Bullying in the Workplace: How it Occurs, Signs of Bullying at Work & How to Stop It

Bullying at work is much more common than many people realise. An ILO-Lloyd’s Register Foundation-Gallup survey of more than 74,000 workers around the world found that 23% of all employed people had been subject to violence or harassment at work at some point.

That translates to nearly 750 million people globally. And the truly sad thing is that much of it goes unreported. The survey found that 46% of victims hadn’t told anyone about their experience.

Bullying can take many forms, and is typically categorised in terms of physical, psychological or sexual. It can be labelled harassment, aggression or other things, but the upshot is generally the same - a victim that is unable to be themselves at work and give their best to their role. It can also flow into their lives outside work and have considerable personal impact.

Clearhead co-founder Dr Angela Lim spoke in depth about bullying in the workplace with Dr Ivana Vranjes on the Clear The Air podcast. Dr Vranjes is an associate professor in work and organisational psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. She has a PhD in workplace psychological bullying, and has been involved in numerous studies into aggression, bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace.

This is a summary of some of the key points for victims, managers, those who observe instances of bullying and even people perpetrating bullying behaviour at work.

You can listen to the full episode on the Clear The Air podcast - available on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How Bullying Occurs

Dr Vanjes says bullying in the workplace is most common in high stress environments, where staff are routinely under pressure. In these instances, the hostility that people feel makes bullying more likely to occur.

This is important to note because it’s more about the nature of the workplace, rather than the people themselves. It’s not that a person is more likely to be bullied, or become a bully, but rather that bullying tends to be a symptom of a work environment where people aren't coping.

Bullying disproportionately impacts people who have less power. In a workplace, that means junior or subordinate staff, or minorities including women, ethnic minorities or sexually diverse workers.

The technology that today’s workplaces rely on can exacerbate or even enable bullying. Working from home is great for giving staff flexibility in their lifestyles, but it can also have an isolating effect. If someone routinely works from home and is being bullied, they can find it harder to speak up because they don't have the same level of social connection with colleagues.

Bullying at work can take many different forms:

Repeatedly leaving someone out of an email chain so they don’t have relevant information for their job.
Creating group chats and leaving someone out.
Sharing embarrassing pictures or stories about someone.
Sending mean things to someone, commonly via email or social media.

In extreme examples, someone can create a fake social media account purporting to be a victim.

Dr Vranjes says she’s even come across a victim who was bullied by their supervisor, who would log into their work account and change their work hours so it appeared they were arriving late every day. The victim was routinely and deliberately targeted in a range of ways, to the point where they attempted suicide.

These are just some examples - there are many different ways a bully can target a victim.

Why Do People Bully?

Dr Vranjes says most bullies don’t actually think of themselves as a bully. They tend to minimise or justify their behaviour, and think there’s a reason for what they’re doing.

This is in line with a general phenomenon where people overestimate their good qualities - everyone wants to think of themselves as a good person, and bullies often don’t appreciate the impact of their behaviour on others.

Common explanations for bullying include:

The victim is underperforming at work and they’re trying to motivate them
They have different values
Their personalities clash
The victim is ruining the atmosphere or culture at work
It’s just a joke or a bit of fun
The victim shouldn’t take it so personally

As above, a more volatile, high pressure work environment places stress on staff, which can lead to acting out with bullying behaviour.

The Bystander Effect

As well as contributing to bullying happening, workplace culture is also a powerful factor in stopping bullying. Dr Vranjes says one of the key aspects of this is how colleagues react to bullying when they see it.

This is through the bystander effect, and it can present in two ways:

When the bystander does nothing, it sends a message to the bully that their behaviour is acceptable, because there are no consequences. They allow it to continue, and possibly even get worse.
When the bystander intervenes and does something about it, they play a key role in addressing bullying and showing colleagues that the behaviour is not tolerated.

Bystanders don’t need to confront bullies to be effective. Often, people are reluctant to intervene directly because they fear being bullied or impacted themselves.

Just supporting a victim can have a big impact. When victims feel isolated, their situation can feel helpless. But having the support of just one colleague can help them to keep going, keep doing their job or lay a complaint.

Dr Vranjes says the support of a bystander can dramatically reduce negative outcomes for the victim, both at work and in their private life.

The Effect of Bullying

Bullying can have severe consequences for victims, including leading to depression, burnout and PTSD-like symptoms. In the worst cases, victims are unable to work for long periods and can even attempt suicide.

Because it’s subjective, it can sometimes be hard to define when bullying has occurred. Dr Vranjes says if a person feels they’ve been bullied, they have been. The experience of the victim is more telling than that of the perpetrator.

As we’ve mentioned, only around half of all victims tell someone what’s happening. It pays if all staff know the signs of someone being bullied so they can support them and help them through it. There are two common signs someone is being bullied at work:

They become more withdrawn and isolated. They may work from home more or join in with social activities less, even when they’d usually be an active participant.
They become less productive. The stress of being bullied can affect their performance, making it hard to concentrate. The bullying itself may directly hamper their ability to do their job (i.e. not sharing information or deliberately making their job harder).

If you suspect someone is being bullied and they deny it, be wary of taking them at their word. Dr Vranjes says people often avoid labelling themselves as a victim because it’s painful, and they worry about how they’ll be perceived by others or that the bullying will increase if they tell someone about it.

Bullying can also have an indirect effect. For example, a senior male employee may be reluctant to work closely with a young female staffer. It’s not unusual for a man to decline to mentor a woman for fear of being accused of improper behaviour.

This example ultimately denies women development opportunities, perpetuating their minority status in the workplace.

