Workplace bullying is difficult to address as it can become institutionalized. Recognizing types of bullying can help deal with the problem. Types include unwitting, serial, couple/group, proxy, and corporate bullying, as well as verbal, physical, and cyberbullying. Employers should emphasize that no one should feel uncomfortable at work and encourage employees to speak out.
Workplace bullying is a problem in many regions of the world that is difficult to address because it often becomes institutionalized, which makes it difficult to identify workplace bullying when it occurs or to take action against it. Learning to recognize some of the types of workplace bullying can help people deal with a bullying problem by providing concrete examples of bullying behavior that can be brought to the attention of a supervisor or the workplace as a whole. No one should tolerate workplace bullying, as it creates a hostile work environment and will only get worse over time.
A very common form of bullying in the workplace is unwitting bullying, also known as pressure bullying. In this type of bullying behavior, an employee who doesn’t handle stress well takes it out on others, snapping at people, issuing curt orders, being aggressive, and acting emotionally. In the wake of such behavior, the bully does not acknowledge or apologize for it, instead acting as if the behavior is appropriate.
Some workplaces suffer from serial bullying, where one member of staff stands up to everyone else, especially employees who are new. Serial bullies can be found in a variety of work contexts and can have a variety of motivations for their behavior ranging from pleasure in exerting power over others to fear of losing their job. Serial bullies can poison the workplace climate in a very insidious way and are sometimes difficult to identify. Couple and group bullies are similar, but involve groups of employees, rather than just one.
In proxy bullying, people in the workplace encourage other co-workers to fight back. In this type of bullying, the fighting employees are victims of a third party who created or promoted the argument. Corporate bullying involves creating a corporate culture that is abusive, such as occurs in companies that expect employees to work 60 hours or more a week and create a stressful work environment that devalues employees and creates fear in the workplace of work.
Both verbal and physical bullying can be seen in the workplace and workplace bullying can also take the form of cyberbullying. The increasing use of computer systems in the workplace has created many avenues for cyberbullying, ranging from posting demeaning photographs on the Internet to sending aggressive emails over the office network.
Workplaces dealing with a bullying problem should emphasize to their employees that no one should feel uncomfortable in the workplace and that the best way to deal with workplace bullying is to come out and deal with it. In cases where the employer is the abusive party, employees may wish to consider meeting together and appointing a representative to raise bullying concerns with management.
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