Don't Let the Bullies Get You Down!

Strategies to Effectively Cope with Workplace Bullies!

Instant Access, Video-Training Course

 

Have you:

• Been threatened, humiliated, intimidated, or verbally abused at work?
  OR.....

• Had someone sabotage your work, withhold important information, or exclude you from conversations or meetings? OR....

• Observed a co-worker being on the receiving end of any of these behaviors? OR....

• Felt that you had to protect your staff from a superior who was asking you to treat your own team members in a negative way? OR....

• Tried to buffer your team from the effects of a hostile organizational culture?

 

If so, you are not alone!  Workplace bullying in the U.S. is officially an epidemic!

 

According to the Workplace Bullying Institute: 

 

• The 2014 national survey indicates that 65 million workers in the U.S. are affected by workplace bullying, which is equivalent to the combined populations of 15 states. This number includes those who have experienced direct bullying and those who have vicariously experienced it by witnessing it.  The witnesses experience the same severity of emotional injury as the injuries suffered by bullied individuals.   

 

• Workplace bullying is defined as repeated mistreatment or abusive conduct that is:  threatening, humiliating, or intimidating; work sabotage; or verbal abuse. The closest analogy to workplace bullying is domestic violence, with bullying being a non-physical form of workplace violence.  (Workplace Bullying Institute, 2014)

 

• Although male bosses are more likely to be the bully, targeting both men and women, female bullies target other women more frequently (68%).  

 

• Unfortunately, targets lose their jobs at a much higher rate than perpetrators (82% to 18%).  This is particularly true when the bullies are women, with their female targets losing their jobs 89% of the time.  
   

• Sadly enough, 38% of co-workers did nothing to stop abusive treatment of their peers.  And even worse, an additional 11% contributed to the abusive behavior by isolating or ostracizing the target from the group or siding with the perpetrator.
   

• There is no state or federal law yet enacted to compel U.S. employers to address abusive conduct that occurs outside the limited definitions of illegal discriminatory actions. Therefore, in the absence of legal prohibitions against it, employers are failing to take responsibility for its prevention and correction.  In fact, 72% of employers deny, discount, encourage, rationalize, or defend it.

 

Workplace bullies use abusive behavior to gain or maintain power, control, or status.  Therefore, contrary to popular myth, the typical target of a workplace bully is not the person perceived as the "weakest link" on the team.  Quite the opposite......the target is usually the person who is perceived to be the greatest threat to the bully.  

 

So, if you are a target in your organization, congratulations!  You are perceived as a powerful threat!  But, the question is.....what to do about it??