November 18th, 2015
It’s anti bullying week, where organisations like @BulliesOut are campaigning to raise awareness that bullying is not acceptable in whatever form it takes.
At CelticHR we are supporting Anti-Bullying Workplace Charter this week for Sign Up:
Bullying is a very real problem for employers, CIPD research shows that 83 % of organisations (90% in the public sector) have anti-bullying policies. The costs of bullying to Organisations is time, money, staff turnover, absence, damaged employer brand, disturbed working relationships, low morale and commitment; whilst the costs to individual is often lasting psychological and physical damage. Why then is it still happening?
Whilst organisations have implemented anti bullying and harassment policies that demonstrate a commitment to tackling the issues, not enough pro-active work is carried out to ensure a safe working environment, and therefore the focus is on highlighting negative behaviours and punishment, which coupled with the fact that bullying occurs within the realms of complex personal relationships makes it very difficult to deal with.
In all cases of workplace bullying I have investigated, it has been necessary to unpick the intricate and often subtle psychological aspects of bullying behaviour and assess its impact on individuals – the victim, the bully, but also witnesses, who are generally employees who inadvertently become party to the behaviour and are often forced to take sides. As I write this I also think about the playground, and also strangely divorce – some poor children are forced to take sides and I feel this is also bullying to some extent, and can, I think, be synonymous with the passive aggressive bullying that can often take place in the workplace often at more senior levels.
Positive behaviours must be encouraged through a pro-active campaign of raising awareness through training and encouragement of best practise. Get it all out on the table, be open about the types of behaviour the company won’t tolerate and those that it actively celebrates!
We can help you to encourage a healthy workplace debate on the subject. You can no longer afford to wait until it happens, act now, contact us.
Thanks for reading
Hayley
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