Sexual Harassment at Work

According to Gallup, 6% of employees globally have reported being the victim of sexual harassment. Various forms of workplace bullying have common traits, but there are specific elements that are unique or more prevalent in sexual harassment cases. These include:

Gender-dominated fields. Dr Vranjes says women who work in male dominated sectors such as law enforcement or the defence force are more likely to experience harassment.
Female victimisation. Dr Vranjes says 80% of sexual harassment occurs when a man harasses a women. The next most common type is men harassing other men.
Power imbalances. 83% of workers who experience sexual harassment report that the perpetrator was a manager, supervisor or more senior employee.

Dr Vranjes says there’s often a lot of ignorance at play, when perpetrators of sexual harassment don’t realise their behaviour is inappropriate. When you add a power imbalance, it becomes an issue that victims really struggle to navigate, because they feel like reporting it will hurt their career prospects.

As a result, Dr Vranjes expects the known sexual harassment figures are only the vast minority, as it largely goes unreported.

The Impact of Attention

Movements such as #MeToo have been transformational in helping to highlight how common sexual harassment is and empower women, but there has also been a backlash.

While it has helped give victims the courage to speak up, Dr Vranjes says it’s also made others more inclined to say victims are making things up or exaggerating.

Highly publicised instances, such as the Johnny Depp v Amber Heard trial, where a jury ultimately determined Amber Heard made false claims of abuse, help to fuel those inclined to be sceptical about harassment complaints.

Dr Vranjes says false claims of harassment are very rare, only accounting for between 2-10% of all claims. However, because they’re well publicised when they do happen, it creates a perception that false claims are more common than they are.

This is known as the availability bias, where information about a small proportion of something is more available than the majority of instances. It’s important to understand that the vast majority of sexual harassment complaints are legitimate, so they are taken seriously from the very beginning.

Third Party Reporting

Dr Vranjes says the outcomes of sexual harassment complaints often hinge significantly on who is in charge of investigating it. It can either be heard, taken seriously and investigated thoroughly, or the person making the complaint can be effectively silenced.

She says it’s important to have robust reporting structures, which ideally involve having independent watchdogs or agencies receive complaints and investigate them.

This helps victims to come forward with confidence - interconnected organisations where a senior staff member has harassed someone junior may be more inclined to protect the perpetrator. That person is more valuable to the organisation than the victim and has more existing relationships in positions of power, which can compromise an internal investigation.

But a third party agency can do more to protect the privacy and interests of the victim, while also ensuring the integrity of an investigation. As part of Clearhead’s EAP offering, we can support whistleblowers, help to mediate harassment claims and ensure complaints are treated appropriately.

How to Stop Bullying at Work

Dr Vranjes says often, the only way for victims to get away from being bullied at work is to leave. While unfortunate, she says it’s OK to acknowledge that for many people, that’s the simplest solution.

She says this is what happens for the majority of victims, and if that’s the only way then you shouldn’t feel ashamed. Sometimes it’s better for your wellbeing to remove yourself from the situation and move on.

In saying that, if you feel strong enough to tackle bullying in the workplace then there are things you can do to build your.

Most notably, you can strengthen your own position within the business. Work towards your own goals, perform well in your job and grow your network of connections to become more valuable to the organisation.

This can give you more credibility and connections to bolster a complaint, and it can put a stop to the bullying because the perpetrator can see you have more power - possibly more than them.

Many people will find this challenging. It’s difficult to perform well and grow relationships when you’re being bullied, particularly because your natural response is to withdraw from people.

Often, the best approach to reducing bullying at work happens at an organisational level, rather than an individual one.

What Workplaces Can Do to Stop Bullying

The attitude of the workplace is perhaps the biggest factor in preventing and tackling bullying at work. Being genuinely committed to doing the right thing will go a long way.

With that as your starting point, there are a range of tangible actions you can take to address bullying in the workplace:

Ask your people about bullying. Make it part of performance reviews or yearly surveys. Ask them if they’re able to do their jobs properly, and if not, what factors are preventing it. These surveys are best done independently and allow you to gauge how common it is.
Understand the workplace culture. As we’ve mentioned, bullying is most common in stressful work environments. Stress happens when there are conflicting priorities, unclear instructions, uncertainty or consistent urgency. If these things are prevalent in your workplace, the risk of bullying occurring is high.
Empower people who receive complaints. Whether it’s an HR manager or someone else, the people who are responsible for receiving bullying complaints and having those conversations need to be doing a thorough job. This has a direct impact on individual instances, and also sends the message to others that complaints will be taken seriously, which allows victims to come forward.
Educate bystanders. Make sure all staff understand their role in minimising bullying, both in terms of supporting victims and reporting inappropriate behaviour. The best approach isn’t to teach people not to be bullies, it’s to help bystanders to see an opportunity to help a victim.
Appoint empathetic leaders. Leadership is a skill of its own, and it is greatly tested by bullying within an organisation. Good leaders create cultures where bullying is minimised, and they’re also approachable and trustworthy for victims.

Summary:

Bullying at work is a hugely complex issue, but it’s one workplaces need to take a deliberate approach to. A workplace culture that reduces instances of bullying is also likely to create better productivity and employee loyalty, leading to improved performance in all facets of business.

Conversely, having a hands-off approach to culture and behavioural issues allows bullying - and all the associated problems it causes - to happen.

Enlisting Clearhead as an EAP service is a great first step. Clearhead enables workplaces to create safe cultures with independent quarterly data insights that highlight any issues, as well as the effectiveness of wellbeing initiatives.

Clearhead can also provide mediation services to handle instances of bullying according to best practice, as well as counselling to employees affected by bullying - or any other wellbeing issue.

Find out more information about implementing Clesrhead as an EAP in your workplace.

You can listen to the full episode of the Clear The Air podcast with Dr Ivana Vranjes on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.