An article in The Lancet on workplace bullying says that many who are subject to this growing phenomena describe their experiences as only 'the tip of the iceberg'.

A search on the onternet will reveal literally thousands of sites dealing with this increasingly common behaviour in the Western world. Workplace bullying occurs across the world and across occupations. What is workplace bullying and why is it apparently on the increase?

What is workplace bullying?

Most definitions of workplace bullying include three elements:

  • The effects on the victim — irrespective of the intentions of the perpetrator

  • The detrimental or negative nature of the effects

  • The persistence of such behaviour

However, such definitions depend very much on subjective viewpoints and it may be difficult to distinguish genuine interpersonal rivalry or legitimate management action from victimisation in some cases.

The most common way in which workplace bullying is reported in Europe is as downward victimisation of employees by managers. There is also sideways bullying within peer groups and the more overlooked bullying of managers by employees. Physical bullying is rare, but other forms are common.

Two authors, Rayner and Hoel, give five categories of intimidating behaviour:

  • Threats to professional status

  • Threats to personal standing

  • Isolation

  • Overwork

  • Destabilisation

    • Examples of actions within these headings include belittling opinion, public professional humiliation, withholding access to training, unnecessary disruption, shifting of goalposts, removal of responsibility and undue pressure to produce work.

    Who gets bullied?

    Just about anyone can be subject to workplace bullying when it is convenient for the bully. But there seem to be particular groups of people who are targets:

  • Ethical, just and fair people

  • Strong, independent, intelligent and self-assured people

  • Cooperative people

  • Vulnerable people

    • Those in the first two groups are often seen as a threat by management or their fellow workers since they have an outlook on life which allows them to rise above office politics. They also tend to be outspoken — 'insubordinate' in some people's eyes.

    Those who are optimistic and cooperative — nice people — are easy to bully because they have an outlook on life which means that they think everyone is nice and it takes time for them to realise that this isn't always the case.

    Vulnerable people are the bully's traditional target — underconfident and easy to browbeat.

    Why does workplace bullying occur?

    This is the most difficult question to answer. Perhaps the stresses of life in business and other work situations are such that more is being expected from everyone, preventing the normal checks and balances of behaviour from occurring.

    I'm sure that many of you reading this have heard the term 'constructive dismissal' — workplace bullying is the easiest way to get rid of an employee who is no longer wanted without spending the money necessary on retrenchment. Few people will stay in a job in which they are consistently being made to feel unwelcome.

    As technology advanced in the last century, the Utopian view was that people would have more leisure time and that work would become easier as technology took over many of our tasks. The opposite seems to have happened and people are expected to work harder and for longer hours, all in the pursuit of profits which are often shared between only a small proportion of a company.

    As financial constraints bite, these work stresses are also starting to hit people in professions which might have seemed less vulnerable, such as medicine.

    However, the evidence is that this behaviour is across the board — yet another negative effect of globilisation and the relentless pursuit of profit perhaps?


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