Identifying And Dealing With Workplace Bullying

Workspace bullying or workspace harassment is an unhealthy part of the modern-day corporate structure. Most times, the position of a particular person and the power vested in him results in him pressurizing others into conducive behaviour as per his will and exerting undue influence on employees subordinate to his position. 

Identifying workspace bullying is tricky, as the line between normal corporate duties given to an employee by his manager and bullying is thin, which makes bullying easy for the person in power to conduct it. The striking facets of bullying include verbal abuse, name-calling, and shouting, but are not limited to these behaviours. In order to identify whether you are being bullied, you have to pay attention to the temper fluctuations of the boss and any justifiable reasons for them. 

Unreasonable demands, constant backfires, excessive questioning, and sabotaging work of co-workers are other indicators of workspace bullying resulting in uncomfortable and demoralizing working conditions. Isolation of any single person from the group on an unjustifiable basis is a strong indicator of bullying. 

To deal with such circumstances, the best option available for employees is to report such behaviour to the HR manager or any other designated person. Lack of reporting fuels such behaviour jeopardizing employee morale. Attending management development training programs or conflict resolution programs, if available, is another viable option for employees to defend against such circumstances. In any case, effective communication and reporting can prove extremely helpful reducing the amount of pain for any bullied person. 

Thus, though workspace bullying is a tricky phenomenon to identify and difficult to defend against, a few indicators and behaviours can assist bullied employees as well as supervising managers in proper redressal of the issue.