Intimidating behaviour at work
22-Jul-2020 19:17
Failing to establish the facts before taking action and holding a meeting with the employee, and denying the employee the right to appeal is highly likely to be considered unfair at an employment tribunal and lead to a claim against the employer.It may not be appropriate for the employee to be at work while facts are established, so a short period of suspension on full pay may be helpful.Likewise, if you are in HR, it is imperative that you take bullying seriously and follow the guidance above to protect and help your employees who may be affected by manipulative and bullying behavior.Our employees deserve to work in a respectful, fair, and comfortable work environment where others around them, particularly those of authority, aren’t trying to control them or manipulate their behavior.They are skilled “people readers” and make it their task to understand someone’s flaws to determine what techniques can be used against them.Some even go a step further and mask their bullying behind a charming and nice demeanor and even a noble cause.
The Workplace Bullying Institute defines bullying as “repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators that takes one or more of the following forms: verbal abuse, offensive conduct/behaviors (including nonverbal) which are threatening, humiliating, or intimidating; or work interference – sabotage – which prevents work from getting done.” The primary issue with bullying is that the perpetrator desires to control the other person’s behavior, usually for his or her own needs, personal agenda, or self-serving motives.Bullying often goes unnoticed in the workplace because it is a slow process of emotional and psychological manipulation that is hard to prove and detect. Technically, bullying is not considered harassment, so legally, people can get away with doing it in the workplace if a policy isn’t in place.Here are twenty (20) signs of bullying at work that you may be missing, but when a pattern emerges of multiple behaviors over a long period of time, can be a classic bullying situation.What an organisation regards as acts of gross misconduct should be clear from its disciplinary rules.
Typically, they might include such things as theft or fraud, physical violence, gross negligence, incapacity due to alcohol or illegal drugs, and serious insubordination.If you think workplace bullying doesn’t affect some of your employees, you're mistaken. Rarely can bullying be identified based on one action, but rather a pattern of actions over a long period of time.