¶ … Practice & Critical Thinking Harassment & Bullying in the Workplace

Many people are familiar with bullying in schools and other places where children and young adults spend time, but workplaces are becoming increasingly toxic places where bullies feel they can harass and intimidate other workers (Barnes, 2012). Now that bullying problems have begun to take place in the workplace so frequently, the issue is coming to light and more must be done about it. A recent bullying situation took place at my workplace, but I was not the one being bullied. Unfortunately, the person on the receiving end of the bullying is not good at standing up for herself, so she gets bullied quite a bit. She is overweight, which contributes to the jokes and giggles that happen around her. She is a very kind and generous person, though, and it is a shame the other workers fail to see that. All they see is her size, and the fact that she is quiet and shy seems to mean they can abuse and mistreat her because she will not say anything back to them.

This may lead her to quit her job, which would be a hardship for our department. She does more than her share and is always very helpful if any of the rest of us get behind with our work, despite the way some people treat her. We have talked to the boss about the issue, but he does not seem to think it is really a problem. He said he will keep an eye on the situation, but he does not do anything to remedy it. At one point, we saw him laughing in the break room with some of the bullies shortly after a group of us talked to him about the problem, but there was no way to be sure they were laughing about the issue or the girl who is being bullied. We could encourage the girl to lose weight, but that is really not the issue and not the main topic that should be discussed in this situation. The actual issue is that people should not be mistreated that way for any reason.

If the boss will not do anything about it, there is little else the other workers who are not bullies can do. People are so fearful for their jobs anymore that they are not willing to stand up for others out of fear they might end up fired or otherwise punished. It should not be that way, but it is. Bullying culture has become firmly entrenched in the workplace (Field, 2010; Oade, 2009). Most of the people who bully at work were bullies in school and in other areas of their life, as well (Bell, 2005). Once they leave the school environment, they do not "grow out of" bullying other people. There is not much that can be done about these bullies unless someone in authority is willing to "call them out" on their behavior. If the boss is willing or able to do this, that may correct the problem. However, many bullies say they will stop when confronted, but instead they just find more creative ways to be bullies and not get caught doing so (Hornstein, 1996; Oade, 2009).

With that in mind, even getting the boss to say something to the bullies can be a tricky situation. Over the course of the seven months the bullied girl has worked with us, we have been to the boss individually or as a group three times. Each time the boss has promised to look into the matter, but each time he has done nothing. When pressed, he will just say that he has not seen the behavior, or that he asked the bullies about the behavior and they denied it. Now that we have been to him three times, we are all nervous about approaching him again, even though the bullying continues. It is clear that many of the people there do not want "the fat girl" working with them, and also clear that the boss is not going to do anything to make the girl feel safer or force the bullies to act in a professional manner. Those of us who are concerned about the issue are fearful of losing our jobs if we continue to say something, and concerned that we will be seen as the troublemakers in the situation. That is making the workplace difficult for everyone, not just the bullied girl.

The situation is now having a serious impact on the way work gets done in...

We know she is being bullied and harassed, and we want to talk to her about it, but it is not a comfortable topic for discussion. No one really seems to know what to say, which is very unfortunate for everyone in the situation. It is even sad for the bullies. In some ways I feel very sorry for them, because they must have terrible lives that they think it is acceptable to treat people that way. I fail to understand how they can take any joy from causing misery to another person, but I guess that is why I have never been a bully. Because the situation has not improved and it is making many of us uncomfortable, I am not sure what will happen to our department. My assumption is that the bullied girl will quit, and the bullies will either be quiet or simply find another target. Anyone who does not "fit in" with the bullies in the group could be their focus next, and I do not know who that will be.
It is possible it could even be me or one of my other coworkers, since the bullies know we do not help them bully the other girl. There are several aspects of our company and department that have contributed to the situation. I wish it was an isolated incident, but it has become a serious situation that will be even more difficult to correct because it has been allowed to go on for a long period of time now. Research shows that bullies often act out and mistreat or harass others because they have been mistreated (Barnes, 2012; Bell, 2005). Additionally, some people bully because they are very narcissistic or sociopathic by nature, and they do not have any real empathy for anyone else (Oade, 2009). These people feel as though the world revolves around them, and the feelings of others do not matter in any capacity (Oade, 2009). If they perceive someone as being weak (because that person is shy, does not speak out, etc.), they will "attack" that person to tear them down.

No matter what the personal reason for someone bullying someone else, though, the main reason it happens in our particular workplace and department is because the boss does nothing to stop it. He seems to be "one of them" when it comes to the bullies, and appears to side with them (or at least look the other way) more often than not. I do not understand why this is, but I have observed it happening quite a bit. My other coworkers who are not bullies have also seen it happen. One of them has worked at the company for 12 years, and he agrees that the bullying culture has always been a part of the workplace. However, he also stated that it has gotten worse in recent years. What used to be some good-natured and generally harmless teasing that occasionally got out of hand is now hostility and thinly-veiled threats, which is not the same thing. It is alarming that the culture of bullying is continuing to grow in the workplace, but this has been the case for years. It appears as though the level of bullying in most workplaces is only getting stronger (Barnes, 2012).

While this may weed out some people who are not cut out for a particular job, it is also highly detrimental to mental and physical health (Field, 2010). The boss is not the only problem, however. The set-up of the department from a physical standpoint is also to blame. People have cubicles, but they are hooked to one another and formed into cubes. So there are four people who all sit essentially facing one another with only short, thin walls between their desks. While they cannot see one another, sound carries very easily. That makes it all too easy for people to make remarks and then insist they were on the phone, just talking out loud about something else, or commenting on something they saw on the computer. There are endless excuses that are created every day for why something rude or inappropriate was said. Since the person who is doing the bullying did not make a comment directly to the person being bullied, it is very difficult to prove that bullying of that person was indeed the intention.

Despite this,…