Bullying out of place at work
Ask Kate Column:I have been receiving curly questions about coping with bullying. I have answered each person individually as the cases are too detailed to share here. Here is some information that hopefully will help anyone being bullied at work.
Sadly you are not alone. CareerOne just did a survey on this topic and two-thirds of respondents had experienced bullying at work.
Please see your GP before the ill-effects of bullying take hold. Too many people wait until they cannot sleep, eat or are overeating, or hitting the bottle before they seek help.
You are not weak. Highly successful and outgoing people can be targeted by bullies just as easily as shy people.
Do keep a diary and focus on the behaviours you are witnessing. If you report matters to your manager-or HR if it is your manager doing the bullying-then use the diary and be as dispassionate as possible.
I realise bullying hurts. HR’s role is to assess the risks posed to your employer—including the risk of you taking legal action-so stick to the facts and don’t over-share personal information from your life outside of work.
I am afraid many employers handle bullying poorly and can even gang up on the target (the word victim is outdated).
I interviewed two workplace safety experts on this topic so email me if you want the resulting article. I would also be very happy to send it to HR people and managers.
Bullying targets have to be their own best advocate. Read about workplace bullying at www.beyondbullying.com.au.
There is also a public discussion, Workplace bullying: A serious and growing occupational hazard, to be held at the Gaelic Club in Sydney on May 8 so clip this article. I hope people interested in being good managers go along as well as people who have experienced bullying.
Bullying should be seen as a hard-core business issue. It costs employers billions of dollars a year and costs good people who could have stayed in their jobs. It is not a soft issue about personality clashes or playground antics. It deserves greater attention.
I have written a blog on bullying so people can vent and swap tips so please use it http://blogs.news.com.au/cubefarmer/index.php
Women’s Issues
The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency publishes an annual list of employers who make its female-friendly list.
This is a great job-hunting research tool whether you are male or female—particularly for graduates. You will find a story and useful links in the Women at
Work section of New & Advice on CareerOne.com.au.
Visit Ask Kate for more information.
