The Cost of Bullying in the Workplace
Approximately one out of five workers reported being bullied in the workplace in a recent survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute of Bellingham, Washington.
The survey noted that 61% of workers who reported being bullied said that the perpetrator was a “boss” or “supervisor.” 65 percent also said they had lost their jobs because of their encounters with bullies in the workplace.
What Is Bullying?
The Workplace Bullying Institute defines workplace bullying as “repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators. It is abusive conduct that is:
- Threatening, humiliating, or intimidating, or
- Work interference — sabotage — which prevents work from getting done, or
- Verbal abuse.”
Bullying Can Cause Lost Productivity and Litigation
One of the biggest problems with workplace bullying is that it leads to so many other problems, such as lost productivity and even litigation.
“It occurred to me that many of the cases that I have defended over the years regarding stress in the workplace, psychiatric injury, sexual harassment, as well as other issues, really in a way have their genesis in the bullying behavior of someone in the workplace,” said Jeffrey M. Adelson, Santa Ana, California-based general counsel and managing partner at Adelson, Testan, Brundo, Novell & Jimenez, when he attended the 2018 CLM & Business Insurance Retail, Restaurant & Hospitality Conference in Dallas.
Some of the productivity issues related to bullying are worker fatigue, absenteeism and other stress factors. Bullying can also lead to allegations of discrimination based on age, disability, gender, race and other protected classes.
Can Bullying Lead to Workers’ Comp Claims?
“Whether workplace bullying could result in a successful workers’ compensation claim would depend upon several factors. If the workplace bullying were deemed to be so pervasive that it constituted a fact of employment, then injuries arising from workplace bullying could be deemed to arise out of and in the course of employment, and be compensable under workers’ compensation statutes,” according to Charles Tenser, an attorney specializing in workers’ compensation cases.
One of the telltale signs of bullying in the workplace, according to Kendra Schropp, Irving, Texas-based director of risk management and safety at On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, is “when you have a company with a steady amount of comp claims happening… and then suddenly within the same set of circumstances, same type of work, same groups of employees, they have a low amount of workers’ comp reported.” If you can’t attribute the lower claims to some kind of change in safety or work procedure, look to the effect of management on employee morale; it could be bullying.
Bullying and Violence in the Workplace
Bullying can make an unstable person “snap”. “Employees that become aggressive see it as a way of getting even for something,” said Tom Tripp, a professor of management and operations at Washington State University in Vancouver and co-author of “Getting Even: The Truth About Workplace Revenge— And How to Stop It,” in an interview with Business Insurance magazine. “They [bullied employees] feel they’ve been unjustly treated by the organization and they want to find a way to make it right.”
To prevent bullying in your workplace, adopt a zero-tolerance policy and address bullying behavior appropriately. Here are some guidelines:
- Notify employees and supervisors alike that the company will not tolerate bullying.
- Encourage reporting of bullying or threatening behavior.
- Encourage management to have an “open door” policy to stay involved with day-to-day interactions.
- Appoint someone (ideally, someone from human resources with experience in dealing with interpersonal conflicts) to immediately investigate all reports of bullying.
- Take appropriate action, from soliciting apologies to reassigning positions to termination, if warranted.
- Educate employees on what constitutes inappropriate or harassing behavior.
- Ensure management takes a “top down” approach to modeling appropriate behavior.
- If your company has an employee assistance program, utilize the expertise of your EAP provider in investigating, intervening and providing education on bullying.
- Create a written no-bullying policy; include your policy in employee handbooks and post it in prominent locations throughout the workplace.
- Make your workplace safer by taking all complaints of bullying seriously and taking appropriate steps to remedy it.
A zero-tolerance policy toward bullying can improve workplace morale and safety. For more suggestions on improving safety, please contact us.
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