Welcome to the WORKPLACE BULLYING page

There is still bullying in the workplace today (2007).

Most people, when they think of bullies, is the big kids that surround you at school and tell you, you must give them your dinner money or else they will hurt you. When you left school you thought you had left the bullies behind in the playground.

But think again as many as one in ten people are on the receiving end of bullying at work, according to research in 2000. 18 million working days are lost each year because of workplace bullying, which costs business millions of pounds in lost profit.

What is bullying?

Bullying come in many different forms.

1) Harassment and abusive behavior, and oppressing people by force or threat.
2) Humiliation and shouting people down.
3) Making people feel incompetent.
4) Openly criticizing people in front of others.
5) Setting unrealistic time pressure.
6) With holding business information.
7) Using peer pressure by standing over someone trying to complete a task.
8) Using a blame culture.
9) Leaving people standing out in the cold.
10) Getting others to gang up on one person.
11) Using money deduction as a weapon.
12) By using fear or persecution.
13) Using redundancy/firing as a weapon.
14) Manipulating information about people.

Who are the bullies?

All sorts of people turn into bullies for one reason or another. Prof Cooper states. You go from the psychopath, who had a problem early in childhood who, when they get to a position of power, feels that if they make other people feel incompetent it must mean they are very competent themselves. These tend to be very insecure people. The bulk of bullies are just normal people under stress themselves, and they use bullying as a management tool. This is when they don't know how to cope with their workload. They state things like, "Just get that done and don't bring your problems to me or i come down on you like a ton of bricks.

Where are the warning signs of bullying?

Unexplained illness in employees.
Long periods of absence.
Tearful employee.
Negative malicious attacks on personal or professional performance which are typically unpredictable, unfair, irrational and often unseen.
Abuse of power or position that can lead to anxiety, depression, stress and panic.
People gradually lose all belief in themselves, and lose their self confidence.

There is a fine line between strong management and bullying. The result are in the following forms in most people when that line is crossed. Physical effects which can be any form of stress: feeling sick, anxiety, headaches, loss of appetite, numbness, panic attacks, even depression.
Interestingly the people being bullied are normally confident and high achievers. So the bully then sees them as a threat and tries to wear them down very slowly. So often the bully is a manager without any real management training who constantly reports in good results.

How we tackle bullying head on!

1. First you must get some good advice and support from citizen's advice or other trusted colleague or even your trade union.
2. Second you must document with time and dates, thus building evidence of the offences by the bully.
3. Third you must confront the person in front of witnesses. Stating your evidence and what you would like the bully not to do.
4. Fourth if the bully does not stop inform senior management of your company supplying all the evidence you have on the supposed bullying.

SO FINALLY LETS PULL TOGETHER AND STAMP OUT THE BULLY FROM THE WORKPLACE AND REDUCE EVERYONES STRESS AND MAKE ENGLAND AND THE UNITED KINGDOM A NICE PLACE TO WORK AND PLAY.

To summarize

Remember finally that if somebody is behaving in a way that is causing you personnel stress and harm, it is not acceptable. For most of people, legal action is the most expensive and the last resort.

Article by Andrew Hack (c) FUSION MEDIA SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS LTD.