Bullying in the workplace is considered as psychological war
and its consequences can be really dangerous for the bullied. It can lead to
agression, when the bullied is becoming enemy for one or more people.
In the
working area we call it bossing or also mobbing. What can bullying cause and
how to prevent it?
The three faces of bullying
Bullying
at work can be recognized really easily. As a rule, it is a long-lasting
hostile relationships and hostile mood what grows into humiliation of one or
more employee at the same time. In most of cases, bullying starts from the
superior to the subordinate (bossing), but it is not always like that. It can
be also other way that the subordinate employee humiliates the superior
(staffing) or in the position of aggressor is the whole group of
colleagues (mobbing).
According to STEM / MARK statistics, approximately a quarter of employees have experience with bullying at work.
The women are most often victims of bullying (27%), then the men (19%). About 43 % of bullied people have an experience with bullying at least one time per week and more than 50% of employees being bullied for more than a year. About three-fifths of employees are bullied by their superiors (bossing) and one quarter by a colleague (mobbing).
Mobbing
Mobbing is a kind of very sophisticated bullying at work. In the position of agressor is the group of colleauges, which make the life and work unpleasent for the bullied. To be considered to mobbing, it must be repeated at least one time per week for minimum six months. One-time incidents cannot be considered to bullying. The agressor is focused on to mentally abuse the victim as much as possible in order to resign or be fired from work.
Causes of mobbing:
The one of the most common causes is the fear of losing social background by the agressor, envy among employees, low corporate culture, the victim's personality (eg. he/she has physical or psychological problem) and last but not least, the state of the market economy and rising unemployment.Phases of mobbing:
·
Slandering, communication behind
your back, interruption, ridicule
·
Forcing to fulfil disgraceful tasks
·
Ignoration from colleagues,
isolation from the surroundings, ostracism
·
Verbal or written threatening
·
Physical attacks, sexual harassment,
attacks on health.
Mobbing has four
phases. In the first one the slander penetrates and the conflicts spread,
followed by the second phase of systematic psychological terror, what grows
into the third phase of specific attacks, defamation of a superior etc. The fourth
phase is when the victim is already totally broken, in most of cases he resign
or he is fired.
The results of mobbing
Mobbing at work impacts not only the victim (reduction of work commitment, absence, lower quality of work, more frequent mistakes) but also it has a negative impact for the entire operation of the company, for example in connection with lower work commitment, the profits decrease. The victim's mental and physical health is very endangered, constant stress affects cause for example, sleep disorders, eating problems, depression and often suicidal thoughts.How to defend yourself?
As the prevention, try to solve every conflict from its beginning. If it's not possible and you've already become a victim of mobbing, it is necessary to gather the last remnants of courage and start to solve this situation as soon as possible. Inform your superior about everything. Mobbing at work is really difficult to prove, that's why you should get as much as possible evidence of the pressure on you, try to get some allies among colleagues.Do not be afraid to see a psychologist who can help you and restore your mental health.
Bossing
Bullying at work is not going on only among the employees. Psychological terror by the superior (called bossing) is also the frequent phenomen.
Causes of bossing
From the logical point of view, the superior (agressor) should not have any reason for bullying the employees, but it occurs. One of the reasons can be the jealousy of superior (for example the employee excels in something more than superior). Other time, the superior vent his/her frustration of failure at the subordinate. The superior focuse on to force the victim to resign or in the case that employee wants to terminate the work and the superior does not agree, he tries to make to subordinate the remaining time at work as uncomfortable as possible.Manifestation of bossing
Several signals - unequal treatment, impossible work tasks,
disproportionate criticism and poor ratings, ignorance, humiliation, sexual
harassment, etc. - can alert you to ongoing bullying by a supervisor.
The consequences of bossing
Victims exposed to this type of bullying often suffer from a
feeling of burnout, fear of unsuccess and failure, have decreased self-esteem,
develop depression, fatigue, sleep disturbances, stomach problems etc.
How to defend?
As with mobbing, it is important to gather as much evidence
as possible (emails, inventory of insults, etc.), to seek the assistance and
testimony of a colleague. For the most part, the situation cannot be resolved
other than through legal channels or by informing the relevant labour
inspectorate.
Staffing
The opposite problem to the previous two is staffing - this
is where the superior finds himself in the position of victim.
