The word ‘bully’ is something we tend to think about in terms of school. We assume that bullying only happens between children in school and as serious as it can be, it doesn’t extend into adulthood.
Wrong.
Workplace bullying is a serious issue, one which is just as serious as childhood bullying. In fact, any type of bullying is downright wrong and needs to be stamped out of society urgently.
Your employees spend a huge amount of their time at work. Do you really think the should spend a second of the time in their office chair being belittled, upset, or ridiculed by a manager or a colleague? Absolutely not.
Of course, it helps to actually define what workplace bullying is.
Basically, workplace bullying is any type of behaviour that is classed as unreasonable towards another person. This can be threatening, intimidating, humiliating, shouting, verbalising abusing, physically abusing, gas lighting, or victimising. It can be when someone is continually the victim of practical jokes or teasing too, or singling someone out continually and unnecessarily.
Managers can be bullies, clients can be bullies, customers can be bullies, suppliers can be bullies, colleagues can be bullies. Anyone can be a bully.
As a business, you need to put together an anti-bullying policy and you need to make sure that there is a zero tolerance culture within your office. Bullying is not something to be taken lightly, in the very worst cases it can cause a severe decline in mental health.
Check out this TED Talk video which gives some inspiring advice to anyone who may be going through something similar.
The very least you should do for your employees is to give them a healthy, happy, and comfortable working environment. If any type bullying is going on without your knowledge, that’s still something you need to work on. As a manager, you are the eyes and ears of the entire business and employees should feel comfortable to come to you, whether you're sitting at your executive office desk or not, and tell you when something is going on.
Do not be fooled into thinking that bullying is something that only happens to children. It’s a very real problem in UK workplaces and whether you deem it to be minor or something else entirely, it needs to be stamped out NOW.