When we think of bullying, we often picture children in a playground, but bullying doesn’t always stop after adolescence. According to YouGov, two thirds of British people said they have been bullied at some point, with 21% expressing they have experienced bullying as an adult.
Bullying has a massive impact on mental health and can affect someone’s personal and professional lives greatly, so it’s important to understand the signs of bullying if you come across it.
As a leader, it’s necessary to be aware of bullying in your workplace to safeguard the mental health of your people for better productivity and engagement.
'Don’t be a Bully' awareness month
Marked in August every year, 'Don’t be a Bully Month' is a dedicated month to raise awareness for the dangers and impacts of bullying. Bullying can hold a significant strain and stress on someone’s mental health, such as damage to self-esteem, sleep disturbances, and isolation.
The month is a reminder to always be kind and compassionate to others, promote acceptance, and boost inclusivity to prevent bullying.
Why do people bully?
There are a variety of reasons why someone may feel compelled to bully. They may feel threatened, envious, or jealous of their target, such as jealous of their clothes or relationship with their partner. They may also want to establish dominance in a group and bully someone to express power, showing others their control.
Much of this jealousy, need for dominance, and need to bully could be the result of a deep-rooted and negative sense of self, stemming from shame and self-dislike. Often, bullies have fallen victim of bullying, abuse, and domestic violence themselves and repeat the negative cycle.
Why do people bully?
There are a variety of reasons why someone may feel compelled to bully. They may feel threatened, envious, or jealous of their target, such as jealous of their clothes or relationship with their partner. They may also want to establish dominance in a group and bully someone to express power, showing others their control.
Much of this jealously, need for dominance, and need to bully could be the result of a deep-rooted and negative sense of self, stemming from shame and self-dislike. Often, bullies have fallen victim of bullying, abuse, and domestic violence themselves and repeat the negative cycle.
Impact of bullying
According to Oxford CBT, in 2016 1.5 million people in the UK reported some form of bullying and 19% of these reported happened every single day.
The effects of bullying can be life-long and cause unbelievable amounts of stress on someone. In fact, 79% of bullying cases harmful stress levels and 50% of those bullied in the workplace experience panic attacks. Bullying can have a detrimental effect on mental health and cause long-term problems for mental wellbeing, such as depression, PTSD, and anxiety.
What does this mean for workplaces?
Bullying can be found in the workplace, with 32% of people in a survey confirming they have experienced bullying masked as banter in the workplace. Bully decrease performance and productivity, which can be detrimental to your organisation’s growth.
When someone is experiencing bullying, they may become distressed, upset, and worried throughout their day, decreasing morale and productivity. Depending on the circumstances the whole workplace may be affected by the bulling.
Employees experiencing bulling may have difficulty sleeping and it may affect the quality of their sleep. Sleep is incredibly important for good mental wellbeing and allows the brain to rest and recuperate ready for the next day.
Experiencing bullying risks increasing absenteeism, with victims not wanting to face work with their bully.
How to recognise bullying behaviour?
Anyone can be a bully, and anyone can fall victim of bullying, so it’s important that as a leader you are recognising the signs and behaviours that may point to bulling.
Here are a few signs you may have a bully in your workplace.
Bullies may take credit for the work of their target to diminish their efforts and steal praise for good work.
Bullies often spread rumours about their victim, using malicious and false claims to discredit the target.
- Turning people against the target
Bullies may turn social alliances against the victim, so more people believe them over their victim.
How to combat bullying within the workplace?
- Create robust policies and procedures
Ensuring all policies and procedures are robust and protect your people from discrimination, prejudice, bias, and bullying. It’s important that your policies and procedures are understood by your people, so they know you do not have any tolerance for bullying.
Awareness days are a great way for employees to gain extra knowledge and understand the importance of certain topics, like anti-bullying. It’s easy to create something fun and exciting to engage your people to understand, such as quizzes and away days.
Training your people to be aware of the impacts and signs of bullying is essential for combatting bullying in the workplace. Providing training for your people gives them more confidence, awareness, and knowledge to be able to spot, stop, and deal with bullying within the workplace.
