Beating the office bully
Workplace bullying is on the rise thanks to the effects of the recession, but there are some key self defence tactics employees can use to beat the office bullies, reports Jamie-Natalie Cross.
Reports of workplace bullying have doubled over the past ten years and more than one in three employees have fallen victim to intimidation in the workplace in the past six months, according to figures from public sector union Unison.
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Arm yourself and beware of the "Personnel/HR is neutral" trick.
In my experience, office bullying is far more likely to come from someone in a line management position than anyone else, and the Personnel department sees its role as protecting line management from any sort of complaint, in order to enhance its standing in the eyes of senior management (yes, I know they would argue completely the opposite, but let's be realistic here).
It is therefore important to show Personnel that the possibility of your winning a case at an employment tribunal is unacceptably high for them, without actually appearing to threaten them (people who work in Personnel are extraordinarily insecure and will cut off their nose to spite their face if they suspect you are challenging their power in any way).
I recommend keeping a log of each occurrence of bullying behaviour, which you can present to Personnel if things get too bad. If it comes to an employment tribunal (which hopefully it will not) your credibility will be enhanced enormously if you can produce a list of bullying occurrences with dates, times and witnesses (it is possible, though unlikely, that witnesses will be brave enough to testify against a bullying employer).
Your objective should not be to go to an employment tribunal, but to show your employer the strength of your case should you end up doing so.
Do not present it with an open "Look, I can use this to sue you” attitude" (although this would be your underlying threat), but with an "I would be very grateful if there were anything you could do to help me with a problem I have. Here is a document explaining the issue. I know you have expertise in this area" attitude.
Try to get non-office contact details of witnesses, especially those who leave the company and are therefore more likely to testify at a tribunal, but be careful of revealing your intentions to anyone who may try to reveal these intentions to ingratiate themselves to management. Do not, however, put these contact details on the log you present to Personnel, for obvious reasons.
Bear in mind that your log is not the be all and end all, merely a useful tool. If you do end up going to a tribunal your case will be far stronger if you have attempted to use the company’s internal grievance procedures first, but be sure to keep your own notes of any meetings/communication with Personnel in this regard, including any notes of anything you feel prevents the situation being resolved fairly, particularly any bullying or partisan behaviour by Personnel.
Personnel can be crucial in these situations, and it is very important to massage their egos as much as possible. It will not make them more neutral, but will make them less likely to take against you and get involved in a power struggle.
Also bear in mind that Personnel may well tell you there is nothing wrong with the bully's behaviour. At this point it is important to bear in mind that (i) they are not impartial and cannot be trusted, and (ii) even if they could be trusted, they are not experts; if they were experts they would be professionals (such as lawyers or psychologists).