New research has revealed that many employees feel as though they are being bullied at work.
Conducted by Reabur, the survey found that 21 per cent of workers think their boss picks on them in the office.
Similarly, 28 per cent feel as though they are victimised by a fellow employee, with women more likely to experience problems with a co-worker than men.
Georgina Read, co-managing director of the firm that carried out the investigation, said it is shocking to learn that people are often considered to be overreacting if they make a complaint about bullying.
"All allegations should be taken seriously and investigated, as getting to the root of the problem will create a better workforce and office environment," she explained.
Earlier this month, Mike Petrook, a spokesperson for the Chartered Management Institute, encouraged companies to take advantage of their employees’ transferable skills by engaging them in a range of tasks.
Posted by Cameron Thomson
This is a sad and yet realistic statistic of how people experience each others behaviour in the workplace. To start with I don’t think it is at all useful attributing the labels of bully or perpetrator and victim to the parties involved. To me and many others those labels imply some degree of intent on behalf of the ‘bully’ and susceptibility on behalf of the ‘victim’, which may or may not be the case, that’s not my point. Organisations should be addressing behaviours and the cultures that either promote or reward ‘bullying’ behaviours and yes make them totally unacceptable ways to behave but rather than adopt a punitive and adversarial approach they should be exploring for ways to promote learning conversations in their organisations. This is a subject I’m passionate about and an area I work extensively in and time and time again I’m struck by how these conflicts all begin from a minor misunderstanding and could have been avoided by having the right approach and skills to manage these situations.
I agree with Aled in terms of the original complaint. If you look at some cases that end up at tribunal – all the complainant usually wanted was an apology or for the behaviour to stop. The management and development of a non-discriminatory organisational culture is desireable – but it also requires the appropriate skilling and equipping leaders and managers to recognised and effectively deal with the unacceptable un-professional behaviour.