Workplace bullying has become a major issue that is intoxicating the corporate organizations and affecting the people who live together with us; resulting in distressing and disturbing the individual who is subjected to bullying. Bullying, be it in schools, colleges, playground, or even in the workplace; it is something that no one should tolerate and take immediate, proper action against those who are practicing such evil practices.
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Some might totally deny the fact such as 'workplace bullying' even exists, but it is not so, workplace bullying is one of the major problems in the American work culture. According to a report by Dr. Judy Blando (University of Phoenix), which was conducted to examine workplace bullying and its effect on job satisfaction and productivity, claims that 75% of workers in the US are affected by the problem. 75% of the total workforce being subjected to bullying, is indeed a huge and concerning matter.
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The results of the study were as follows:
#1. 75% of total participants in the study reported to witness mistreatment of co-workers sometime throughout their careers.
#2. Whereas, 47% of them have been bullied during their career.
#3. And, the rest 27% of the participants admitted to being a target of a bully in the last 12 months.
To solve any psychological problem, the identification of the cause, as most psychologists say is of utmost importance, and the first step towards designing a solution. Why does anyone would even like to, or want to bully others? Have we ever tried to figure that out instead of pointing fingers on people and subjecting them to hatred? NO, we didn't.
#1. Response To Shame Mechanism
According to Mary. C Lamia, a clinical psychologist, and psychoanalyst, bullies are not aware of how bad they feel about themselves, and attacking others keeps them from looking inside themselves.Bullies bully others as a way to respond to shame, which is the most destructive method of responding to shame. This response happens whenever an individual feels psychologically endangered and incompetent against the rest.
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#2. The Truth About Bullies
The truth is, bullies feel bad about themselves and use their confidence, combined with the excitement and power as a shield to stop their anxiety from lurking inside them. They try to remain confident by attacking others and feel the negativity that hides deep inside them.
Any bullying, especially workplace bullying is a matter of serious concern, and a proper solution needs to be identified to stop it.
#1. Protest It By Calling It Uncool: One of the primary reason behind the growth of workplace bullying is, no one protests. If you’re being subjected to any kind of behavior which comes under the category of Workplace bullying, protest and raise your voice against it. Call it uncool and ask them to stop it. If the bullies are allowed to continue, they will keep repeating it.
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#2. Unite Against This Evil Practice: There are very high chances that you’re not the only victim of workplace bullying, and it’s really easy to find the other victims. So, if you think you’re being bullied, just unite against the practice and raise your voices high enough to be heard.
#3. Practice An Anti-Workplace Bullying Culture: Being the boss, or someone who is responsible for anti-workplace bullying policies, implement and practice a culture that promotes Inclusiveness and consequences. Make it clear with your policies that any abusive behavior won't be tolerated, and encourage your employees to report such activities directly to you. Build an informal support system among employees to curb this problem, and make it easier for your employees to communicate such problems.
#1. The Know-It-All Bullies
These bullies are also self-proclaimed experts of every matter. They want constant attention and because of which they often argue, criticize, pass anger with sarcastic comments; and say things behind his/her back. These people are afraid of change and to stop it, they constantly overrun others and interrupt in between discussions. The main aim of these people is to gain promotion by highlighting themselves as superior, and they do this by putting others down. The obsession to acquire more power and move up the ladder makes them do anything in their capability to achieve it, bullying others to put them down is one way they utilize.
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#2. The Pressurized Bullies
These people/bullies may not have a bullying personality, but they start bullying others as soon as they are stressed out from internal or external pressure. Their actions might be temporary, but cause a permanent threat to his/her personality. They start abusing or hurling comments on others with the drop of a hat, whenever they lose control on their anger. The sole reason for their behavior is their inability to separate their feelings from social interaction.
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Now, coming to the dangerous ones, below are the bullies which are a bigger threat for a workplace.
#3. The Constant Critic
The constant critic is extremely negative who tends to hide their personal insecurities with public bravado to impress or intimidate others. These bullies will constantly keep on finding mistakes in your work, complain, and lie about things. These bullies destroy any encouragement to their co-workers and persuade self-doubt in them.
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#4. Two-Headed Snake
The passive-aggressive or the dishonest bullies, which use dishonest means to deal with people and issues. These bullies fake friendliness, and use it later to sabotage the target. These bullies have three types which make it easier to identify them; the backstabber snake, the Jekyll-and Hyde snake, and the no problem, don’t bother snake.
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#5. The Screaming Mimi's
These people like to control others using fear and intimidation whenever they are emotionally out of control. The worst thing about these bullies is that they can be impulsive and explosive, and threaten others with physical violence. These self-centered and insensitive bullies use yelling, screaming, and abusing as a means to intimidate others.
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#6. The Controller
The Controllers are born to be controllers, they live, eat, and prey on people to control them. They're obsessed with power and they use power to generate fear and create a havoc in the group to control others. The controllers have a bad habit of getting things done in the way they want it to happen, and if someone tries to defy them, they won't let you live.
