Workplace bullying is a common practice in the corporate working place. A smart employee can survive a buying employee.
“When people hurt you over and over, think of them like sandpaper. They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished, and they end up useless.”
Chris Colfer
Workplace bullying refers to repeated actions aimed directly or indirectly towards employees meant to insult them. It can be spiteful, offensive, mocking, or intimidating through verbal, written or physical behaviour, which causes physical or psychological distress to someone. It creates a feeling of helplessness in the bullying target.
What are the different types of Workplace Bullying?
- Verbal bullying – It includes mockery, humiliation, jokes, gossip, or other spoken abuse.
- Intimidating – This might include threats, social exclusion in the workplace, spying, or other invasions of privacy.
- Related to work performance – It includes wrongful blame, works sabotage or interference, or stealing or taking credit for ideas.
- Retaliatory – In some cases, talking about bullying can lead to accusations of lying, further exclusion, refused promotions, or other retaliation.
- Institutional – This bullying happens when a workplace accepts, allows, and encourages bullying to take place. This bullying might involve unrealistic production goals, forced overtime, or singling out those who can’t keep up.
Since bullying is often verbal or psychological, it may not always be visible to others.
Continue reading this article to know more about ways to recognise workplace bullies, how workplace bullying can affect your health, and safe actions you can take against bullying.
Some of the typical workplace bullyings include:
- Criticize someone
- Shout at someone
- Humiliate someone
- Isolate someone socially
- Swear or curse at someone
- Monitoring someone extremely
- Tell someone that they should quit
- Target someone for practical jokes
- Blame someone without any reason
- Spread false rumours about someone
- Treat someone differently than others
- Ignore someone or someone’s opinions
How can Workplace Bullying affect your physical and mental health?
Workplace bullying can cause a severe or significant effect on physical and mental health. Even though you remove yourself from the bullying environment by leaving the job or changing department, the effect of bullying can last long after the bullying has stopped.
Physical health effects of bullying
- You may have trouble waking up or getting quality sleep
- feel anxious or sick before work or when thinking about work
- have somatic symptoms, such as decreased appetite and headache
- have physical symptoms, such as high blood pressure and digestive issues
Mental health effects of bullying
- low self-esteem
- suicidal thoughts
- needing time off to recover from stress
- increased risk for depression and anxiety
- dreading work and wanting to stay home
- losing interest in those things you usually like to do
- thinking and worrying about work consistently, even during time off
A lot of people are afraid, to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having a backbone.
Robert Kiyosaki
How to handle bullying at work or what are the safe actions you can take against bullying?
You may feel powerless or and unable to do anything to stop it when you experience bullying for the first time. But, always remember one thing, bullying is never your fault, and you don’t need to suffer always because of someone else fault. You need to begin to take the right action against bullying to prevent hurting yourself more in the future.
Initiate your action to fight against bullying with these steps
- Document the bullying
Keep track of what happened, when and where it happened, including date and time. Keep a detailed account of the circumstances, exactly what was said, and who, if anyone, heard or saw it.
- Report the bullying
If you don’t feel talking to your direct supervisor safe, you can speak to other designated persons about the bullying. You can discuss it with Human Resources or someone higher up that your supervisor is unhelpful or is the person doing the bullying.
- Review work policies
Your employee handbook may outline steps of policies or actions against bullying. Also, consider analysing state or even federal policies about the type of bullying you are facing now.
- Seek legal guidance
Consider talking to an attorney, relying on the situation of the bullying. A lawyer can offer you the right advice.
- Reach out to others
Co-workers may be able to provide support. Talking to your loved ones about workplace bullying can also help you get out of the situation. You can even speak to a therapist. They can provide professional support and assist you in exploring ways to cope with the effects of bullying while you take other action.
Workplace bullies don’t just hurt employees but can sap motivation and hurt your bottom line. Your days at the office shouldn’t fill with humiliation, manipulation and aggressive communication. If they are, remember first that it’s absolutely not your fault. And then take the necessary steps to take care of yourself and put that bully in the past forever.
Be sure of yourself, don’t let anyone bully you, be a strong and independent woman or boy.
Nicole Polizzi
