Helping You Cope With & Stop

WORKPLACE BULLYING

RESPECT • CIVILITY • ACCOUNTABILITY

Workplace Bullying: Did You Know?

Did you know that we have people from all over the world subscribing to the “Bully Free At Work” weekly tip?  People from over 100 countries are plugged into the same community as you!  What does this mean?

We know:

  1. Workplace bullying occurs in every country in the world.
  2. We know now that 1 in 6 people have reported being bullied, and
  3. We know that almost everybody wants Workplace Bullying to stop.

So What Can You Do?

  1. Educate and therefore empower yourself – Our Blog has numerous articles covering aspects of Workplace Bullying – read these and share them with co-workers.
  2. Co-workers!  Won’t they be offended?  Here’s a tip for you if you wish for your co-workers to be informed:  Share some of the information with them by saying “I wouldn’t mind your opinion on this”.  It is a less intrusive opening; and who knows – maybe a good discussion can emerge.
  3. But what about the very difficult co-workers?  Good question!  We’ve found two top tips that have helped people the most:
  • My book “Bully Free at Work”, if you haven’t gotten your copy yet, addresses the specific “how-to’s” in the top 21 problematic situations (taken from a survey of over 100 countries world-wide).  If you are still struggling, chances are you have “something missing” when you go to analyze your situation.  “Bully Free at Work” was written, and proven, to walk you through very difficult scenarios with a Step by Step process, protecting you along the way. Get Bully Free at Work now – what have you got to lose?
  • The other tip is to suggest having a Bully Free at Work presentation where you work?  Very often, having a third party from the outside will help support the target, the managers, and help structure a system to hold bullies accountable.  For companies who wish to be World Class, why not certify your department or organization to be Bully Free at Work?

We know this:
Stress related to Workplace Bullying occurs for 2 reasons:

  1. One is un-informed and thus under-empowered to tackle the workplace bullying situation, or
  2. One is informed, but lacks the confidence and support to carry through with an action plan.

Question:

  1. What will you do?
  2. What have you done that could encourage others all over the world?  Let us know by leaving a post.  Workplace bullying can be stopped – it has in some situations – why not have the next one be yours?

P.S.  We’d love to hear a success story from you on our blog.  Thank you for sharing how Bully Free at Work has helped you – your story could make the difference for someone else.

*Note: Your name and email will not ever appear, it is strictly used to prevent spam comments.

5 responses to “Workplace Bullying: Did You Know?”

  1. jodie says:

    i need some advice from getting harrassed at my job no one will listen to me cause the lady that is harrassing me has got the big bosses on her side and she twists everything around on me and makes me look like the bad person and i have went to the bosses and the human resource lady and they said one more complaint we will lose are job i need some help from someone what do i do