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#7. The Gatekeepers
These are the original control freaks, born with an obsession to control people and circumstances. They basically want to be the controller of everything, to be the boss who approves everything, be it time, money, supplies, or people.
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#8. Accidental Bully
The people who're unaware of the consequences of their actions on others, thus they are the accidental bullies. A very common way to identify them is to find out the person who works as if the rest of the world doesn't exist.
#9. Chronic Bully
These bullies are the bullies from your school life, who grew up to be like this because of what they learned in childhood. These bullies are not ready to change even if their personality is a problem. The reason behind such behavior might be mental illness or bad management.
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#10. Opportunistic Bully
The most common bullies in every workplace, these guys look for opportunities to bully other co-workers and excel in the competitive workplace environment. These guys are highly self-centered, however, they have the capability to be friendly and helpful.
#11. The Serial Bully
These people have been a bully throughout life and will remain so. They have bullied people in the past, they have been doing it presently, and will continue to do so in future; there's no way to change their personality. Estimates show that one out of every 30 employees, either males or females is a serial bully.
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#12. Narcissist Bullies
These bullies are extremely focused on themselves and look for admiration from co-workers. Their insecurities make them like this, because of which they interact with co-workers from a position of superiority. Basically, they assume themselves to be superior from others and believe that everyone else is beneath them.
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#13. Cyber-Bully
The bullies are the one who threaten their targets online. These bullies post images and text that can malign the image of the target. These bullies act completely unaware of the fact that cyber bullying is punishable, and assume that there is no punishment for their actions.
#14. Substance-Abusing Bully
These bullies are in constant control of substance and are mostly out of their senses. These bullies are extremely dangerous as they are under the control of addiction. According to a report, out of the whole population of substance users, 75% of them are employed.
Signs To Identify Workplace Bullying
#. If your work feels like a misery to you and often makes you feel like giving up, then there chances that you're a victim of workplace bullying.
#. If you feel you've been subjected to constant criticism without any reason, you might be a victim of workplace bullying.
#. If you get a lot of yelling from your bosses, you're a victim and you should do something about it.
#. If your boss and co-workers falsely accuse you of errors and keep reminding you of your previously committed mistakes.
#. If you feel there are gossips happening about you and rumors being spread about you, you're a victim of workplace bullying.
#. If you are being isolated and singled out, you've are a workplace bullying victim.
#. If your co-worker or superior is trying to sabotage your career with tactics to destroy your performance, you're being bullied.
#. If you feel someone is trying to make your life difficult by deliberately assigning you last minute work.
#. If someone steals credit for your work that could have lead to a promotion, you’re a victim of workplace bullying.
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Workplace Bullying Cases When You Can File A Lawsuit
There are no direct policies within the federal laws that make workplace bullying a punishable offense, however, some acts of workplace bullying might be punishable under the laws prohibiting practices such as discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.
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Below are some common cases of workplace bullying in which you can file a lawsuit:
#1. If your supervisor targets you and your work despite good work because of your gender or your race, you can file a lawsuit.
#2. If you're being subjected to a continuous verbal and physical abuse because you belong to a particular sexual orientation, religion, or country, you can and you should file a lawsuit.
#3. You're being pressurized to quit because of your pregnancy using specially designed comments, and lewd remarks.
We hope you liked the article, and we hope it proved to be helpful in your battle against workplace bullying. Also, if you feel you have something to add, use the comment section below and let us know your opinions on the matter.
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Workplace bullying is indeed a problem, and it needs to be taken care of. The same can be done only if the leaders/owners of the company are against it. I have seen organizations where the people who are superior in rank practice such activities. So, no one can do anything about the problem if the problem comes from the root. Either you can root out the entire structure, but for that you've to be a very influential personality and should have enough contacts to defend yourself. But, in places where these things happen outside the knowledge of the responsible management, the victims can immediately report it.
In my opinion, workplace bullying is continuously growing due to two major reasons:
The bullies get constant motivation because none of the victims raise their voices against it. Maybe the job insecurity, the fear of losing job might be the reason. As we all know, getting a good job is really tough, and everyone has a family to feed.
The wrong workplace culture implemented in the organization supports people practicing such acts. Experts suggest that such cases might be more frequent in corporate which have a very formal structure, and everything works according to a channel. The lack of informal work culture or the freedom of employees to convey their problems directly to their superiors makes it difficult for the cases to come to the surface.
And, the only way to curb the problem is to implement proper policies in the workplace that restrict people from practicing such things. And, the other way is to form an informal channel, events, lunch parties where people can engage, talk, interact and network with each other and consult their problems.
Moreover, the federal system should come up with direct laws that makes any kind of bullying, be it schools or workplace, a punishable offence. Right now, there are no direct laws restricting such practices, and thus the bullying cases are increasing continuously.