Can bullying happen at the workplace? Unfortunately, yes it can.
We think only such thing can happen at the school, especially those at
the age of adolescent who are going through lots of emotional and
physical changes in their lives. However, this same harmful behaviour
can occur at the office where everyone is supposed to be over that age,
so called an adult.
According to the well known research institute, the bullying actions are taking place in regular workplaces and it is on the increasing trend. To the employees and employers alike, this should be handled promptly and professionally once it is spotted, to minimize the company's productivity as well as any related costs as a result of lawsuits filed by employees. Regardless of who the victims are, and what forms of bullying actions were inflicted by the opposite end, the cost of defending company's operation and assets will not be cheap. Also the federal law system doesn't have full coverage on this specific case yet, thus bullied employees tend to resort to similar acts such as anti-discrimination or americans with disabilities act. At the each state level, there are some states where they already have enacted this anti-bullying laws, while majority of others still in the middle of debating or processing towards the best solution.
For employees, the damage can be severe after being bullied by others - whether they are co-workers, managers or even higher managers. The repeated mistreatment or offensive behaviors are critical to the work environment, definitely affecting work morale and trustworthiness. This will eventually break the entire system and end up with healthcare cost, employment turnover and litigation at the end.
Researchers found that the initial motivation of bullying can be various - sometimes it can start with minor or near zero harm, and the extent can be seriously increased to the level where no one can control. A simple joke or gossip about someone or the work he/she has done could be a starting point. Any credit towards the work can be poorly measured initially, and then it can become somebody else's reward point. Or other co-workers can be jealous of your work for whatever reasons (in this case there are many different factors), thus intentionally excluding you out of the meeting invites, sabotaging or belittling your work and eventually circulating inflammatory emails blaming you for a problem or issue.
For employers, it is always best option to implement a course of action at the corporation level to protect both their employees and company assets. One good example would be to set up workplace anti-bullying policy, and have all the employees review before they sign up the employment contract. There should be a section describing clearly about bullying behaviors and such actions might lead to discipline or termination of employment. At most of U.S corporation, the employment is defined "at-will", so no one can simply say that he/she was not aware of such restriction and guidelines at the workplace. And by signing the contract, they are automatically binding themselves to such regulations where employers can have all the rights to corrective actions including the termination of employment without any further complications.
At the same time, it can give the the victim employees an opportunity to not fear retaliation even after reporting was filed. Once such report is filed any internal employees, the employer should have an immediate plan to investigate and handle all instances of bullying in a consistent manner.
In this time of fast changing, technology oriented society, bullying is already becoming a major issue in many organizations in U.S. However, if well prepared and implemented promptly, there can be reasonable solutions to the people at all levels and with all types of personalities at the workplace.
According to the well known research institute, the bullying actions are taking place in regular workplaces and it is on the increasing trend. To the employees and employers alike, this should be handled promptly and professionally once it is spotted, to minimize the company's productivity as well as any related costs as a result of lawsuits filed by employees. Regardless of who the victims are, and what forms of bullying actions were inflicted by the opposite end, the cost of defending company's operation and assets will not be cheap. Also the federal law system doesn't have full coverage on this specific case yet, thus bullied employees tend to resort to similar acts such as anti-discrimination or americans with disabilities act. At the each state level, there are some states where they already have enacted this anti-bullying laws, while majority of others still in the middle of debating or processing towards the best solution.
For employees, the damage can be severe after being bullied by others - whether they are co-workers, managers or even higher managers. The repeated mistreatment or offensive behaviors are critical to the work environment, definitely affecting work morale and trustworthiness. This will eventually break the entire system and end up with healthcare cost, employment turnover and litigation at the end.
Researchers found that the initial motivation of bullying can be various - sometimes it can start with minor or near zero harm, and the extent can be seriously increased to the level where no one can control. A simple joke or gossip about someone or the work he/she has done could be a starting point. Any credit towards the work can be poorly measured initially, and then it can become somebody else's reward point. Or other co-workers can be jealous of your work for whatever reasons (in this case there are many different factors), thus intentionally excluding you out of the meeting invites, sabotaging or belittling your work and eventually circulating inflammatory emails blaming you for a problem or issue.
For employers, it is always best option to implement a course of action at the corporation level to protect both their employees and company assets. One good example would be to set up workplace anti-bullying policy, and have all the employees review before they sign up the employment contract. There should be a section describing clearly about bullying behaviors and such actions might lead to discipline or termination of employment. At most of U.S corporation, the employment is defined "at-will", so no one can simply say that he/she was not aware of such restriction and guidelines at the workplace. And by signing the contract, they are automatically binding themselves to such regulations where employers can have all the rights to corrective actions including the termination of employment without any further complications.
At the same time, it can give the the victim employees an opportunity to not fear retaliation even after reporting was filed. Once such report is filed any internal employees, the employer should have an immediate plan to investigate and handle all instances of bullying in a consistent manner.
In this time of fast changing, technology oriented society, bullying is already becoming a major issue in many organizations in U.S. However, if well prepared and implemented promptly, there can be reasonable solutions to the people at all levels and with all types of personalities at the workplace.