Managing Bullying and Sexual Harassment

Welcome to this article on how to manage bullying and harassment in the workplace.

Legislation

There are three main Codes of Practice for Workplace Bullying and Sexual Harassment

They are:

1. The Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service (acas) who sets out informal and formal procedures
2. The Health and Safety Executive and finally,
3. The Equality and Human Rights Commission

What is bullying at work?

Bullying at work is defined as repeated, inappropriate behaviour, direct or indirect, whether verbal, physical or otherwise, conducted by one or more persons against another or others, at the workplace and/or in the course of employment, which could reasonably be regarded as undermining the individual’s right to dignity at work. Bullying at work risks the safety, health, and welfare of people at work.

How common is Bullying at work?

When people think of bullying, they think of young children in schools who know no better but it is far more common amongst adults in the workplace than people realise.

Statistics show that:

• 1 in 12 report they have been bullied
•  7 % report they have been bullied in the last six months

The implications of workplace bullying are far reaching. At a minimum, it affects safety, engagement, productivity, trust, and the workplace culture. The following statistics highlight the impact it has:

• 54% considered quitting their job
• 23.8% considered seeking a transfer, 18.4% sought a transfer
• 13.6% considered withdrawing from the workforce
• 10.4% actually quit their job

What is NOT Bullying?

If you are feeling hurt, or feel like you are being treated unfairly then you must be a victim of workplace bullying. That is not necessarily correct. It is important to assess what is happening objectively.

Here are something factors to consider in your assessment:

• Is the behaviour upsetting you due to other or personal reasons?
• Is the criticism warranted, for instance is work-related non-performance the issue
• Is it a personality ‘clash’? Are you both just spoiling for conflict?

Remember, bullying does not cover fair and constructive feedback of an employee’s performance or conduct. However, employers need to use caution regarding how feedback communication is given. The tone, body language and surrounding environments can all be elements that can, in some cases, cause a miscommunication or misinterpretation.

Examples of Bullying

Bullying usually follows a certain pattern. It begins with humiliation, ridicule and belittling efforts – often in front of others. The bully will persistently and inappropriately find fault with a person’s work and use this as an excuse to humiliate the them rather than trying to improve performance.

It can take the form of:

• Verbal abuse, including shouting, use of obscene language and spreading malicious rumours
• Showing hostility through sustained unfriendly contact or exclusion
• Inappropriate overruling of a person’s authority,
• Reducing a job to routine tasks below the person’s skills and capabilities without prior discussion or explanation
• Constantly picking on a person when things go wrong even when he/she is not responsible.
• Intrusion by pestering, spying and stalking
• Repeated unreasonable assignments to duties which are obviously unfavourable to one individual

What is Workplace Harassment?

Workplace harassment, whether it be verbal or physical badgering based on sex, religion, or race, is unlawful and also a form of discrimination. In this section we define harassment, look at the legislation and grievances procedures and also look at what preventative measures are available.

Legislation – Equality Act 2010 defines harassment as:

“Unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual.”

These protected characteristics are:

Age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Dignity at Work Policy

The first step ensuring you are managing bullying and harassment effectively is establishing a Dignity at Work policy. This will ensure the dignity and diversity of all employees is respected. This should mean communication is respectful and requests are fair and reasonable.

The Dignity at Work policy should be supported by detailed Policies and Procedures.

Preventing Bullying Roles

Everyone has a role in creating an anti-bullying and harassment culture. Employees have rights to be treated with dignity and respect at work and not to have their safety, health or welfare put at risk through bullying by the employer, by other employees or other persons.

They have a right to complain to the employer if bullied and not to be victimized for doing so. They have a right under safety and health laws to be represented in raising this with the employer. Employees should strive to be role models, partake in investigations and ask for training if it could be helpful.

To gain the support of employees many companies will provide staff with online Anti-Bullying training or online Dignity at Work training.  Dignity at Work training includes harassment issues.

Responding to a Complaint

The first step in responding to any complaint is to have an anti-bullying or dignity at work policy in place. When a complaint does come in, ascertain the facts and specifics of the complaint. It is very important that you act promptly.

If you act promptly, there is an increased chance of a successful resolution. If you do not act to resolve the complaint as quickly as possible, things may get worse. Negative personal opinions and hostilities can become inflexible on both sides. This may lead to the employee feeling so ill that they find it impossible to return to the same workplace.

Communicate regularly with the parties involved and ensure a proper system is in place for future monitoring/management of that relationship and those affected.  If the complainant refuses to engage the informal procedures, a note should be taken of this (but no penalty for this choice).

A mediation needs to be voluntary and confidential. It is important to get to this stage because it has an 80% success rate.  This stage needs to be informal, non-adversarial and non-contentious.  At this point, victims often just want the behaviour to stop.

When a Bullying Complaint is Upheld

At the end of this process the bully may be disciplined according to your Disciplinary Procedure. It is then the company’s obligation to retrain and monitor the perpetrator so that the hazardous behaviour is eliminated. This includes putting in place some practicable rehabilitation for the complainant in order to assist a speedy and effective return to work with minimum stress.

Communicate regularly with the parties involved and ensure a proper system is in place for future monitoring/management of that relationship and those affected.

External Bodies – ACAS

There are several external bodies that play a role in this process. The Health and Safety Executive can’t get involved in mediating or investigating your bullying complaint but can use statutory powers to ensure that:

• A suitable policy is in place
• Complaints are investigated in accordance with their policies.

Acas, or the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, are charged with acting as independent adjudicators. They investigate disputes referred to them by individuals or small groups of workers under specific legislation. Findings are non-binding recommendations. This service deals with the vast majority of issues around bullying.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission are an Independent body set up under the Equality Act of 2006. The revised 2010 Equality Act outlaws discrimination in employment, vocational training, advertising, collective agreements, the provision of goods and services and other opportunities to which the public generally have access on nine distinct grounds.