Stamp out bullying now (Bullying at Work)

Member Name: Siamese

Product:	Bullying at Work
Date:	19/10/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Ruins peoples lives

Bullying at Work

It can be easy to assume that bullying is only something that happens in school. All too often though, this isn't the case and many, many people, through no fault of their own, find themselves subjected to bullying in their place of work. This can often be more subtle than playground bullying, and less obvious to others, leaving the victim feeling helpless to do anything, and resigned to having to accept it. This can have a horrific impact upon their lives and is often something that changes people forever.

A colleague has recently requested my support regarding being bullied by her senior manager. My colleague had held her position for over 2 years and is one of those rare people who loved her job. Her reviews and appraisals were always excellent, she got on well with everyone and genuinely enjoyed getting up in the morning and going to work. She also had a strong working relationship with her manager at the time, based on mutual trust and respect. Naturally she was sad to see this manager leave, but assumed that whoever replaced him, would also be someone who she could work well with.

Her manager was duly replaced, the replacement was a young girl, who had recently left university. She had achieved an excellent degree but did not have much actual workplace experience which may have contributed to the situation. She also had no experience of managing others. I do not say this as an excuse, simply to offer some background. I am also sure that many people in the same circumstances may make excellent managers.

My colleague began to confide in me that it appeared that her manager was taking credit for work that she had done. She also began to blame her for tasks not being done, despite not having delegated these tasks to her. She was receiving inappropriate emails (with wording that was quite insinuative), asking her where she was and what she was doing, despite the fact that they had a shared calender, and this information was visible and accessible. This had the affect of making my colleague feel that she was being disbelieved for some reason. I recommended that she kept copies of all emails, and when she showed me them, I had to agree that they way they were worded was unpleasant and upsetting.

This went on for some months, my colleague felt that she had to try and work through the situation. She felt that because the bully was her line manager, it would be difficult to complain and like all of us, she couldn't afford to just leave her job. Things came to a head when my colleague was diagnosed with an illness which meant that she required several stays in hospital. Of course, these stays were substantiated by doctors notes, my colleague also lost quite a lot of weight and was visibly unwell.

During "back to work" interviews, her line manager subjected her to some very intrusive questioning regarding her illness. One day, my colleague had been rushed to hospital and due to this, had to have her partner ring work to explain why she would be unable to attend (not unreasonable, given that she was in a hospital bed and unable to phone herself). Her line manager told her that the policy was to ring work yourself and demanded to know why she hadn't done so. She then insisted on having full details of the treatment that my colleague had received, which left her feeling that she was almost accusing her of lying. My colleague had to leave the room in tears, and her line manager followed her and berated her for behaving "like a baby", in full view of several other members of staff.

I recommended that my colleague ring Acas (who offer free and confidential advice and information on employment law) who then advised her to lodge a grievance against this manager.

My colleague asked if I would be there to support her through this (employees are usually allowed a representative in these situations) which I agreed to do. We attended the hearing and the HR representative heard her case, and then went away to investigate. Naturally, the line manager denied bullying her but admitted (having seen evidence, such as inappropriate emails which could not be denied and read reports from the staff who witnessed her berating her as detailed above) that she could have "handled some situations differently". During the time that this was going on, she completely ignored my colleague (creating a horrendous atmosphere, considering that they, along with 2 other people, shared an office) which made the situation very obvious to everyone else (we work in a large office with around 65 staff).

By the time this had gone on for a week, my colleague was naturally very upset, and simply dreaded going into work every day. She asked HR if she could move offices but was told that this was not possible, because she had to work with her line manager in order to carry out her role. I have nothing but admiration for her, for managing to attend work every day and share an office with someone who blatantly ignored her in front of other people, I am not sure I could have managed to do this.

Finally, HR returned and explained what the line manager had said (that she denied some allegations but accepted that some things could have been done differently). They told my colleague that as a result, her line manager would be sent on a management course. They asked my colleague if she had any suggestions as to what else could be done.

By this point, my colleague was at the end of her tether. Sending this woman on a management course did not seem like an appropriate consequence for bullying, in fact, it would boost her CV! There was a lower position advertised within the company (at a lower wage) and my colleague requested that she be transferred. HR granted this request.

So, in effect, my colleague was demoted and the bully rewarded with additional training. My colleague was advised by Acas that she could have walked out and taken the company to a tribunal for constructive dismissal. However, was fully aware of how long that would take, and that she had to pay her mortgage in the interim. She was effectively backed into a corner and grasped for what she believed to be the only solution, in order to escape the situation.

I am pleased to report that my colleagues health has improved and she is very happy in her new role, despite being on a lower wage. However, I feel that it is a horrendous way to resolve a situation, where bullying was involved. From the companies perspective, it solved the problem and no further action was taken. The bully received her training and no disciplinary action was taken.

It is easy to assume that employees have rights and they protect them in the workplace, unfortunately, it isn't always as easy as that. I would urge anyone who observes any kind of bullying to make it clear that it isn't acceptable and to speak out. There is no place in society for bullying, it is a disgusting practice which should be stamped out, whether in schools, the workplace or anywhere else. Knowing that it is happening and saying nothing amounts to taking part, and if everyone took this stance, bullies would not be able to carry on.

Remember too, the affect that this can have on people's lives, feeling scared of attending work, not sleeping, being stressed and upset and dreading any form of confrontation and worst of all, wondering what they have done to deserve such behaviour. There really is no excuse for bullying and we all have to work together to stop it taking place.

Summary: We all need to work together to prevent bullying