subject: Bullying Is A Problem Not Just Among Young People [print this page] President Obama held a White House conference this month to discuss ways to prevent bullying in school. But bullying is a problem not just among young people. Work place bullying can involve threats, baseless criticism, discrimination, and favoring some employees unfairly over others.
Thirty-five percent of Americans in a survey said they had been bullied at some time at work. The poll by Zogby International and Workplace Bullying Institute found that another 15% has witnessed it. What some workers might consider bullying by another worker or a supervisor might not be true. But experts say productivity suffers in workplaces when employers tolerate or accept bullying. People take sickly more often. Some take legal action.
Jemmifer Sandburg is a law partner in a rotary kiln company of Fisher & Phillips. She represents companies in labor cases. She says employers can avoid most problems simply by acting in a professional business-like way.
She says this means that everyone place by the same side of rules.
Jennifer Sandburg: There is still basic rule that every single person in an organization needs to follow.
People who bully spend less time on productive work. They can make the workplace tense and unhealthy. Executive coach, CNN commentator, and author Lauren Mackler calls it a toxic environment. She advises people to avoid emotional conflict and child-like reactions when faced with insulting criticisms. She also says people who show self-respect can be less-likely targets of bully. She gives examples like dressing well and looking people in the eye when talking to them. And Lauren Mackler advises people who feel bullied to consider how the bully got that way.
Lauren Mackler: You can equate the behavior with the degree of pain that the bully carries inside.
She says bullies were often bully themselves as children.
Lauren Mackler: That will help you to have more compassion inside instead of judging the person and further feeding a toxic erection.
But bullying can cause some people to live their job. Ms. Mackler says replacing experienced workers can cost one and half time their yearly pay or even more. Last April, Australias productivity commission consider the cost of bullying in a report on work place safety. The lowest estimate of the cost to the Australia economy ten years ago was six to thirteen billion dollars.
