How Can We Prevent Bullying in the Workplace ?

Traditional methods of addressing bullying/harassment tend to be unsuccessful mostly because it is a reactive approach that addresses bullying after the individual and organization has already been harmed.

However, the first line of defense against all Workplace stressors should be prevention.

Traditional methods place the burden of proof and anti-bullying on the target, this ignores the fact that bullying is traumatizing and for most people documenting their own trauma, while it is happening, and maintaining productivity is an impossible demand. To make matters worse, many organizations ask the target to “just fix it “or figure it out with the bully. Thus, targets are likely to leave because they do not have the resources to fight through the painful process of documenting and reporting with little hope for a just outcome, while bully’s move on to new targets.

Some employers attempt to address bullying via fixing personality characteristics of target and bully’s via assertiveness training or self-control. Not only does this ignore the stability of personality characteristics, it also largely ignores the hard-to address character traits of the bully, such as a sense of entitlement or fragile ego.

While bullying characteristics matter, bullying is a behaviour of opportunity, enabled by the environments that allow it to occur and continue.

Organizations cannot eliminate egotism from human nature, but it is possible to create systems in which egotistical behaviour is discouraged rather than reinforced.

Effective anti-bullying mechanisms are rooted in organizational justice, transparency, focus on outcomes and the use of valid instruments in decision-making.

Employees need to be trained in non-violent/non-aggressive communication, for eg. “You call this a report? This garbage is insulting, I cannot believe you do not know how to right a report.”

The above statement can be rephrased in a respectful and assertive manner, which could sound as follows “I am disappointed that I cannot use this draft of the report. I need clarity. Please do re-look at how you have presented the data and draw up a fresh report.”

This is a respectful and professional way of addressing this issue.