According to research by TNO 8% of all employees in the Netherlands have faced bullying at work and victims of this type of undesirable behaviour have 7 more days per year when they are absent from work. Bullying can lead to serious health issues and literally makes you sick.
What do we call bullying?
Bullying is different from teasing, but the boundary is not always clear. Teasing is meant kindly, happens occasionally and back and forth between the same two people. Bullying is structured negative behaviour where a person is unable to defend themselves. It involves inequality, the bully has the upper hand, sometimes literally, because managers can also be bullies. Bullying is normally aimed at one person by one or more people.
Bullying takes many different forms. It may involve physical or psychological harassment, and also digital bullying. Examples of bullying behaviour are:
- excluding, cutting dead and ignoring;
- belittling, aping, making fun of;
- scolding, threatening and intimidating;
- physical threats, unwanted touching, using force;
- assigning too much work, or work that is too heavy or too difficult;
- assigning trivial tasks, keeping someone working below their level;
- hiding, breaking or throwing away someone's things.
Results and signs of bullying
The impact of bullying is huge. People who are bullied often suffer from the consequences for the rest of their lives. The kind of ailments they may have are:
lack of self-confidence, uncertainty, feelings of inferiority;
- nervousness, jumpiness;
- lack of concentration, loss of memory;
- lack of motivation;
- anxiety, depression;
- suicidal tendencies.
How can you see whether bullying is occurring?
- your employee does not join in social activities, keeps aloof, shows avoidance behaviour
- quality of work falls off, the team may also perform worse;
- cliques forming, employees sticking together;
- lots of gossip, exclusion and ignoring.
The influence of bullying on fitness for work
Someone who does not feel good about themselves will not be working full throttle. It is simple to understand that if a person is being bullied at work, they will find it difficult to get their work done, or even to stay present at work. Depending on how serious the bullying is and how long it goes on, and the ailments this causes to the person, their fitness for work will suffer. From figures from the Work monitor from TNO it appears that employees who are bullied are twice as likely to burn out than employees who simply suffer from pressure of work.
What can you as a manager do to stop bullying?
According to TNO's Guidelines on Bullying, it has been shown that clarity about what behaviour is unacceptable and a zero-tolerance policy are good preventive actions. If you as manager set a good example yourself, you will inspire others and create the space for bullying to be discussed openly. By calling out bullying behaviour, speaking to your employees and other managers about it and consistently acting against it, you show that bullying behaviour is unacceptable.
If an employee who is being bullied can see that you do will accept unwanted behaviour, they are more likely to approach you for help. You can then prevent that employee feeling there is no way out and calling in sick, or worse, harming themselves. You can also refer the employee to a confidential counsellor and the complaints committee, or to an external source of help. You can also go and speak to these people, if you see indications of bullying but find it difficult to act against it.Are you required to do something about bullying?
The Health & Safety Law requires employers to provide a safe workplace, including the social aspects. Your organisation must have a policy to prevent exposure to psychosocial workplace hazards (PSH), which include bullying, even if you think that no-one is being bullied in your company. As a company you can draw up an anti-bullying protocol, where you describe how you want employees to behave. Appointing a confidential counsellor and a complaints committee will also help to tackle bullying behaviour.
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