WHAT IS WORKPLACE BULLYING

Society of Human Resource Management defines bullying as "...repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more people by one or more perpetrators. It is abusive conduct that includes:

• Threatening, humiliating or intimidating behaviors.

• Work interference/sabotage that prevents work from getting done.

• Verbal abuse.

• Gaslighting.

Bullying is usually power-based such as leader targeting subordinate. But bullying can be colleague-to-colleague or subordinate-to- leader.  

SHRM Workplace Bullying Policy, 2023

The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries has a good definition of incivility.  Incivility is not as terroristic as bullying, but it does have impacts. [Bullying by a thousand actions]

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Workplace incivility is common low intensity, harmful behavior that occurs with ambiguous intent, no apparent pattern, violates norms for mutual respect, and with no physical assault.

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Examples include: communicating in blunt or terse ways, ignoring persons, being dismissive, not saying thank you or apologizing, interrupting or loud talking ​

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https://lni.wa.gov/safety-health/safety-research/ongoing-projects/workplace-bullying#workplace-incivility

Scapegoating is a type of bullying that is often overlooked. Scapegoating is widespread in workplaces and often appears in the following ways:

• Make a case against someone.

• Create an atmosphere of seriousness and urgency regarding this person.

• Keep secrets. Be careful about who knows what.

• Create rigid rules.

• Gossip.

• Triangulate.

• Exclude the scapegoat from developing close alliances within the group. This is a type of ostracizing.

• Over-react to every little thing the target does and act as if it is an unforgivable sin, worthy of grave consequences.

• Act outraged whenever the target takes a supposed false step.

• Filter out the good about the target and magnify the bad.

• Use only selective listening when dealing with this person.

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Psych Central Creating Scapegoats in the Workplace (2020)

Bullying may fall under harassment in the EEOC context. The hurdle is high with this approach.

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Harassment becomes unlawful where 1) enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment, or 2) the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive. To be unlawful, the conduct must create a work environment that would be intimidating, hostile, or offensive to reasonable people.

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The harassment has to be based on protected categories in the form of employment discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, (ADEA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, (ADA).  - Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

https://www.eeoc.gov/harassment

Mobbing is bullying gone nuclear.

 

Workplace mobbing is the purposeful humiliation, degradation, and terrorization of an individual by a group of people in an effort to remove a person from the organization, often resulting in reputational damage, traumatization, health consequences, financial hardship, and job loss for the victim.

 

Davenport, N. Z., Schwartz, R. D., & Elliott, G. P. (1999 ). Mobbing: Emotional abuse in the American workplace. Collins, IA: Civil Society Publishing

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Duffy, M., & Sperry, L. (2012). Mobbing: Causes, consequences, and solutions. New York: Oxford University Press.

The workplace is toxic when individuals in power are greedy and narcissistic and/or use behaviors to bully, harass, threat, and humiliate others. The toxic workplace can cause anxiety, stress, depression, health problems, absenteeism, job burnout, counterproductive work behavior, and ultimately degrade productivity.

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Toxic workplaces often have five characteristics: workplace ostracism, workplace incivility, workplace harassment, workplace bullying, job burnout.

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International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health An Empirical Study Analyzing Job Productivity in Toxic Workplace Environments (2018)