Cognitive neuroscientist and business improvement strategist Dr Lynda Shaw is urging UK businesses to put in more effort to tackle workplace bullying – which she describes as one of the major challenges facing businesses today.
According to her latest research, one fifth of all UK employees are experiencing some form of harassment, while disabled staff are more than twice as likely to report such incidents – with workplace bullying often increasing during times of austerity and financial constraints, when anxiety is highest among employees.
Dr Shaw stated: “Bullying at work is in no one’s best interest. It creates a miserable working environment, demotivates employees, causes poor performance and stifles careers. If everyone did something to address workplace bullying we could solve it. Whether it be encouraging supportive work relationships, training staff on the effects of bullying, following a bullying policy or ultimately recognising when it is happening and addressing it immediately, it is imperative that bullying is not tolerated any longer.”
Shaw believes that the problem is even more prevalent than the statistics suggest, with many cases going unnoticed and unreported by workers. This gives employers a real challenge to confront. “When we think of bullying,” she said, “we probably think of much reported cyber bullying and bullying in the playground. But businesses need to face up to the issue of bullying in their workforces. Both employees and employers are suffering as a result of workplace bullying, with high sickness rates, high employee turnover and low morale.
“Employers are responsible for taking preventative action against bullying and harassment, but they often turn a blind eye perhaps because they believe adults should just be able to sort it out amongst themselves.”
In the psychologist’s view, the first step to improving this situation is to raise awareness of workplace bullying and have a zero-tolerance policy enforced across all businesses. This will help staffers to recognise bullying when they see it – or even if they perpetrate it.
“Some bullies do not realise their behaviour is bullying,” Shaw added. “Bullying can vary from unfair treatment or spreading malicious rumours to picking on someone; undermining a competent worker; denying someone training or promotion opportunities and ignoring, humiliating or excluding someone, to undervaluing their work performance. Bullying can happen face to face, by email, by letter, on social media or by phone – so it may also not always be obvious to other people.”
In some cases, Shaw warned, human resources departments may need to consider brining in help from external experts to tackle the problem. “Specialist training can advise on ways to prevent bullying and how to deal with it effectively when it does arise,” she said. “Mediation companies can also provide trained professionals to mediate between the bully and their target where possible.”
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