How to prevent Bullying in Workplace/Companies?

A recent survey conducted by the USA-based Workplace Bullying Institute reported that almost 65 million employees have either been victims or witnesses of ‘workplace bullying’. Defined as ”a relentless attack on other people’s confidence and self esteem ” by Tim Field, author of Bully In Sight (1996),workplace bullying leads to employee turnover and low productivity.

If you are a line manager, here is how you can reduce and eliminate workplace bullying.

* Develop a support system. Have a through understanding of your organisation’s disciplinary policies and make them. This will foster and environment of trust and open communications and make employees more likely to voice their grievances. Organising awareness workshops also help reduce instance of bullying.

* Keep a lookout for disruptive behaviour. Subordinates are usually reluctant to lodge complaints about bullying; therefore the responsibility lies with you to spot disruptive behavior within your team and/or department. Such instance can range from blaming a colleague for an honest mistake and setting unrealistic deadlines, to more extreme cases such as verbal badgering and sexual harassment.

Identify the cause. Take the time to investigate what factor are triggering the bullying; the usually include race , religion or gender, then determine whether an individual is being bullied or if everyone is suffering at the hands of perpetrator. If the former is true, speak with your team or conduct one-on-one interviews to resolve the issue. In the case of the latter, address the problem by speaking privately to the individual responsible for bullying and issue an oral warning; if the behaviour persists, then register an official complaint.

* Maintain records. Once the complaint has been registered and an investigation has begun, you will be asked to provide concrete evidence to substantiate your claim. Help your subordinate put together a detailed document that lists the date the bullying began, how many people have witnessed it and what it entailed; augment the compliant with e-mails, audio or videos recordings of bullying behaviour if possible.

By Zeeshan Lakhpaty. The writer is a professional corporate trainer.

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