Dealing with Bullies in the Workplace
Jodi Schafer, SPHR
Human Resource Management Services
517/974-8033
www.HRMServices.biz
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Mean Girls
and Bad Boys
1
• Defining bullying
• Identifying bullying
• Harassment verses bullying
• Managing a bully
• Working for a bully
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Agenda
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• Bullying is the intimidation or tormenting of
others in the work place.
• It is generally emotional and includes behaviors
that undermine, intimidate, embarrass, or
humiliate.
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What is a bullying?
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Bullying is defined by the Workplace Bullying
Institute as:
• “Repeated, health harming abusive conduct
committed by bosses and co-workers.”
• “Repeated mistreatment: sabotage by others
that prevented work from getting done. Verbal
abuse, threatening conduct, intimidation and
humiliation.”
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What is bullying?
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Why bully?
• To get people to do what they want
• They want to control the people they bully
• They want to control the people they don’t bully
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It is about power and control!
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• Employees who are a threat to their power
• Employees who are not a threat to their power
• Employees who they don’t like
• Employees who they do like
Essentially – bullies bully who ever they want to.
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Who do they bully?
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Question: Where do bullies go when they
graduate from high school?
THE WORKPLACE!
• Bullying is learned behavior that has been
proven successful.
• It starts young, is honed in middle school and
high school and perfected in the work place.
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Learned Behavior
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• False accusations
• Shunning a person
• Non-verbal intimidating behaviors
• Staring
• Mocking
• Rolling of eyes
• Hyper-critical
• Withholding of information
Often the behaviors are not openly aggressive.
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Bullying Behaviors
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If you want to know the extent of a problem - look at
the statistics.
• A survey conducted by the Workplace Bullying
Institute in 2014:
• 48% of workers are affected by bullying (bullied
and witnessed)
• 69% of bullies are men
• 60% of the workers bullied are women (average
when combining male and female bullies)
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Bullying Statistics
• 68% is female on female bullying
• A survey conducted by Harris revealed that only 34%
of women reported being bullied
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Employers’ Reactions to
Bullying
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Coworkers’ Reactions to
Bullying
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• A long term employee plays practical jokes on new
employees that are embarrassing and humiliating to
the new employee.
• An employee is responsible for training, but they
conveniently leave out important aspects of the
process, causing the trainee to complete the process
incorrectly.
• An employee hoards the best equipment and
threatens anyone who tries to use it.
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Is this bullying?
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Bullying vs. Harassment
Harassment is a legal definition that is based
upon PROTECTED CLASSIFICATIONS.
Harassment/Sexual Harassment laws make it
illegal to engage in conduct that substantially
interferes with an individual’s work
performance or creates an intimidating,
hostile, or offensive working environment.
Federal Laws
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Michigan Law – Elliott-Larsen
Civil Rights Act
Gender
Race
National Origin
Color
Religion
Age
Disability (mental and physical)
Veteran Status
Pregnancy
Genetic Information
Same as Federal PLUS:
• Height
• Weight
• Marital or Family Status
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Protected Classifications
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• Every employer must have a policy that
addresses harassment
• Must include reporting
• Must conduct an investigation
• Easier to address
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Harassment
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• Harassment is bullying that attacks a person on
the basis of their protected classification.
• Gender
• Religion
• National Origin, etc…
• Because typical bullying behavior is not related
to an employee’s protected classification,
essentially employers do not have a legal liability.
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Bullying is ‘Legal Harassment’
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• Lost productivity
• Turnover
• High absenteeism of the victims
• Recruiting
• Lost communication
Negative outcomes for targets of bullying vs.
perpetrators is 4:1.
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Bullying impacts the workplace
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• They tend to give the illusion that they are the
best performer
• They have created an environment that is toxic
which impacts the productivity of the staff
being bullied
• They control the workers and thus control the
message to leadership
• Bullies tend to have an “entourage” who
protect the bully – lest they be bullied
• Managers are also bullied
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Why do manager keep bullies?
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• A policy requiring cooperation, respectful
communication and treatment of others.
• A policy addressing threatening or intimidating
behavior, whether direct of implied.
• A policy addressing use of social media to
communicate to co-workers, not allowing
disparaging or threatening comments to be
made about co-workers, mangers, etc.
