Bullying Bosses in the Workplace

Here’s a statistic that should make you sit up and take notice. No wonder our workplaces need healing!

80% of workplace bullies are BOSSES

This startling statistic can be found on the Canada Safety Council website.

In addition, the Canada Safety Council (CSC) informs us that “workplace bullying has become an internationally recognized health & safety issue”.

The CSC defines workplace bullying in the following way:

any vexatious behavior in the form of repeated & hostile or unwanted conduct, verbal comments, actions or gestures that affect an employee’s dignity or psychological or physical integrity and that result in a harmful work environment for the employees…

Surveys show that 1 in 10 workers have been the subject of bullying.

So, who are these bullies and what can we do if we are being abused by one of them?

It should come as no surprise to learn that the bullies who torment us in the workplace were the same bullies who tormented us when we went to school. In other words, when school bullies grow up they join the workforce and continue to bully others.

These adult bullies tend to be insecure people, with poor or non-existent social skills and little empathy. They turn this insecurity outwards attacking the capable people around them.

Now, the REALLY frightening thing is not the fact that these people are bullies, which is bad enough, but that they are in positions of power in organizations where we work!!!

How do these people get into management positions in the first place?

Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer to that question but I would love to hear your theories.  Care to comment?

One thing I do know is that bosses who bully their employees destroy trust in the workplace and once this trust is broken it is nearly impossible to regain it.

Bullying takes its toll on both employees and employers. Bullies poisen their working environment with low morale, fear, anger and depression and the employer pays for this in absenteeism, high staff turnover, severance packages and law suits.

Obviously productivity suffers.

If you are interested in learning more about bullying and how to deal with bullying in your workplace check out the article on Monster. ca.

I believe that currently two provinces in Canada (Quebec and Saskatchewan) and 13 US States have anti-bullying laws in place.

Lesley