionally out of control, impulsive and explosive where the threat of physical violence can become an issue. This bully is overbearing, self-centered, and insensitive to needs of others. They are overly concerned of being detected as an imposter and masks their incompetence.
- Yells, screams, curses
- Barks out loud often that "I AM YOUR BOSS" "FOLLOW MY COMMANDS"
- Poisons workplace with angry outbursts, tantrums
- Intimidates through gestures: finger pointing, slams things down, throws objects
- Crowds the Target's personal space, moves close to threaten or to make the Target anxious, hovers over, sneaks up from behind to startle.
- Constantly interrupts the Target during meetings and conversations.
- Discounts and denies Target's thoughts or feelings.
- Threats of job loss or change
- Traps Target by insisting that complaints go "up the chain of command," starting with them.
References:
Namie, G., & Namie, R. (2009). The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job. Sourcebooks Incorporated.
Namie, G., & Namie, R. (2009). The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job. Sourcebooks Incorporated.
Educational Handout
Bullying in the Workplace
The materials below are available to download and print as educational handouts. Questions, please contact 323-491-6197.