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Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace

The Times has recently reported that in a recent survey 81% of employees said they had been bullied at work, whereas just 13% of employers believed bullying was a problem in their workplace- which suggests that there is a significant gap between what employees are think, feeling and experiencing and what employers believe is happening.
Only recently, Helen Green, Deutsche Bank, was awarded compensation of £828,000 (plus her legal costs) for bullying by colleagues, which resulted in her experiencing a mental breakdown. Aside from the award there are potentially other direct or indirect costs to a business, for example damage to their reputation; loss of clients; loss of sales and/or difficulty in recruiting to name but a few.

So what are bullying and harassment?

Bullying may be characterised as offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, an abuse or misuse of power through means intended to undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient. Some examples of bullying behaviour might include shouting at staff either in public or private, persistently criticising, ignoring or excluding, threatening or inspiring fear, removing areas of responsibility or office space for no good reason, or unnecessarily changing work targets so the employee is bound to fail.

Sexual harassment is defined as unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, or other conduct based on sex affecting the dignity of women and men at work. It encompasses unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct. Examples are derogatory or degrading abuse or insults, which are gender and/or orientation related and offensive comments about appearance or dress.

Racial harassment is defined as violence, which may be verbal or physical because of their colour, race, nationality or ethnic, religious or national origin. Examples are abusive language and offensive jokes or an offensive manner in communications.

Bullying or harassment may be by an individual against an individual (perhaps by someone in a position of authority such as a manager or supervisor) or involve groups of people. It may be obvious or it may be insidious. Whatever form it takes, it is unwarranted and unwelcome to the individual.

Both harassment and bullying usually result in the complainant feeling humiliated and undermined. They can also have a detrimental effect on people's health, and lead to increased absenteeism. Every case will be different because people are affected and react in different ways. However, it is important to remember that it usually takes a considerable amount of courage for a complainant to come forward. Therefore it is important that all organisations brief their employees on the policy of the organisation. A suggestion would be to include the topic as part of any induction training, management training, team meetings, newsletters etc.