Workplace bullying has already undermined one in three workers and could cost more innocent victims their jobs as economic pressures increase, an international anti-bullying expert predicts.
In a recessionary climate, employers cut staff, and the ones they cut could be those previously identified as bully targets, social psychologist Gary Namie said in an interview at the recent Creating Respectful Workplaces Conference at the University of Victoria. "There's just a general escalation of cruelty when times are tough ... people are in crisis mode, so they're not thinking."
Is he serious that employers dismiss blameless workers rather than disruptive bullies?
Unfortunately, yes, says the co-founder of the Bellingham-based Workplace Bullying Institute.
The attitude prevails that people bullied in the workplace have brought it on themselves. In reality, the main cause is the bully's personality and agenda to exert control. They rule by constant criticism, threats to job security, undermining work performance, malicious sarcasm and exclusion, among many other tactics.
Namie defines bullying as "repeated, health-harming mistreatment." It can make a competent employee doubtful about tying their own shoes.
It's a form of "psychological violence" but in the same way that victims of domestic violence were asked why they didn't leave or fight back, the workplace onus is often on the victim.
"Since you didn't defend yourself, you must have deserved it," Namie says.
Bullies excel at kissing up to their bosses, hence the boss's mystification when a bullying complaint is made. As well, seven of 10 bullies are in supervisory positions.
Hence, targets are often not believed and the bully's aggression is written off as a personality clash.
In 2007, Zogby International conducted 7,740 online interviews representative of the American workforce for the Workplace Bullying Institute. It found the most common reaction among employers told of bullying was to do nothing.
Thirty-two per cent tried to help and 18 per cent made the situation worse. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.
The most common reason the bullying stops is because the victim quits, the survey found.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety says workplace bullying causes increased absenteeism, turnover and stress; increased costs for employee assistance programs; decreased productivity and morale; and reduced corporate image and customer service.
At first, the U.S. movement against workplace bullying tried to convince businesses that bullies were too expensive to keep on staff, Namie says. But employers didn't buy it and there are no laws preventing it.
Namie deserves credit for "almost single-handedly getting North Americans talking about violence, bullying and psychological harassment in the workplace," Victoria MLA Rob Fleming told the gathering, sponsored by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and UVic Equity and Human Rights.
At UVic, which has a policy that covers personal harassment, 33 complaints were received in 2006-07, a consistent number over the past three years, and nearly four times the number received for sexual harassment, director of equity and human rights Cindy Player says.
A "power imbalance" was almost always involved, but not necessarily a supervisory position.
"One person has a more powerful personality or has been in an organization a lot longer," she explains. The earlier it's tackled the better. "People can and do become ill because of personal harassment."
Only Quebec, Saskatchewan and the federal government have anti-bullying legislation, which the B.C. NDP wants to review. Yet, in Quebec, nearly 5,000 complaints about psychological harassment have been filed since 2004 but only 320 have been accepted and only 15 have prompted ruling, according to the newsletter of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.
An overview of 110 studies by University of Manitoba professor Sandy Hershcovis found that workplace bullying was more detrimental than sexual harassment. Bullied employees were prone to greater stress, more anger and anxiety, and quitting. Harassment based on gender, minority status and other forms of discrimination is illegal, while bullying is not.
(11/20/2008)
- By Katherine Dedyna, Times Colonist, Canada