Causes of staffing
Usually, the new superiors are bullied, whether they came from another company or promoted. Subordinates are often driven by their jealousy of a former colleague who has come to a better post than them, significantly older employees can't stand the fact that a younger and inexperienced colleague has been put in a leadership position, etc. A superior's own inappropriate and patronizing behavior can also be a cause of bullying.
Manifestation of staffing
The aggressor (subordinate) most often resorts to covert
forms of bullying, e.g. not foisting important information to the superior,
ignoring his or her orders, disparaging him or her in front of colleagues,
culminating in conflict and disagreement at the final stage.
How to defend yourself?
The most important is perceptiveness of the head and his ability to recognize the signs of bullying in time. The sooner he starts to solve it, the better. The best way is an individual inteview with individual team members. It is necessary to define boundaries, not to use threats, try to find two-ways compromis. The last solution are the personalization changes.The results of bullying at work
• Deterioration of work performance
• Reduction of concentration
• Increased work stress
• Increased work absenteeism
• Increase in error and injury rates
• Reduction of the company's profit
• Disturbance of mental well-being
• Deterioration of mental and physical health
• Irritation and aggressione
• Worsened sleep
• Anorexia
• Suicidal tendencies
The working stress which is created by bullying at work, can affect the development of various types of psychosomatic, as well as other diseases.
EMPLOYER PREVENTION
It is absolutely
essential to take some preventive measures, which must be first realized
by employers and company's managers. It is really important talk to them about
the bullying, especially about its negative impact for the long-term operation
but also the succes of company.
In
the most of cases, they are responsible for bullying in the company. Not
only they often bully themselves, but they also consciously watch the bullying,
without doing any action against it. They do not realize that they are harming
themselves or their company. From a long-term perspective, bullying tolerance
has a high negative effect on employee performance and also the company's total
prosperity. Employees are more often sick, which can be very unpleasant or even
devastating for the company, especially with the fluctuation of quality
employees. Try to think about prevention for yourself. Try to think how to
prevent the bullying. Your task as the owner of the company, or its director is
to ensure that the company employs quality managers with personalities. The
empathic manager will listen better to people and be interested in
interpersonal relationships at work. As the owner of company, as well as a
manager, you should encourage an open discussion about interpersonal
relationships at work. Do not accept any kind of bullying, whether it is the
slightest attempt, such as slandering, ridiculing, ignorance or underestimation
or serious conflicts of social isolation, obstacles, harassment, threats of physical
violence or even sexual harassment.
If you detect
bullying at work, you have to act immediately. Never postpone a solution,
because it could exacerbate the problem and escalate into a real conflict. You
should always enter to conflicts between employees and find some solution or
consult it with an expert (psychologist). Try to create a work environment in
your company that is pleasant and where employees will be happy to return.
Create an environment where people support each other and trust to each other.
In this work environment, the breathing will be better. Employees will be more
efficient and satisfied. And today it is even a trend, because companies
understood that quality staff who have good interpersonal relationships is the
real value of the company.
EMPLOYEE SOLUTIONS
If you are an employee of a company and you are bullied everyday, we recommend you to consider if it makes sense to work there. You live a large part of your life at work and the goal is not to have health problems. If you, as an employee, are the victim of bullying, you have the opportunity to deal with it in three basic ways: by human agreement, by requesting help from your employer or other manager, and as the last way legally.
If you decide for a legal solution, follow those steps:
Try to gather as much evidence as
you can and obtain the testimonies of your colleagues. Find some ally.
Try to make some work diary and note there all the conflicts.
Discuss the situation with your
closest - family, friends. Do not be scared to visit a psychologist or
professional coach who will give you some tips how to defend yourself.
Submit a complaint to the
employer with a clear request for investigation.
In the case of remuneration, career
advancement or working conditions, require the employer to adhere strictly the
principles of equal treatment of all employees.
You can also contact the Ombudsman. However, this is only
possible if it is bullying associated with discrimination, it means that it
must be motivated by some discriminatory criteria, such as disability,
religion, creed, race or ethnic origin, gender, age, etc. If you want to seek
financial compensation, you must go to court and file a lawsuit. Due to the
complexity of the whole issue, we recommend finding a specialized lawyer.
If you have been the victim of any form of bullying at work,
suffer from depression, have suicidal thoughts, etc. You should look for a
psychological help.
We can help you to feel better again - and you can start even today with one of our specialized psychologists below:
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