Stand Together Against Bullying

People are often hesitant to make a complaint; why do you think this is? 

"JUST because no one complains doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Most victims of workplace bullying suffer silently — but the reason isn’t what you might think." 

Firstly, many victims of workplace bullying suffer silently out of fear of retribution and because it’s often hard for them to fully explain what is happening and how it started, according to new research recently published in the Management Communication Quarter. As part of their study, researchers conducted in-depth interviews with nearly 50 victims of workplace bullying. They discovered that many of the victims felt that no one would believe them, or they were afraid of being labelled as a crybaby or a whiner, so they didn’t report the situation to a manager or someone else in the organisation. (source: Business News Daily)

Besides not wanting to become ostracised, bullying victims are also hesitant to tell their story because they have a tough time fully explaining how the bullying began and escalated. Stacy Tye-Williams one of the study’s authors and an assistant professor of communication studies and English at Iowa State University, said that the victims think that their stories don’t always have a distinct beginning, middle or end and that since bullying often starts with subtle behaviours that make it hard to identify initially, several months can go by before the victims realise there truly is a problem.

How to deal with bullying in the workplace?

Workplace with supportive co-workers can play a huge role in helping victims get up the nerve to report the situation to higher-ups. Victims who don’t have someone to talk to about their story have a hard time formulating a narrative.

Even if you’re not comfortable as a co-worker reporting the behaviour, letting the victim tell you their story, go with you to have a drink and vent, or just feel believed can help. For a lot of victims, that process of being believed and having someone listen to their story is crucial in helping them better communicate about their experience.

When a victim does have the strength to report the situation, it's critical that managers reserve judgment. Even when the story is hard to follow, managers need to listen and ask questions in order to better understand what is going on.

Besides listening to the victims, businesses also need to take action when bullying reports are found to be true.

It’s also important that we learn how to treat each other better and reach out when people are being harmed. We can all make strides in that direction.