Even though society is more aware of bullying all around us – everywhere from school to online, somehow workplace bullying has sneaked past people’s observation and has found itself deep-rooted in organizations across the globe. Reports show that workplace bullying-related cost in the US alone is close to ~USD 200 billion. That is a significant amount of money lost due to workplace bullying. Not only do organizations suffer due to this but the impact of bullying is also seen in business-critical projects.
It is said that somewhere between 25% – 50% of the workforce across the globe has undergone some form of bullying in an enterprise. Moreover, nearly half of the population has witnessed bullying at some point in their life. Bullying at the workplace can take many forms such as intimidation, humiliation, verbal abuse, and sabotage. This workplace bullying is not a one-time occurrence; it happens over a long period of time when the victim goes through physical and mental health issues and loss of self-esteem.
Workplace bullying can be differentiated into three major categories:
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- Aggressive communication
- Manipulation of work
- Humiliation
1. How to Identify a Bully in the Workplace?
Identifying a workplace bully is a difficult task, but you can make out their bullying tactics when they showcase typical traits such as: coming up with unmanageable workloads; offensive remarks; inappropriate email or social media; stealing credit for work; withholding pertinent information; and more.
2. The Impact of Bullying on Projects:
In the case of projects, which involve people working in close quarters, bullying will have a two-fold effect and be detrimental to project success. Often, workplace bullies are difficult to identify, it is a tactic used by the person to get ahead in the workplace by undermining the competitor’s achievements. Bullies in the workplace are skilled workers who socially manipulate and target those who seem to threaten their position in the organization. In fact, there is a sweeping negative and financial impact on projects in the form of team performance, timelines, budgets, and overall project success.
According to Safework Australia’s “Dealing with Workplace Bullying” report, it suggests that the country is losing billions of dollars to workplace bullying. This results in a decrease in workplace productivity, employee retention rates, mental and physical trauma, discrimination, workplace conflict, and more.
3. How Enterprise can Cope with Workplace Bullying:
It is not like enterprises turn blind toward workplace bullying, but somehow it escapes the watchful eyes of project managers / senior management and starts to slowly spread across the organization. It is high time that enterprises recognize this behavior and nip it in the budding stage itself as it will create an unpleasant work environment and impacts overall productivity in the organization. Even when people witness bullying in the workplace, they should not take a neutral stance as it will support the oppressor. So, any form of unethical behavior should be reported and the perpetrator should be punished for his / her acts.
You might also find that this kind of cultural norm of workplace bullying is not spread across the organization, but somehow is prevalent in your department/unit. If that is the case then, this will give you a window of opening to influence people outside the unit and bring it to their attention.
But, before you decide that this workplace bullying needs to be reported, here are some of the aspects that you need to consider:
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- Identify key influencers in your organization (senior management, HR, project manager, etc.)
- Do your homework on workplace policies and complaints process in your organization? Have cases been registered in the past? If so, what was the outcome of it?
- Take time towards how you will present your complaint so that it creates the maximum impact. How do you gather evidence?
- Documentation of incidents and unacceptable behaviors.
- Check if your colleagues who have witnessed bullying will join you.
- Assess your situation after you have raised the red flag.
- By having all this information in hand, create an action plan and go ahead only when you feel you are ready and be prepared for the risks and challenges that lie ahead.
Bullying in projects has serious consequences and it needs to stop right now. Enterprises lose key personnel and projects suffer. And the cost of replacing an employee can range from 25%-250% of his or her annual salary depending on their job role in the organization. It’s not like professionals are under the obligation of working in a toxic workplace, they will leave you a message and move on to a better workplace that has robust organizational policies toward bullying.
