Bullying in the Workplace Requisite HR October Newsletter 2017
Workplace Bullying in Australia Despite increasing awareness of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour standards, bullying is still occurring in the workplace. When businesses are spending the majority of their time and focus on the day to day aspects of running a business and meeting their client’s expectations, the people management responsibility can get left behind as a priority. However, when we don’t understand the complexities of people management and put in place preventative measures to control bad behaviour like bullying, it won’t matter if the sales are doing well right now, if you have a legal case brought against your business, that sucks up all your profit tomorrow. Bullying and all its facets are still a current concern for team members and company’s in Australia despite awareness, education and training and it is present across all sectors of the economy. According to findings from Beyond Blue which were released in October 2016, 1 in every 2 Australians has experienced bullying in their workplaces during their employment life.
Understanding Workplace Bullying Workplace bullying can be defined as repeated, unreasonable and undesirable behaviours and actions towards a team member or a group of team members that creates a risk to health and safety. It is a risk to health and safety because it may affect the mental and physical health of workers. Most people tend to think of bullying as predominantly occurring between team members, however managers, clients/customers or third-party service providers, can also be workplace bullies. Bullying can take different forms including psychological, physical or even indirect—for example deliberately excluding someone from work-related activities. It can be obvious and it can be subtle, which means it’s not always easy to spot. Some examples of workplace bullying include: • Abusive or offensive language or comments, • Aggressive and intimidating behaviour, • Belittling or humiliating comments, • Practical jokes or initiation, and • Unjustified criticism or complaints. Victims of workplace bullying generally report that the behaviours often start out subtly and build over time, getting steadily worse. When it starts with little things, people often think it that that it is no big deal and that is will eventually pass, but as it starts to get worse many people are unable to admit that they are being bullied until an actual physical or psychological injury occurs and by then it is too late. Depending on an individual’s resilience they may endure years of distress until they finally break. This leads to victims reporting feeling demotivated, miserable about coming to work, incompetent and feeling worthless leading to serious harm to their mental health, with depression, psychological distress and emotional exhaustion common outcomes for bullied workers. We all know the cost of unhappy staff; they are less productive and take more sick leave. Eventually they will leave and then you will have the cost of replacing great staff who have left due to bullying behaviours in the workplace.
What is not Workplace Bullying....... Not all behaviour that makes a worker feel upset or undervalued is workplace bullying. Reasonable management action taken in a reasonable way is not workplace bullying. Managers are responsible for monitoring the quality and timeliness of work and providing staff with feedback on their performance. If performance issues need to be addressed, the conversation needs to be constructive and supportive, and focus on the positives as well as the negatives. It should not be humiliating or demeaning. Differences of opinion and disagreements are also generally not workplace bullying. However, in some cases, conflict that is not managed may escalate to the point where it becomes workplace bullying
Signs of a Bully So how do you know if you are dealing with a bully in your workplace? Well-practiced bullies can be hard to spot. The person most likely to spot a bully is the one in the target hairs of the bully. The one who’s life is being made miserable. The following are some signs that a person maybe a bully:
What are the Legal requirements in regards to Bullying? It is the duty of the employer to so far as is practicable ensure that adequate systems are in place to prevent or stop the bullying behaviour. When bullying does occur in the workplace then there are legal ramification: 1. Under the Workplace Health & Safety Act 1995 employers have an obligation to provide a safe working environment for all employees, and if an individual or group of individuals are being bullied then a safe working environment is not being provided. Failure to take steps to manage workplace bullying can result in a breach of the Act. 2. In some circumstances, an order to prevent or stop a team member being bullied, can be made under the Fair Work Act 2009. 3. If a team member is being bullied based on their sex, disability, race or age, criminal record, trade union activity, political opinion, religion or social origin the Australian Human Rights Commission can investigate and resolve complaints under federal laws. 4. If a team member consider that they have been dismissed as a result of making a complaint in relation to bullying, or is forced to resign due to the effects of bullying, the team member may be entitled to lodge a claim with the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission under the unfair dismissal provisions in the Industrial Relations Act 1979. 5. Any incident of physical assault, threats of violence, sexual assault and stalking are criminal matters and should be referred to the Western Australia Police. Bullying in the workplace should be treated as any other hazard at the workplace. If unreasonable or inappropriate behaviour, or the potential for such behaviour is identified, there is a high risk of psychological and/or physical harm.
Managing the risk of workplace bullying Workplace bullying is best dealt with by taking steps to prevent it from happening and taking a proactive approach to early identification of unreasonable behaviours or situations that can increase the risk of workplace bullying occurring. Once bullying behaviour become established not only is the risk to health and safety greater, but it becomes harder to rectify and to repair that damage to the team and its members. To address bullying in the workplace, or the potential for bullying, management should: • Have regularly scheduled consultation meetings with their team that find out if bullying is occurring or if there are situations that could increase the risk of bullying; • Set the standards of workplace behaviour by implementing adequate policies and procedures – Code of Conduct, Bullying Prevention Policy, and procedures for investigating and resolving grievances, performance breaches and issues; • Provide information, training and support on the relevant policies and procedures; • Appoint a contact person, grievance officer or mediator as a first contact point for enquiries, concerns and complaints; • Design a safe system of work by clearly defining jobs and providing workers with the resources, information and training they need to carry out their work safely; • Develop productive and respectful workplace relationships through good management practices, plus open, transparent and effective communication; • Train and support team leaders so that they can recognise and deal with bullying in the workplace and hold performance management conversation are constructive and evidence based and not subjective, or that can be in any way perceived as bullying behaviour; • When implementing change prioritise measures that consider and nurture mental health; and • Monitor indicators of bullying in the workplace, including absences from work (sick leave, workers compensation leave, long service leave, unpaid work), turnover of staff and results of formal exit interviews.
How to Encourage Reporting Management can’t be everywhere at all time, so it is important for the team to feel comfortable to report incidents and hazards in the workplace. Once reported this gives management the opportunity to conduct a risk assessment and implement appropriate controls to prevent hazards including bullying. Team members are more likely to report if: 1. The Company has a Statement of Intent which states management’s commitment to addressing risk factors for bullying in the workplace and encourages reporting of such behaviours, incidents or injuries; 2. There is a formal reporting process in place; 3. There is an option to report in an anonymous way; 4. Procedures ensure that reports will be treated in consistent and reasonable manner; 5. Team members have someone to talk to, in addition to management; 6. Management makes it clear that victimisation will not be tolerated; 7. Management has shown a history of taking reports seriously and confidentially, then following up and addressing issues in a timely manner; and 8. There is transparency about incidents, resolutions and actions taken.