Employee Survival Guide® - You Have the Right To…NOT Remain Silent…Dealing With Bullies In The Workplace

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to another edition of the Employee Survival Guide, where you can learn everything your employer does not want you to know about and more. Now, here's attorney Mark Carey. Hey, Mark here, and welcome to the Employee Survival Guide. In this episode, we're going to be talking about you have the right to not remain silent, dealing with bullies in the workplace. It's Monday morning, and you are on your way to work. Although the traffic is not bad, your stress levels are already through the roof. As you near the exit, you notice you are gripping the steering wheel to the point where your hands are hurting and your teeth are clenched. As the employee parking lot comes into view,

Starting point is 00:00:41 your stomach tightens and your heart begins to race. If this scenario sounds all too familiar, you might be the victim of workplace bullying. What is workplace bullying? Workplace bullying may be defined as a range of workplace behaviors characterized by repeated mistreatment of an employee by one or more employees, including abusive conduct that is, quote, threatening, humiliating, or intimidating, work sabotage, or verbal abuse. Workplace bullying may include directly aggressive actions or insults as well as unwelcome jokes, pranks, or ridicule.

Starting point is 00:01:16 Workplace bullies often target particular individuals, seeking to harm or intimidate those whom they perceived as vulnerable in some way. Workplace bullying can include but is not limited to some or allate those whom they perceived as vulnerable in some way. Workplace bullying can include, but is not limited to, some or all the following actions. Aggressive communication, including yelling, angry emails, or other verbal hostility. Aggressive body language or cornering. Constant criticism. Humiliating disparagement that causes you to doubt your abilities. Criticizing you for things you did not know or about which you had no instructions, tasteless and humiliating jokes or pranks, manipulating and withholding resources such as instructions, information, time, or help

Starting point is 00:01:59 from others, setting you up to fail, excessive unwarranted and aggressive supervision, assigning unreasonable amounts of work which cannot be reasonably completed on time, and finally, secretly undermining you and disparaging you behind your back. According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, WBI, 19% of adult Americans experience workplace bullying. That means that some 60.3 million workers are affected by this type of misconduct. 65% of the people bullied at work are women, and 70% of the perpetrators are men. Approximately 61% of bullying is committed by a supervisor or boss. In 2019, a Monster.com survey revealed that nearly 94% of responding employees reported being bullied in the workplace. These statistics are shocking when one considers that there is no

Starting point is 00:02:53 federal law and few state laws prohibiting or even acknowledging bullying in the American workplace. While lawmakers are ignoring the problem, both workers and employers should take notice. Both the economic and emotional costs of workplace should take notice. Both the economic and emotional costs of workplace bullying are high. For the targets of bullying, the impact often includes damage to their physical or emotional health, as well as their career. Targets suffer major stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal issues, and more. Targets often face job loss, transfer, and demotion, as well as other adverse workplace impacts. For employers, workplace bullying results in low morale,

Starting point is 00:03:31 increased HR complaints, higher turnover, increased absenteeism, and higher employee health care costs. A study by the WBI found that 37% of bullying targets were terminated, while 33% quit their jobs and 17% were transferred from their positions or departments. The bullies were punished only 4% of the time and only transferred in 9% of the cases, since most states and U.S. territories, with the recent exception of Puerto Rico, have failed to enact anti-workplace bullying statutes. Most workers have few legal options if their workplace becomes unbearable due to the aggressive, intimidating conduct of a boss or a co-worker. Some employers have tried to address this problem by enacting codes of conduct and civility guidelines. These are often included in

Starting point is 00:04:21 employee policy manuals. While these policies may be useful in addressing workplace bullying issues, they are only as effective as the people enforcing them. Addressing bullying by employers is especially challenging given that most American workers are at-will employees, facing immediate termination without just cause. If the boss is also the bully, how often will those policies be enforced? How does workplace bullying differ from illegal harassment? Harassment, according to the American employment law, is essentially legal,

Starting point is 00:04:50 unless it is motivated by an illegal purpose, such as retaliation for protected activity, such as labor organizing or worship blowing, or discrimination based on a protected class, such as sex, gender, identity, race, religion, etc. If the harasser targets someone based solely on the bully's desire for cruelty, almost anything goes short of an actual physical assault. Many employers, as well as business lobbying groups, who fight anti-workplace bullying statutes, justify abusive bosses as simply as an aggressive management style. The idea is that psychological violence is justified if it's in the service of the employers.

Starting point is 00:05:29 The idea is that psychological violence is justified if it's in the service of productivity. Aside from the fact that workplace bullying is costly for employers, the type of management style reflects a serious lack of management training and is not, in effect, a substitute for it. What to do if you think you are being bullied at work? Here are six steps to address workplace bullying. First, assess. First, evaluate your situation to determine whether you are the target of bullying

Starting point is 00:06:00 or just an isolated incident or some other form of misconduct. What is the frequency of this behavior? Is it becoming more common over time? What is the nature of it? Does it have a gender or racial component, or is it simply aggressive? Is it increasingly frequent? If it is increasingly frequent, you may be a target. Try to spot a pattern of behavior. Second, document. Immediately document any incident that may be part of the pattern of behavior you have identified. Write down details of incidents or meetings where the aggressive behavior took place. Who was present? What was the meeting? When was the meeting? Was the behavior addressed by anyone? File away emails and other communications around

Starting point is 00:06:43 the bullying behavior and about your own performance. Often bullies retaliate by making the issue about the target's performance. Be sure you can show that you were acting appropriately and doing your job. When it comes time to report the behavior, you will want to have all of those details at the ready. Number three, research. While bullying is not currently illegal, your company may have codes of conduct, HR policies, or anti-harassment provisions which cover this type of behavior. If you need to report the bully, it is useful to know if he or she has violated company policies. Number four, report. If the behavior is recurring, then report the bully to the HR or to your supervisor, providing your supervisor is not the bully. Document the response and request a formal report and investigation.

Starting point is 00:07:32 5. Seek medical help. If the behavior is emotionally impactful, seek psychological help. Psychologists or counselors who are experiencing trauma are best equipped to help with workplace bullying issues. And finally, 6, get legal advice. Immediately consult with an experienced employment attorney. You may be the target of bullying or even illegal and discriminatory harassment. Let a trained employment attorney advise you during this difficult ordeal. For years, our courts have quoted the late Supreme Court justice famously warned against

Starting point is 00:08:04 interpreting federal anti-discrimination law under Title VII as, quote, a general civility code for the American workplace, end quote. Well, Justice Scalia is no doubt correct that Title VII was not intended to serve as a general civility code. Those who suffer daily under the yoke of an aggressive workplace bully want to know, when are they going to enact one? If you need more information about this topic, please contact Karen Associates PC on the web at capclaw.com or send us an email or call. Thank you for listening and I'll talk to you next week.

Employee Survival Guide® - You Have the Right To…NOT Remain Silent…Dealing With Bullies In The Workplace

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