Dougal Sutherland: Workplace bullying

There’s been reports that this has increased since COVID, particularly online. 

People usually think there is a particular “personality type” that engages in bullying and therefore in order to stop it we just have to root out those particular people. Whilst this is true to some extent (e.g., people who are more narcissistic and want to advance their career tend to engage in bullying behaviour more), what research shows is that bullying behaviour is more likely to occur in workplaces where there are high levels of stress. 

Research found that when people had high workloads there was more bullying at work, and that this rate was increased even further when people were feeling insecure about their jobs. So, when people are feeling stressed and under pressure they behave in negative ways towards others – “hurt people hurt people”. 

Particularly relevant at the moment when we have high workloads and people feeling very insecure about their jobs due to current economic environment and also because Pink Shirt Day coming up on 17 May. 

What can done: 

- Organisations need to be alert to the increased risk at the moment. 

- Leaders need to create an environment where people feel comfortable speaking up when something they don’t like is happening (this is called psychological safety). 

- Pay attention to the small seeds that might start to take root – not technically bullying but being rude or uncivil towards others —Prof Geoff Plimmer from Victoria Uni calls this “workplace incivility”— like a virus that can spread through an organisation.

- The Mental Health Foundation and Umbrella Wellbeing are running a free webinar about online bullying for Pink Shirt Day 

 

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