Preventing Bullying and Harassment

There has been much media coverage of bullying in the workplace following allegations at No. 10. This followed a Unison survey suggesting that bullying at work has doubled in the past 10 years, with one in three staff claiming they’ve been bullied in the past six months.

The economic situation could be blamed for much of this, as those with responsibility for managing teams come under more pressure to deliver a good bottom line.  Meanwhile, increasing unemployment and redundancies may lead to employees being less valued and more likely to complain. And of course, as this becomes known, behaviour that might previously been tolerated becomes classified as bullying.

The Acas Guide on Bullying and Harassment¬† is a useful place to start if this issue affects you or your organisation.¬† It describes bullying as “offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, an abuse or misuse of power through means intended to undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient”.

This kind of behaviour may be performed by staff at any level of the organisation, and may involve groups targeting an individual.  Comments, emails and conduct can all make the working environment unacceptable for the recipient.

Bullying can:

• Lower morale
• Reduce performance
• Increase absence
• Lead to grievance and legal proceedings.

Employers need to be proactive, to deter offenders and give confidence to victims.  Make sure you:

• have and operate a bullying and harassment policy
• train managers in prevention and use of the policy
• deal promptly with complaints.

If you need a Policy or some advice, please get in touch with Hardwick HR.