How to handle bullying. Cyber and traditional.
| NOTE: You can adapt the anti-bullying guidelines in this topic to deal with other forms of workplace harassment, including cyber-bullying. |
Bullying is the deliberate, hurtful, and repeated mistreatment of one person by another.
The perpetrator’s desire to control the other person sometimes causes bullying, which not only undermines organisational peformance but can also destroy employees. In recent times, workplace legislation and media disclosure have revealed bullying as a significant issue in many organisations. If you have personally been the victim of bullying in your workplace, the following advice will prove helpful...
1. Be sure you are being bullied.
Do not confuse bullying with the stresses and pressures of normal worklife. We must meet deadlines, do more than resources sometimes allow, deal with difficult colleagues, perform under adverse circumstances. From time to time, we all experience conflict, differences of opinion, perfectionist bosses, personal rejection, criticism, and personality clashes. Bullying goes beyond the strains of daily worklife.
2. Do nothing. Ignore the bullying.
In career terms, weigh up your options and circumstances: It may be in your best interests careerwise to ignore the aggressor. The bullying could stop if the bully feels no progress is being made with you - although, on the other hand, the bullying could worsen.
3. Confront the bully assertively yourself.
If used early, this can be an effective strategy, especially if the ‘bullying’ was unintended behaviour. Meet with the bully in private, detail the behaviour and its effect on you, and ask that the behaviour you find unacceptable cease. Or, ask a third party, such as a senior colleague or mutual acquaintance, to raise your concerns informally with the aggressor.
