Harassment and Bullying

Harassment and bullying in the workplace 

Workplace harassment and bullying is likely to affect staff morale, creativity and productivity, and create an unhealthy workplace culture. It can be subtle or overt, sporadic or sustained.

Harassment can be defined as any unwelcome comment, conduct or gesture that is insulting, intimidating, humiliating, malicious, degrading or offensive. It might be repeated or an isolated incident but it is so significant that it adversely affects someone's performance, contribution or work environment. It can include physical, degrading or threatening behaviour, abuse of power, isolation, discrimination, sexual and/or racial harassment. Harassment is behaviour that is unwanted by the recipient even if the recipient does not tell the harasser that the behaviour is unwanted.

Bullying is ongoing unreasonable behaviour which is often intended to humiliate or undermine the recipient but is not specifically unlawful.

 What are the effects of workplace harassment and bullying?

•  Increased absenteeism due to anxiety, panic attacks, fear, depression, stress and ill-health. 

• Unaddressed stress can often lead to errors at work, injury, fatigue, illness and disease. 
• Reduced performance and productivity caused by isolation, breakdown in work relationships, distraction and low morale. 
• Unhappy, unmotivated staff.
• Increased staff turnover. 
• Increased management time spent investigating and dealing with complaints.
• Unhealthy workplace culture and ongoing conflicts.
• Industrial action.
• Damaged reputation.
• Expensive litigation procedures and negative publicity.

What can you do about workplace harassment and bullying

 Define what harassment and bullying means to your workplace, and communicate it clearly to all staff.

• Introduce a no bullying and harassment policy.
• Take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment occurring.
• Ensure there are no inappropriate posters, calendars, screensavers or other material in the workplace.
• Monitor staff behaviour as this may tell you whether harassment or bullying is occurring. These could include changes in morale, mood, personality, avoidance of particular individuals, patterns of absenteeism, significant drops in performance, isolating from others.
• Create a formal complaints procedure to investigate and prevent offending behaviour.
• Increase awareness of the issue and the procedures in place by displaying posters and pamphlets or including information in newsletters or on the intranet.
• Train managers and staff on their rights, responsibilities and definitions of acceptable behaviour.
• Set up training sessions using a professional organisation with expertise in harassment and bullying prevention training.
• Appoint a support person/mediator (in-house or external consultant) who staff can approach confidentially to discuss any harassment/bullying issues.
• Take all complaints seriously, respond quickly and immediately using the procedures that are in place. Depending on the issue, you may need to use an external mediator or contact the police.
• Be aware that an external police investigation cannot replace an internal disciplinary investigation. 
• Ensure that the agreements made to resolve complaints are kept and followed up.
• Check that the harassment/bullying has stopped.

Can you answer the following questions about your workplace?

•  Do employees feel safe in the workplace?

• Is there an appropriate level of professionalism and respect within the workplace culture?
• Is the workplace's anti-bullying stance discussed in appraisals, reviews, recruitment?
  
• Do employees know who to go to if they want to talk about bullying/harassment issues?
  
• Are the contact people aware of the steps they need to take in response to complaints?

Source:  http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz

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