It’s often found that bullies reside in the playground but sadly, those bullies can also exist in our adulthood, within the workplace.
There’s nothing big or cool about being a bully, yet some people choose to take that route when it comes to treating others. Whether they do it for fun or due to some deep-set insecurities, it’s never okay to make someone else feel insignificant or threatened.
With that being said, if you’re faced with bullying within the workplace, here’s how to deal with them.
Look at your company’s policy on workplace behaviors
It’s useful to take a look at the company’s policy when it comes to workplace behaviors. All companies should have policies when it comes to navigating the working environment and this often comes under the equalities section of a workplace policy.
Bullying of any kind shouldn’t be allowed in the workplace and if you’re able to locate this on your company’s policy, then you’ll have some backing to help you when it’s needed. If they don’t have any mention of bullying in the workplace, then this policy clearly needs updating!
Keep any evidence of the bullying
Evidence of bullying is always useful to have, not only just with accounts from yourself on what happened, but times and dates of when it happened. If the business has CCTV, then chances are, they’ll be able to catch this bullying in the act.
If not, then it at least can trigger the memories of others within the environment, particularly if they may have witnessed the bullying itself.
Make management and HR aware
When bullying occurs, it’s not always the fault of management and HR. After all, they can’t always be aware 100% of the time, of the inner goings on of the business. Therefore, they often rely on employees coming forward when problems within the workplace occur.
With bullying, if you’re experiencing it, the sooner you can let both management and HR know, the better. If management is the bully, then go straight to HR.
Consider legal help outside of the workplace
There may be occasions where there are bullies in both management and HR, making it difficult to bring it to light without being silenced by those individuals.
Therefore, you might want to consider getting legal help outside of the workplace. There’s a lot of legal help for workers’ compensation claims, this includes those who have experienced mental health problems rather than just physical abuse.
Stand your ground and gather support in-house
Bullies are never the ones that should win. Of course, if you need to take time off for the mental impact it’s had on yourself, then by all means, take that time off. However, you should never feel like you need to be pushed out of a company or job over bullying claims. This is particularly challenging in some cases but that’s where it’s worth gathering the support of your peers.
Dealing with bullies is something you definitely should be confident in tackling when it happens, so make sure you remember this knowledge, should you ever need it.
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