Common Mistakes Made Regarding Bullying in the Workplace

Bullying in the workplace can be taking place whether you realize it or not. The first step should be to discover and begin to eliminate bullying.

Common Mistakes Made
There are also some common mistakes employers sometimes make regarding bullying in the workplace, such as:

• Trying to appease the bully—Management often tries to appease the bully in a misguided effort to avoid confrontation or incident. This should be avoided as it can actually empower the bully and send mixed messages to other employees. Always stop and examine your motives before taking action.
  
  
• Placing blame on both parties—Managers often think “Oh, I’ll just pull both employees into my office and talk to them together.” This can lead to unexpected outcomes. Talk to each employee one-on-one to avoid confusion and ensure clarity.
  
  Another side to this common mistake is continuing to say, “We need to work as a team,” without really dealing with the underlying issue. People can’t work as a team if one employee is bullying the other.
  
  
• Retaliating against the targeted employee—Sometimes managers blame the employee who’s being targeted by the bully because the targeted person is complaining.
  
  It’s very important NOT to retaliate against a targeted employee because you could be violating employment laws in doing so.
  
  
• Ignoring a bully’s behavior—Whether managers do this is usually a function of the company’s culture. If it’s part of the company’s culture, the manager may fail to deal with the bully or address the issues effectively.
  
  
• Believing what you hear without seeking the truth—In a teamwork environment, a manager may just believe what they hear from the team or make quick decisions, without actually talking to the employee who is being bullied. This represents both a missed opportunity and a huge mistake.
  
  
• Stereotyping employees—Managers sometimes stereotype employees. For example, a manager may decide an employee is a “wimp” because they are complaining about getting bullied.

Legal Implications
Your company should have some type of policy against bullying in the workplace, whether it’s a stand-alone policy or is incorporated into a more general anti-harassment policy.

Having this policy in place is not only for the general good of the company’s overall employee population and morale, it also functions as a defense mechanism in the event a company is sued for related discrimination. This is because members of protected classes under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, are protected from discrimination under this federal law, as well as a number of state anti-discrimination laws. Included in that protection is the right to be free of harassment based on one’s age, rage, national origin, etc., and bullying may sometimes fall within that category of harassing behavior.

Alternatively, employees may be able to file state law “tort” claims alleging personal injury based on common law principles such as defamation or wrongful discharge. Also, where states have enacted laws based on common law principles, employees may sometimes be able to file related claims based on theories such as wrongful discharge (see 1989 Montana Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act, which abolished the common law employment at-will doctrine in that jurisdiction).

Of course, an employee could always potentially bring an individual lawsuit against the “bully” based on any number of intentional torts, such as assault or battery, depending on how those torts are defined by state laws (both civil and criminal). And the employee might also sue the company as a second defendant or as an accomplice, especially if the company knew about the bullying and failed to act.

These days, there is more and more concern about developing ways to protect employees by eliminating, or at least controlling bullying behavior.

Last, but not least—bullying in the workplace can damage a company’s profits and viability. Bullying causes turnover, reduces morale and productivity, and, if there is a claim filed, the negative publicity can damage the company’s reputation. 

There are common mistakes employers sometimes make regarding bullying in the workplace.