• A policy that allows employees options to advise
leadership of the bullying behavior in a manner
that will not result in any retaliation.
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Corporate policy
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• Establish standards of conduct for your staff and
require compliance
• Cooperative behavior
• Respectful communication
• Honesty
• Hold employees accountable to uphold these
standards
• Reinforce good behavior
• Address violations
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Managing a bully
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• Know that the bullying is happening
• Determine if there is a policy violation
• Is this harassment?
• Is this a threat?
• Direct
• Implied
• What is the impact of the bullying on the health
of the bullied?
• Physical
• Mental
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Managing a bully
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• Mangers must first be aware
• Keep yourself accessible
• The behavior is going on right under your nose
• Watch for signs
•
•
•
•
The bully controls the work environment
The workforce is divided
Some employees say nothing
Turnover of newly hired staff
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Pay Attention
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• Take complaints seriously
• Investigate
• Ask questions and corroborate the statements
• Assure protection from retaliation for the:
• Complaining employee
• Co-worker
• Witnesses
Follow through with discipline if retaliation
of any kind occurs
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Pay Attention
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Address the behavior – of the bully
Tier one
• From a coaching perspective to initiate a change
in behavior
• Ask the employee
• What do you gain from the SPECIFIC ACT?
• What will you lose from the SPECIFIC ACT?
• Where do you go from here?
• Avoid using the term “bullying”
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Two tiered approach:
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Tier two
• From a disciplinary perspective that will result in
consequences for continuing the behavior
• Formal discipline
• Potential for termination
• Start the paper trail – you will need it.
• If anyone is going to sue you it will be the bully.
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Address the behavior – of the bully
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• Show support for them
• Let them know you will not tolerate the behavior
of the bully
• Maintain open communication
• Teach them how to stand up to bully
• Remember – they may not be the most assertive
of employees
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Address the behavior – of the
employee being bullied
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• Address in the hiring process
• Communicate the policy
• Address violations immediately
• Swiftly and decisively
• Model the behavior you expect
• Be accessible
• Take complaints seriously
• Educate your staff, manager, supervisors
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Prevention Methods
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• Michigan‘s anti-stalking law prohibits the
“ willful course of conduct that would cause a reasonable
person to feel terrorized, intimidated, threatened,
harassed or molested, and in that actually causes the
victim to feel terrorized frightened, intimidated,
threatened, harassed or molested.”
• Criminal law vs. Civil law
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Potential Legal Options
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Legal remedies
• May increase the liability for companies
• May result in false claims
I prefer to handle from a management perspective
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Future Laws
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Bully:
• It’s about them
• They hold on to
information and
knowledge
• They take all the
credit
• They don’t want you
to be better than
them
Demanding:
• It’s about the job
• You gain information
and knowledge
• They don’t care
about credit
• It’s about the job,
they don’t care as
long as the work is
done right
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Bully Boss vs. Demanding Boss
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• Are equally hard on everyone
• Do not make it personal
• Focused on getting the job done right
• Focused on profit, growth, customer service, etc.
• Generally acts without malice
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Demanding Bosses
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• Document the incident(s)
• Discuss the concerns directly with him or her
• Understand it will do no good!
• Document the response
• Continue to document
• Then take it to higher powers –
• Knowing it may backfire…
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When your boss/manager is a bully
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• Do not allow it to control your life
• Know that you are just one in a long list of
bullied employees
• Remember you did nothing to deserve this
• Look for a job elsewhere
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When your boss/manager is a bully
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Why do bullies bully?
• Because it works
• Because management allows it
• Because it gives them power
• Because it gives them control
DO NOT LET IT WORK!
• Treat employees with respect at all times
• Do not allow employees to bully
• Listen and act on complaints
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What can you do?
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• Results of the 2014 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying
Survey, www.workplacebullying.org
• Dealing with Workplace Bullies, SHRM,
Publications, Legal Report, July 1, 2011
• Workplace Bullying and Disruptive Behavior:
What Everyone Needs to Know. Safety and
Health Assessment and Research for Prevention.
Washington State Department of Labor and
Industries. April 2011
• Tough Boss or Workplace Bully? Teresa Daniel,
H.R. Magazine, Vol 54. No. 6 June 1, 2009
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Sources
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