Banish workplace bullies

| November 23, 2010

It’s a multi-billion dollar problem that affects more than half of Australia’s workforce. Find out how barrister Peter Gorman is acting to stamp out workplace bullying, and how you can make sure it doesn’t set foot in your organisation.

Gorman has worked with the law for more than 5 decades – first as a uniform policeman, and then detective before moving to the bar.

In that time he’s seen plenty of bad behaviour.

But harassment in the workplace has been his driving focus in recent years, which he defines as “inappropriate behaviour which tends to vilify, embarrass or hurt another person, and is repeated.”

“It can be demeaning colleagues, dressing them down in front of others or making snide remarks about them. There are some remarkable cases of women being bullied because they have the wrong dress on or the wrong type of shoes,” Gorman says.

Occupational harassment is not limited to emotionally targeted attacks.

 “It may be giving people too much work to do, knowing full-well it’s beyond their capability or beyond their ability in time to complete it.”

 “There was a famous case involving a large organisation in Queensland where a man was being bullied because he was a whistleblower. They promoted him to a desk with no phone and he got no work, and that caused him to have a nervous breakdown,” Gorman says.

What it costs

Earlier this year the Productivity Commission estimated workplace bullying and harassment costs the economy nearly $15 billion a year.  

Much of the financial burden relates to loss of productivity, increased absenteeism and workers compensation costs.

“The University of New England did a survey recently and claimed as many as 60 per cent of people in the workplace are bullied,” Gorman says.

He says the psychological damage inflicted by abuse tends to be so profound that even after a matter has been dealt with effectively, individuals are unlikely to return to work.

“The problem I’ve seen with a lot of people that go through workers compensation is that they seldom, if ever, go back to work. (Psychologically) they are beyond being repaired so as they can go back to work.”

“From my experience, I think it would be as high as 80 per cent of people don’t recover. Unless you catch it very early, and get very early psychological intervention, an awful lot of people don’t recover,” Gorman says.  

Combat the problem

Gorman says individuals often display physical symptoms such as skin disorders and ulcers in response to bullying.

Other warning signs include a spike in absenteeism or regularly going to the doctor during work hours.

“People who have a pattern of attempting to change positions without giving a valid reason. That is, they say instead of being in OH&S, I want to be in HR, but without giving a reason why,” Gorman says.

He says management must be approachable and ensure appropriate structures to weed out the problem are in place.

“There has to be a condition of the workplace that confidentiality is going to be respected, for example through a suggestion box. Employees ought to be able to trust their supervisors to report difficulties to.”

“Managers must also stay in touch with their own internal policies. Make sure everyone understands it, and refresh it regularly,” Gorman says.

What can individuals do if they are being harassed at work?

“Write it down. Write down what happened, when and who was there. Say the manager comes in and dresses down a person, as soon as that stops, the person who has been bullied should obtain the names of all the people that were there, tell them why they are doing it and make a complaint.”

Take action

From January 2012 a new national OH&S regime will come into force.

While it’s unclear how the Act will apply, Gorman says people who are bullied should be aware of the range of remedies currently available to them.

“You can get claims for breach of contract, negligence or breach of statutory terms of contract. There’s workers compensation, or claims for compensation for sexual harassment and unlawful discrimination.”

But Gorman urges aggrieved workers to act quickly.

 “People who are harassed in the workplace are only given 21 days to start an action for a constructive dismissal. Things like that cause great difficulty for people and they’re very hard to get over,” he says.

For more: Bullying in the Workplace

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