Have you seen or experienced Bullying in the Workplace?

[Dragonbite]

With all of the recent news of suicides due to long-term bullying I ran across this interesting article How to Confront an Office Bully (http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/04/are_bullies_in_your_workplace.html). I guess I have been rather lucky so far, as I have not run across this in my career.

It makes me wonder, who has come across bullying in the workplace and can you describe it or how it was resolved?

[Tristam Green]

I'm 6'4" with broad shoulders, for some strange reason that i cannot quite pinpoint I've never really been a victim of office bullying. Likewise, there's no reason for me to bully anyone else.

[Dragonbite]

I'm 6'4" with broad shoulders, for some strange reason that i cannot quite pinpoint I've never really been a victim of office bullying. Likewise, there's no reason for me to bully anyone else.

Size may be a factor, but it isn't a complete deterrent. The example in the article didn't require a physical presence as it was more authoritative due to their position.

That's not to say the size isn't a deterrent but I think it takes more than just that.

[fatality_uk]

I'm 6'4" with broad shoulders, for some strange reason that i cannot quite pinpoint I've never really been a victim of office bullying. Likewise, there's no reason for me to bully anyone else.

A bad boss can bully you no matter how big you are!!!

[Grenage]

I'm 6'4" with broad shoulders, for some strange reason that i cannot quite pinpoint I've never really been a victim of office bullying. Likewise, there's no reason for me to bully anyone else.

I'm 6,5; we should get together and do some looming, lol.

I haven't see any bullying in the workplace, if I did, I'd step in.

[Dragonbite]

I had a friend who thought she was being targeted for bullying in the workplace. Ultimately she left, but she could not prove anything.

[CharlesA]

I haven't seen or experienced any bullying in the workplace.

Unless you count being assigned projects by the boss as "bullying" :P

[blur xc]

I have, once. I'm 6'2, was about 180 - 190lbs at the time, but that doesn't matter that much.

The guy was just a jerk- I figured, through clues from working with him, he had problems at home (mentioned at one time his wife was pregnant and wouldn't quit smoking, for example) his bad temper was probably just spilling over to work. He was also one of those super proud know-it-all types, which didn't help- especailly as the quality of his work was sub standard. He also probable felt threatened by me, as I was promoted ahead of him, earned more money, though only had 1/4 of his "10 years of work experience" that he constantly touted. He was eventually fired for telling the foreman to "f*** off" after being given a task to do.

Years later, I had moved on from the blue collar life and was working as a mechanical designer/drafter, his resume came by our office. It was printed out on a dot matrix printer (well into the days of inkjets and laser printers)- needless to say, he didn't get an interview.

BM

[Tristam Green]

too true about size. what's great is that one of my bosses is 6'6" with even broader shoulders. i'm just not that intimidate-able(sp?)

[tica vun]

I'm 6'4" with broad shoulders, for some strange reason that i cannot quite pinpoint I've never really been a victim of office bullying. Likewise, there's no reason for me to bully anyone else.

It's not about physical strength, it's about authority. This is in adult workplaces, not elementary school.

[Paqman]

I had a boss who was a hell of a bully a few years ago. It wasn't resolved at all, he went through staff at a phenomenal rate, and probably still does.

[sydbat]

Remember, bullies are cowards who only "win" by intimidating those who do not stand up to them. Most bullies are also spousal abusers.

There is an interesting book about workplace bullies and associated types called "The No A**hole Rule (http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/10/early_comments_.html)" by Robert Sutton PhD. A very interesting and enjoyable read.

[Tristam Green]

It's not about physical strength, it's about authority. This is in adult workplaces, not elementary school.

the two are more similar than you think. the mentalities are the same, for certain.

[pricetech]

I don't recall having been a victim, but I have seen it happen to others. It came to an end shortly after the bully attempted to create problems for me which I reported to the bully's boss.

Bully works somewhere else now.

[Dragonbite]

It's not about physical strength, it's about authority. This is in adult workplaces, not elementary school. Unless you're a teacher! :lolflag:

Actually, thinking back I am wondering if my former boss could be considered a bully? Maybe an ineffective bully, but with some similar methods.

[toupeiro]

I agree with those who said bullying isn't all about size, its also about age. In fact, it can be done over almost any topic in the workplace, and more often than not it comes from a bad supervisor. Story time. :)

Early on in my career I was a contractor making anywhere from 10-30% less than all of my co-workers doing the same work as they were. There was no difference in education between my co-workers and I, and in a few cases I even had a year or so seniority, however I still made less, and 2 years in a row got skipped for a raise desite really great customer feedback. The major difference is, I started with that company at 17 years of age. By the time all this was happening I was 21-22 years old, having worked around 5 years with nothing but great customer satisfaction in my file.

