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Summer, 2004
Workplace Bullies
On Tuesday, April 6, 1999 Pierre Lebrun
walked into work at the OC Transpo in Ottawa,
shot and killed 4 co-workers and then himself.
Pierre Lebrun did not have a history of
violent behaviour, but he did have a history
of being bullied and ridiculed by his
colleagues.
Despite Pierre Lebrun’s extreme reaction and a
growth of violent reactions in organizations
there remains a low level of understanding of
workplace bullying.
It can be very difficult to relate the high
profile media stories about workplace homicides
to our everyday lives. Believing that our
workplaces are not like those is an easy thing
to do. The reality is that many workplaces share
one of the features of those news stories –
workplace bullies.
Who Are They?
- Half of workplace bullies are men and half
are women
- Women bully other women 80% of the time
- Men bully women 70% of the time
- 1 in 6 workers is affected by bullying –
more than are affected by racial or sexual
harassment
- Supervisors are the bullies more than
80% of the time
(See: 2003 Report on Abusive Workplaces:
www.bullybusters.org)
What is Workplace Bullying?
It is the repeated mistreatment of a person by
another; behaviour that intimidates, demeans
or humiliates someone. Bullying is a form of
psychological violence.
Bullying includes the following types of
actions, usually occurring in some combination
of a few to many:
- Constant excessive, unwarranted, destructive
criticism
- Removing responsibilities
- Assigning trivial tasks as “punishment”
- Refusing to delegate due to lack of trust or
wanting to monopolize the benefits
- Persistently picking on people in front of
others
- Blocking promotions, opportunities for
training, leaves, transfers
- Sabotaging the work of others
- Creating an environment where success is
impossible by overloading a person with work
and/or establishing impossible time frames
- Withholding information or resources
required to do the work
- Preventing a person from attending meetings
necessary to their work
- Undermining the person’s credibility through
derogatory comments and any of the actions
noted above
- Belittling a person’s opinions and ideas
- Deliberately intimidating the person through
shouting, name calling, implied or overt
threats
- Physical abuse
- Excluding a person resulting in their social
isolation
- Spreading rumours, gossip or lies
- Tampering with a person’s personal
belongings or work equipment
- Invading a person’s privacy (snooping,
spying, stalking)
The Typical Workplace Bully
That confidant, achievement oriented,
competitive, hardworking, person who has high
standards for themselves and for others and
who gets things done might be a bully. When
that apparent confidence is a well-developed
cover for feelings of inadequacy and the
individual’s power is misused, bullying is a
result.
Bullies seek to assert themselves as superior
to others by diminishing the people around
them. Bullies tend not to understand the
impact of their behaviour on others.
The Typical Workplace Victim
Falling into the stereotype trap can happen
here resulting in the belief that the victim
will be the meek, easily intimidated, insecure
and quiet employee, which in reality is not
usually the case.
People who refuse to be subservient, are
technically competent, like to work
cooperatively, are non-confrontational and
have strong principles of justice and
fairness, are well liked, capable employees
are very likely to be a target for a bully.
If a person with some or all of those
characteristics also happens to have suffered
from a previous trauma and is therefore
vulnerable, they are even more likely to be
bullied.
The relationship between the bully and the
victim is often dismissed as a personality
conflict.
Consequences of Workplace Bullying?
Pierre Lebrun’s reaction was fairly uncommon though it is becoming less so. The common consequences suffered by individuals and organizations are:
Organizational Consequences
Increased absenteeism
Reduced productivity
Decreasing capabilities of bullied employees
Employee Turnover
Reduced morale overall
Increased health and safety problems
Damaged organizational reputation
The development of a toxic workplace
Liability for the wrongful acts of
employees*
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Individual Consequences
Increased absenteeism
Decreased confidence and an inability to
concentrate with resultant loss of
competence in their work which leads to
reduced productivity
Increased risk for substance abuse, stress
related physical problems, depression
Loss of their job |
*See "A Risky Enterprise: Liability of employers
for the wrongful acts of their employees" at
www.emond-harnden.com/publications
In Canada there is no specific health and safety
legislation that deals with workplace bullying,
though some provinces have workplace violence
legislation that does include bullying.
Preventing Bullying
Develop and introduce a comprehensive Respectful
Workplace Policy. Ensure that the implementation
of the policy includes a training component.
Enforce the Respectful Workplace Policy
Treat complaints seriously and with the same
approaches used to address other discriminatory
or violent actions.
Train employees in delegation, supervisory,
providing and obtaining constructive feedback
and conflict resolution.
Establish realistic expectations.
Critically assess personality conflicts and look
very carefully at declining performance and
increased absenteeism in previously productive
employees.
Treat any form of bullying as an organizational
problem that is not tolerated and must be
resolved, not as a personal problem between two
people.
Interested in Learning More?
The following websites provide some good
information:
Looking for more information or need some help
with these or other HR issues? Please
get in touch.
What is Anne doing now?
Ongoing Work in developing a fully
integrated human resource development process in
a knowledge organization where the belief that
future success is dependent on creating a
learning environment. The first stage of the
design and implementation of a professional
growth and development program was defining
individual performance needed to create
organizational success. The second stage is to
create the environment in which the potential
for individual success is multiplied. That
includes skill building for those providing
feedback and developing and implementing an
effective process to ensure the feedback and
coaching of staff occurs.
Short Term Projects underway include: a
compensation structure design, a compensation
survey, a review of the technology support
service and development of a self-directed team
approach to service provision and coaching a
management team in enhancing their mentoring
skills and abilities.
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