Don’t let bullies do a job on you

By Teresa McAleavy, NorthJersey.com

Imagine being assigned a project at a new job only to find out it’s bogus, or being falsely warned that the boss is looking for a new fall guy and you’re it.

It would be lovely if all the schoolyard bullies stayed put as the rest of us move on in life. But the truth is, many have graduated to the workplace, bringing their own brand of adolescent horseplay to offices. The trouble is, what may seem harmless to some, measures show, can hurt business by sapping creativity, prompting turnover or even landing a company in court on harassment charges.

Outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas surveyed 100 human resource professionals and found that one in three has seen one or more workers quit as a result of bullying on the job. Challenger called the problem “far more prevalent than sexual harassment, workplace violence or racial discrimination,” and said the long-term financial losses to an organization are “significant.”

One North Jersey woman, who asked not to be identified for fear of losing her job at a small Parsippany-based company, described being bullied into preparing presentations that never got used. Within six months of her arrival, she also was told by the bully that if she lost an account she would be “immediately terminated.” The woman is looking for other work but, in the interim, says she is “watched constantly” by this rogue colleague, a man her age. “The guy’s office is directly across from my cubicle,” she says. “He eavesdrops on my conversations and comes to correct me as soon as I hang up the phone.”

Data show this woman isn’t alone. According to a Zogby International poll conducted for the Workplace Bullying Institute, some 37 percent of U.S. workers have reported being bullied on the job, and 49 percent say they have witnessed a bully in action. The WBI, a Washington State-based non-profit group serving the U.S. and Canada, estimates that as many as 71.5 million Americans are affected by bullying in the workplace. The WBI defines bullying as “repeated, health-harming verbal abuse; threatening, humiliating or offensive behavior; and work interference, including sabotage, that prevents work from getting done.”

Rick Gibbs says the problem is significant. He knows from past, firsthand work experience and in his current role as a senior human resources specialist for Administaff Inc. The publicly traded professional employer organization offers various services to smaller companies that outsource personnel and other functions.

“It’s really just being nasty for nasty sake,” says Gibbs. “Technically, it may not be illegal because it may not be directed at a person in a protected class, based on race, religion, age, gender, pregnancy or, at the state and local level, sexual orientation.”

Even though some groups such as the WBI are working toward having legislation passed to make workplace bullying illegal, employers should address the issue immediately in their written employee policies, Gibbs says.

“It should be stated that there is zero tolerance for any abusive behavior, including not just violence, but bullying, too,” says Gibbs, whose company had $1.4 billion in revenue in 2006.

Employers also should establish whistle-blower protections for workers who come forward by creating steps for reporting incidents, he says. “They have to make it clear that employees will be free from retaliation if they make a complaint,” Gibbs says.

He works to help employers establish and communicate policies on bullying, based in part on his own run-ins with a human resources manager at a “small mom-and-pop” company years ago.

“This manager was very effective at concealing her stealthy sort of way,” he says. “She would threaten people that if it didn’t get done her way, they’d never work in this business again.”

After one employee showed the “courage” to complain, Gibbs says, others came forward and the bully ultimately got the boot. But, he says, complaints can be time-consuming and costly to investigate, especially if lawyers are called in to defend a company in court. Avoiding the problem by creating a workplace culture that doesn’t allow bullying is best, he says.

“It’s much better to communicate your policy to everyone and to train supervisors to deal effectively with complaints than it is to have people questioned or deposed because bullying has occurred,” he says. “That just takes away from what the organization is trying to do; productivity gets hurt, and often your most productive people just leave because they simply don’t want to deal with it.”