Workplace Bullying & Emotional Abuse
What is workplace bullying?
A definition from the Unite Union is that bullying is "
Persistent, offensive, abusive, intimidating or insulting behaviour, abuse of power or unfair penal sanctions which
makes the recipient feel upset, threatened, humiliated or vulnerable, which undermines their self-confidence and
which may cause them to suffer stress" 1994
The late Tim Field's (founder of the extremely useful bullying web site from which much of this material is
sourced www.BullyonLine.org) definition of workplace bullying is
"Bullying is a compulsive need to displace aggression and is achieved by the expression of inadequacy (social,
personal, interpersonal, behavioural, professional) by projection of that inadequacy onto others through control
and subjugation (criticism, exclusion, isolation etc). Bullying is sustained by abdication of responsibility
(denial, counter-accusation, pretence of victimhood) and perpetuated by a climate of fear, ignorance, indifference,
silence, denial, disbelief, deception, evasion of accountability, tolerance and reward (e.g promotion) for the
bully." 1999
Bullying is a form of abuse, and a bully is a person who
- hasn't learnt to accept responsibility for their own behaviour
- wants to enjoy the benefits of living in the adult world, but who is still childlike in his perception of
the World.
- abdicates and denies responsibility for his or her behaviour and its consequences and effect on others
(abdication and denial are common features of bullying)
- is uninterested in learning better ways of behaving
There can be bullying of peers and upward bullying
75% of cases of workplace bullying reported involve an individual being bullied by their manager. Around 25%
of cases involve bullying and harassment by peers (often with the collusion of a manager either by proactive
involvement or by the manager refusing to take action). Around 1-2% involve the bullying of a manager by a
subordinate.
Why Me?
Bullies target others for many reasons & there are many myths and stereotypes such as "victims are weak".
Bullying often repeats because the reasons that bullies target their victims don't change:
- bullies are predatory and opportunistic - you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time; this
is always the main reason - investigation will reveal a string of predecessors, and you will have a string of
successors
- they'll target people who are good at their job, often excelling
- being popular with people (colleagues, customers, clients, pupils, parents, patients, etc)
- more than anything else, the bully fears exposure of his/her inadequacy and incompetence; your presence,
popularity and competence unknowingly and unwittingly fuel that fear
- being the expert and the person to whom others come for advice, either personal or professional (i.e. you
get more attention than the bully)
- having a well-defined set of values which you are unwilling to compromise
- having a strong sense of integrity (bullies despise integrity, for they have none)
- having at least one vulnerability that can be exploited
- being too old or too expensive (usually both)
- refusing to join an established clique
- showing independence of thought or deed
- refusing to become a corporate clone
Jealousy (of relationships and perceived exclusion therefrom) and envy (of talents, abilities,
circumstances or possessions) are strong motivators of bullying.
Events that trigger bullying include:
- the previous target leaves
- reorganisation
- a new manager is appointed
- your performance unwittingly invites unfavourable comparison with the bully's lack of performance
- popularity with co-workers
- refusing to obey an order which violates rules, regulations, procedures, or is illegal
- standing up for a colleague who is being bullied - this ensures you will be next; sometimes the bully drops
their current target and turns their attention to you immediately
- blowing the whistle on incompetence, malpractice, fraud, illegality, breaches of procedure, breaches of
health & safety regulations etc
- undertaking trade union duties
- suffering illness or injury, whether work related or not
- challenging the status quo, especially unwittingly
- gaining recognition for your achievements, e.g winning an award or being publicly recognised
- gaining promotion
The difference between bullying and harassment
Acts of harassment usually centre around unwanted, offensive and intrusive behaviour with a sexual, racial or
physical component.
At present, if one is being bullied and is white, British, able-bodied and the same gender as the bully, one is
not currently covered by discrimination law. Ironically, one is thus discriminated against by not qualifying under
existing discrimination law.
Definitions of harassment and bullying vary, the essential differences between harassment and workplace bullying
are:
|
Harassment
|
Workplace bullying
|
| Has a strong physical component, e.g contact and touch in all its forms, intrusion
into personal space and possessions, damage to possessions including a person's work, etc |
Almost exclusively psychological (e.g criticism), may become physical later,
especially with male bullies, but almost never with female bullies |
| Tends to focus on the individual because of what they are (e.g female, black,
disabled, etc) |
Anyone will do, especially if they are competent, popular and vulnerable |
| Harassment is usually linked to sex, race, prejudice, discrimination, etc |
Although bullies are deeply prejudiced, sex, race and gender play little part; it's
usually discrimination on the basis of competence |
| Harassment may consist of a single incident or a few incidents or many incidents |
Bullying is rarely a single incident and tends to be an accumulation of many small
incidents, each of which, when taken in isolation and out of context, seems trivial |
| The person who is being harassed knows almost straight away they are being
harassed |
The person being bullied may not realise they are being bullied for weeks or months -
until there's a moment of enlightenment |
| Everyone can recognise harassment, especially if there's an assault, indecent assault
or sexual assault |
Few people recognise bullying |
| Harassment often reveals itself through use of recognised offensive vocabulary, e.g
("bitch", "coon", etc) |
Workplace bullying tends to fixate on trivial criticisms and false allegations of
under performance; offensive words rarely appear, although swear words may be used when there are
no witnesses |
| There's often an element of possession, e.g as in stalking |
Phase 1 of bullying is control and subjugation; when this fails, phase 2 is
elimination of the target |
| The harassment almost always has a strong clear focus (e.g sex, race, disability) |
The focus is on competence (envy) and popularity (jealousy) |
| Often the harassment is for peer approval, bravado, macho image etc |
Tends to be secret behind closed doors with no witnesses |
| Harassment takes place both in and out of work |
The bullying takes place mostly at work |
| The harasser often perceives their target as easy, albeit sometimes a challenge |
The target is seen as a threat who must first be controlled and subjugated, and if
that doesn't work, eliminated |
| Harassment is often domination for superiority |
Bullying is for control of threat (of exposure of the bully's own inadequacy) |
| The harasser often lacks self-discipline |
The bully is driven by envy (of abilities) and jealousy (of relationships) |
| The harasser often has specific inadequacies (e.g sexual) |
The bully is inadequate in all areas of interpersonal and behavioural skills |
If you find yourself recognising that you are the victim of bullying and you wish to consider formal
proceedings, please see the National Bullying Helpline website or call them on
0845 22 55 787
For help in building confidence & self esteem in order to take the matter further, or for counselling to overcome
the effects of being bullied, call me on 01793 539991. I can offer on-line, email or telephone
counselling for people not in this geographical area.
I specialise in helping people to confront abuse and bullying and to rebuild their lives after abuse &
bullying, whether at work, socially or in relationships at home.
Updated 07/05/10
|
86, Avenue Road, Old Town, Swindon, SN1 4DA