Bullying is not a new concept. People face several bullying experiences in their lives that may start from childhood and ends with the graveyard. The word “bully” was first used in the 1530s, meaning “sweetheart.” The meaning deteriorated through the 17th century through “fine fellow” to “harasser of the weak.” It was originally called ‘mobbing’ in Sweden by the international pioneer, Heinz Leymann. The British reporter advocate Andrea Adams coined the term workplace bullying.
Usually bullying refers to behavior that intimidates, degrades, offends, or humiliates a worker, often in front of others. Bullying behavior creates feelings of defenselessness in the target and undermines an individual’s right to dignity at work. It involves repeated attacks against the target, creating an on-going pattern of behavior. Typically bullying takes place in privately without witnesses. That’s why; sometimes it is difficult to prove by the victims.
Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), U.S.A has defined workplace bullying as repeated, health-harming mistreatment by one or more employees of an employee: abusive conduct that takes the form of verbal abuse; or behaviors perceived as threatening, intimidating, or humiliating; work sabotage; or in some combination of the above.
According to the 2024 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey Report, nearly one-third of adult Americans (32%) said they directly experienced abusive conduct at work, either currently or at some time in their work life, 52 million workers bullied; 74.8 million affected; 116.7 million aware of bullying at work; bullying of women & men by men & women 71% and 29% respectively; 59% of bullying is same-gender bullying, and 87% of Americans support a workplace bullying law. Many bullying situations involve employees bullying their peers rather than a supervisor. WBI report depicts during 2024, 55% bullying conducted by the Bosses, 29% by the Coworkers, 10% by the Bottom-up and the remaining 6% by the combination. But in fact, there is no such type of research Institute like WBI and result available in Bangladesh and even the issue often remains unaddressed, leaving countless employees to suffer in silence. Under bullying situation, the victim is known as bullied and the doer is known as bully. Bullies are usually very much cleverer in their tactics. They tend to focus on the psychological superiority feels over the victim and always force others to comply with his will. If anybody wants to resist them and they attack like an ill-bred pit bull.
Bullying at the workplace can take shape in many forms. The most common ways includes invalid criticism, blame without factual justification, being treated differently than the rest of work group, exclusion or social isolation, being shouted at or being humiliated, being the target of practical jokes, excessive monitoring, withholding information or deliberately giving wrong information on an assignment, giving impossible deadlines and setting one up to fail.
Factors that increase the risk for bullying behavior in workplace include work systems (e.g., lack of policies about behavior, staff shortages, interpersonal conflict, role ambiguity), workplace relationships (e.g., inadequate information flow between organizational levels, lack of employee participation in decisions, jealousy, hostility, group pressure and stress, unfair competition, unrealistic feeling of power), worker characteristics (e.g., age, gender, apprentice or trainee), and significant organizational change (i.e., major internal restructuring, technological change).
In maximum times workplace bullying involves a misuse of power. It is a serious threat to the physical safety and mental well-being of employees of any organization. Victims of bullying experience significant physical and mental health problems like high stress; post-traumatic stress disorder, financial problems due to absence, reduced self-esteem, phobias, sleep disturbances, increased depression and digestive problems. Sometimes it influences even to commit suicide.
Bullying is not only affected employees but also to any organization. A significant portion of employees leave jobs due to workplace bullying, with figures ranging from around 20% to over 30% and recent reports suggesting over 50% have left or considered leaving. Among others adverse effect, the common are costs of replacing staff members that leave as a result of being bullied, work effort being displaced as staff cope with bullying incidents and costs associated with investigations of ill treatment and potential legal action. Approximately $250 million is lost every year due to workplace bullying. In a workplace bullying environment may mean that employees will fail to contribute their best work, do not give extra ideas for improvement, do not provide feedback on failures and may be less honest about performance. In a nutshell, workplace bulling negatively affects corporate image and reputation.
Failure to prevent such incidents in the workplace hampers an employee’s ability to work effectively and efficiently. In order to stop workplace bullying, each organization needs to introduce a zero tolerance anti-bullying policy. Hold awareness campaigns on a regular basis for everyone on what bullying is. Encourage reporting. A grievance management committee headed by the Head of Human Resources Division can play a vital role to handle any complaint regarding workplace bullying. Each entity should have a demonstrated commitment “from the top” about what is and is not acceptable behavior. The issue also need to address in Bangladesh Labor Act to ensure overall compliance.
