Work place bullying can be described as the repetitive acts by an individual or a group of individuals towards an employee or a group employees that are aimed to intimidate or coerce the weaker person (Joseph, 2003). This paper examines work place bullying, explaining the different forms it takes and the challenges that employees who are bullied go through. The intervention strategies that employers could use to end bullying and the advantages of going so shall also be discussed.
Work place bullying is experienced when someone abuses their power and makes the defenseless target feel intimidated, humiliated and degraded (Einarsen, 2010). In the recent past, the rise of the use of technology has made bullying to take other forms other than physical confrontation. Bullies have resorted to social networking websites, emails and other electronic devices and have used them to harass their peers or employees (Weatherbee, 2010).
Examples of ways that bullying takes place in the work place are:
♣ Replacing an employees’ responsibility with a less pleasant one, without any reasonable explanation.
♣ Giving the employee invalid criticism and blaming them without any justified reason. This could be as a result of giving them unreasonable goals and threatening to dismiss them if they fail to deliver.
♣ Blocking their applications for promotion or leave yet they are deserving of it.
♣ Withholding essential information or giving them false, misleading information.
♣ Spreading false rumors about the employee to your peers.
♣ Monitoring the employee excessively in a manner that is unreasonable and invading their privacy.
♣ Failure to listen to their work related grievances and dismissing them as being weak, while the stress has been caused by unfavorable conditions at work.
Challenges of Bullied Employees and its Effects on the Business
Having looked at the various forms that bullying takes in the work place, the research proceeds to discuss the grave effects that bullying has on the employee and the it challenges it poses for them at the workplace. The effects that work bullying has on the business or organization shall also be examined.
Employees who have been victims of bullying are likely to have anger, feel helpless and vulnerable, have low self-esteem and have low concentration at work (Tehrani, 2012). It goes without say that an employee being bullied at work is less likely to give their best performance. When emotional and mental stress take a toll on the employee, they are distracted and this has a direct effect on the business or organization. Absenteeism is more likely to be experienced in the work place as a result of the mental distress as the employee may try to escape the mental and emotional torture. Mental distress could also cause health problems like migraines, depression, ulcers and high blood pressure. Needless to say, an unhealthy employee cannot help the organization to attain its goals. For employees who do not necessarily suffer health-wise, they may lack the morale to do work because they are not being appreciated. An unconducive work environment will limit an employee from putting their best foot forward while executing their duties and this has a direct effect on the company’s productivity. Unlike in a place where employees feel they are valued and their efforts are appreciated, a bad working environment with poor inter-personal relationship will intrinsically cause there to be low productivity.
Other employees, especially those who are introverts, tend to keep quiet in their misery and when they cannot take it any longer, they opt to quit the job rather than address the bullying. When this happens, the employers have to replace the employee who has left and this employee turnover can cause decline in growth of the business. This is so because employees who have been working in a business for a long period of time tend to know the business’ policy well, and bringing in new inexperienced employees will use a lot of time (which could have been spent growing the business) to understand how the business works and this negatively affects the business. A high turnover can also negatively affect a company’s ability to retain their customers. Research has shown that many customers feel more comfortable being attended to by the employees who have been serving them for a period of time. Creating rapport with the customers is essential for any business to grow.
Time, which is an important factor in business, will be lost during training of new employees recruited. Money, too, will be used when hiring human resource personnel to do the interviews instead of putting that time into better use that could increase the business’ profits. A business that incurs losses as a result of low productivity is not likely to grow; on the contrary, unless change in management is done, the losses eventually deplete the business.
Importance of Employers Intervening with Strategies to end Work Place Bullying
Work bullying has grave consequences on the employees as well as the employer because it eventually has repercussions on the business. Employers should thus take it upon themselves to ensure bullying does not take place under their watch because if an employer is aware that bullying is happening in their business and says nothing about it, they are equally liable for the bullying. Co-worker who also witness bullying should be encouraged to speak up regardless of whether they are the victims or not. Employers should make signing an anti-bullying policy mandatory while employing their workers and they should lead by example by ensuring that they do not bully any employee. This comprehensive policy should contain all the acts that encompass bullied, including cyber bullying, well highlighted and make the punishment so severe. The policy should also indicate who the employees should turn to in the event that they are bullied. This is important because most employees who have kept quiet after being bullied claim they did not know who to turn to. Those in charge of handling cases of bullying should handle the matters promptly, without biasness upon getting the information and avoid long formal processes.
Commitment by the management by for instance, having a department of that deals with complaints from employees, is the most effective tool to curb bullying in the work place (Ken, 2002). A clear code of ethics should also be elaborated to all the employees including the managers and supervisors, and every employee should follow it. The overall benefits that have a good code of ethics will have on the employees should also be explained to the employees. Employers should also create awareness of the negative effects that bullying has not only on the victims, but the business as well. Establishing a rapport with your employees will in turn encourage them to report bullying cases.
Curbing bullying will have direct positive effects on the employees and the business. This is because, with a conducive working environment, employees will be able to reach their maximum potential. Where there is no bullying, turnover will reduce and the more and time spent on hiring and training new employees will be put into better use that will help the business grow. Employees who have peace of mind and good health are better placed at striving to achieve the company’s goals and objectives because the morale to do so is intact. This therefore grows the business as well as the employee’s self-esteem.
Conclusion
Work place bullying is a vice that certainly needs to be curbed. Employers should encourage all their employees to respect each other and have professional ethics at all times. It is not too late to rectify the bullying situation in the work place so that the upcoming generation does not have to go through the same. Curbing bullying will help the business grow and when the business grows, the employees are likely to have a pay rise. On the contrary, when bullying in the work place causes a decline in the growth of the business, employees may be laid off; this should act as an incentive to the employees to stop bullying the.