  2. Harry says:

    Hi Leo” I am sadend by your experience. I to have been subjected to bullying behaviour at woork. A new Coordinator who seems to be married to our Line Manager. I made an initial complaint to my line Manager who arranged a meeting between myself and the Bully and the Line Manger. Of course the Bully denied ever having bullied me. The KLine Manager seemed more interested in trivualizing my complaint and pretending it didn’t happen. More was said in exchange. Things got slightly better but tensions and resentment where high by the Bully over me since then. It was displayed in his body language,trivulizing my work,pretending to be more experienced than me, thought i trained him. This gave a false impression on newer Staff about my level of skills being less than his hence side stepping my 25 years of experience against his mere 12 months. Nit picking ensued, not introducing new Staff or even refering Staff to me for my professional advice. Basically over controlling and trying to micro manage too much. I could go on….. The end result was; I ended up taking time of from work, saw my Doctor and made a Workers Compensation Claim. This brought things to a whole new level. It became an occicial complaint and because of it being a claim had to be investigated. I was assigned a Rehab Officer who i told most of what was happening and how it affected me. My Doctor supported that i should not be working in an unhealthy environment. After all. Your Employer has a legal obligation to provide a safe and healthy workplace. If that worplace is in detriment to your health then they are obligated to correct it accordingly. An Independent Investigator was deployed to investigate the Bully claim made by me. I had enough to keep her happy with information since i made sure that i had dates witnesses and complaints made by my Colleagues also. That is as far as it has gone so far. I will know the outcome of the report fairly soon. Bottom line is. Other People from higher up are now involved and there for it can not be so easily dismissed anymore. Unfortunate for my imediate Management.
    It is not uncommon for a Line Manger or indeed Management wanting to side track a Bullying complaint. In particular when it happens to be one of their own such as a Supervisor. It is easier for Management to deal with the Complainant than it is with the Bully. Often the Bully gets just a slap on the Hand and carries on where he is. Where as the Victim gets moved on or remains off from work or even gets redeployed!
    It is more difficult in the private sector than in Governement to kick a Bully in the Bud (sort of speak). More needs to be done to protect the Victims and to dish out penaltie or consequenses deserving of such behaviour. One i favour is to boot the Bully out of a Job. But” That would mean admitting that Management screwed up getting someone half decent in the first place hence liabilities.Bullies are mean spitited, selfish, slimy, and manipulative and any half decent Employer should never stand for it if they had any integrity.
    Ahmen” 🙂

  3. Also Harrassed says:

    I hate to say this, and I know it sounds very cynical but unfortunately I do think it is true. . . I think a lot of times the company will think you are the problem even though you are the victim. They might prefer to side with the bully if the bully is more valuable to the company. So they might’ve seen the video but not want to take action against the bully. I believe this is why a lot of people don’t bother to report being harrassed (despite what the company says their anti-harassment policy is) – because of this attitude that if you have a problem, then you *are* the problem. It is wrong, but if the ones who have power over you think this way, then there’s not much you can do except maybe keep a log and try and sue them. Or maybe if you have friends who are willing to risk their jobs and go to HR to vouch for you.

  4. Bob Joslin says:

    Usually bulliles smoke and they think there hot stuff because they smoke. But they stink and they don’t know it, besides bothering people who don’t smoke.

  5. leo says:

    I submitted a written report of a workplace harassment and bullying I had experienced a year ago to our Union Chairperson. These involves some of our Union representatives, co-workers (buddies),supervisor and another from the management. For whatever reason, the Union chairperson let this case be handled by a HR-generalist of our company. After so many questioned asked and answered, still nobody sided on me. I told them that there were incidents during that period where one of the bully was being stopped by two lady co workers to do something against me while I am returning to work after a breaktime. I told them that the surveillance camera outside the building will show about it. the HR gen. just said taht she will look at it. Their decision is they gave a leaflet that I can talk to outside the company. I felt an insult because most of the people with mental illness do that thing. My last option was to transfer to another building with different job. The Union and Mgt. conducted an anti harassment in workplace seminar after 3-months.

    I felt that there were still some buddies of the bullies who transferred to the second building who tried to intimidate me but I ignored it.

    After a month working in the new building I felt some kind skin disease fastly spreading around my scalp, on my back and on my face. Doctor diagnosed it is psoriasis. I had a knee injury after two months and this time I tried to be open to the union representatives. Still not trusting anybody, I try to tell some of my co workers what happen to me in the other building.

    Another complaints regarding same bully was reported by me. The same thing happened alot of Q & A was done. Still no body was punished.

    I am asking why they cannot show me and used the surveillance camera of the company as my evidence that there was harassment done to me? They want me to drop the complaint but I said no I need that to be filed. They can’t tell me what they saw in the camera until now. What I will do now I am injured and suffering from skin disease caused by that distressful experience.

Valerie Cade, CSP is a Workplace Bullying Expert, Speaker and Author of "Bully Free at Work: What You Can Do To Stop Workplace Bullying Now!" which has been distributed in over 100 countries worldwide. For presentations and consulting on workplace bullying prevention and respectful workplace implementation, go to http://www.BullyFreeAtWork.com

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