Workplace bullying was recognised and reported around 1986 by psychologist Heinz Leymann. The solution to work place bullying has been around for a lot longer than that. For anti-bullying advice we can quickly go back to the first printed books to see how our ancestors suggested we stop bullying.
Deliberate bullying by one person toward another to obtain a benefit from a power relationship was recognised in the bible. There, the simple solution is the same as today. You should ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’ (Luke 6:31). Retaliatory bullying resulting from those victims of bullying fighting back was also recognised. The message to the victim, similar to that for the bully, is that you should ‘Love your enemies’ (Luke 6:27). You have an obligation to prevent your own workplace bullying injury, without risking others including bullies, under Work Health and Safety (WHS) law. When it comes to spectators of bullying, there are no innocent bystanders. Under WHS law we all have a responsibility to prevent physical and psychological bullying injury occurring in the workplace. But this is nothing new, because we already know that ‘Evil prevails when good people fail to act’ (Edmund Burke 1729-1797). If you see something wrong, you should do something about it.
For performance management of underperforming staff, you must choose your battles wisely. If you threaten disciplinary action and don’t follow through with it, you could cause physical and psychological bullying injury to occur through prolonged harassment. This is particularly true if you persist on disciplining staff when you probably should be terminating their employment under your performance management procedures, retrained them or changing their duties. The question you should ask yourself at the outset is whether the poor performance is so serious to reasonably require you to follow your performance management process through to termination. If not, then you probably should have considered alternatives to disciplinary action in the beginning. Before this problem was ever recognised, the solution was already discussed in the words ‘Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference’ (Reinhold Niebuhr 1892-1971).
Workplace bullying can be stopped by regulations which kick in before repeated unreasonable behaviour is persistent over time. It can be stopped before that by organisational policies stopping unreasonable behaviour before it is repeated. But it can also be stopped before that through ethical leadership using emotional awareness and conflict management to encourage a culture of reasonable behaviour causing harm to no one. Don’t underestimate the power of respectful responsible kindness to contribute to a better future by stopping workplace bullying and the devastating injury it causes.
Kevin Gilmore-Burrell LLB MBA
© Empathyse ™ Anti-bullying Consulting 2019