So one day, the company I was contracted to offered me an employee position, doing exactly the same work I was doing, only they were going to double my salary. Naturally I told them I would take the offer. When my boss found out, he took legal action against the company for hiring me and threatened to have all of his other employees walk out if they didn't revoke the offer. So, my offer got revoked. When I confronted him about it, I believe I still remember his words verbatim (Nobody is going to seriously going to offer you that kind of money without some sort of degree, its not reasonable.) Shortly thereafter, the employer nuked our whole contract, which I still believe was directly related to that supervisors conduct.

About 2 months later, the same employer approached me for another job with them, at the same location I had worked, but instead of making double, they offered close to triple what my salary was with the contract company. I quit that day, and went to work for them the next. (Being an at-will employee can have its advantages.) Because our contract was terminated, there was nothing that boss could do about it except threaten me that if I left I could never come back. (which he did.)

So, I was being bullied because of my age, not my size or my technical knowledge. One could say there were valid points about the whole degree angle, if they were being applied to all employees, however that element did not hinder a lot of growth for me from more ethical supervisors later on, who didn't always look at me as high-school help, but somebody with skills and experience trying to make a career for himself.

Don't think you have to take being bullied. Everyone has to eat a little crow in the workplace from time to time, but if you really feel like you are being unfairly treated, and its becoming unhealthy, make the situation better for yourself, even if that means looking for another job. I was upset at that guy for a long time, but now it was long ago enough that it doesn't bother me anymore, and if I saw him again it wouldn't be something I'd be spiteful about. Life's too short.. But when it was all going on, it was a miserable time.

[eriktheblu]

I have experienced it, but in the military the corrective action can be a bit different.

Strategically applied violence will stop the behavior; but normally at too great a cost. In my case, the repercussions were an acceptable consequence to terminate the bullying. I was reprimanded by my superiors, but the bully (and everyone else for that matter) let me be for some time afterwords.

[Frogs Hair]

At one company new-hires were given a hard time when they were seen as a threat for being, smarter, better looking, or whatever the bullies dreamed up.

It was common for people to talk about the target in a negative way so they could here it .
when the person lost their cool and confronted the the bullies , they would simply say it's all in your head or how do you no it was directed at you?

This led people to transfer or quit in some cases, then these creatures would revel in the fact that they made "Short work of that one "

Because the bullies hung together complaining was useless, and new employees don't want to report people issues right off the bat.

I informed the lead person in that area what was happening , but I don't know what happened because I moved to a different building.

[MrD_scifi]

Well, you have to separate impoliteness that gets the job done from institutionalized bullying individual bullying.

Some people are too sensitive and cannot handle particular environments. Military and police training, and kitchen environments are researched areas with the impoliteness that seems like bullying and all too often crosses the line. They were industry accepted ways of running the workplace. In recent years the British Army has changed to 'encouragement' based training. Any research done there in the past is not applicable now. I'm not sure about police training, but kitchen environments now vary dependent on it's corporate influence. Also, living in the EU means we have increasing blanket protection against ill treatment.

Who do you blame? The individual carrying out bullying for whatever reason? The bosses for ordering the treatment against the employees? If there is an anti bullying policy in place then the person doing the bullying has committed an offense. If the bosses are told of this offense and they do not investigate it properly then it becomes institutionalized bullying and therefore they become the target in any civil litigation and their pockets are deeper!

We've all probably seen it at some time in our lives. Some of us have been guilty of carrying it out, whether by lack of thought or peer pressure. We should all strive to eradicate it from our environments! [im]politeness is a recent research area by a certain group of professors and students and is aiming to produce work that adds to most of the literature which seems heavily leaning towards politeness only. One professor I've met for workgroup and special lecture says the theory he is creating will help for training for social workers and police/emergency workers to know when a situation is going to blow up. I pointed out that any theory created ought to be presented to schoolkids and any other groups of people (workplaces, etc) as a compulsory part of education and training.

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/impoliteness/ <<-- a good source of reading.

If you read the 'Myths' tab you see an argument to suggest society is not breaking down and getting crazy, but instead impoliteness and bullying has been around since man tried interacting with others in social environments. But I still think things are getting out of control in my environments for a variety of reasons, including loss of innocence through the age of information and of course an element of social breakdown.

All I can say is: never stand for it, never allow it to happen. Protect your peers and your fellow students/workers. The best environments I find myself in are where you have the best coworkers, students, etc. Where you treat each other well and with respect. Sometimes you will have to evict people from your group that continue their destructive patterns around you, finding a sensible and legal way to do so is hard, but sometimes necessary. Bullying is illegal, but so hard to prove! Hopefully modern research in (im)politeness will produce a theory that can be used to help clarify and prepare people for these situations and help to enforce the law. We all want to see change.

[Micheal11]

Bullying in office is a sad thing. It is the duty of the company to train their staff with essential work ethics.If anyone want to train their employees then it is better to search in the internet for authorized training centers and give effective training to the employees.