Workplace bullying.

Abstract

W hile doing the research for the earlier column on incivility, there was a very surprising result. A number of books and articles on bullying showed up in the search. Bullying is in the news frequently, but usually in the context of school bullies and the horror this causes for the bullied, so much so that we read of suicides and deadly retaliation by the bullied. But bullying in the workplace? With our colleagues who we work with daily, who share the same strategic goals with us? The answer unfortunately is yes; workplace bullying is a significant problem. Possibly the reader can visualize instances in meetings when a colleague was overly dismissive, humiliated another, sabotaged work or working relationships, or threatened, or otherwise pushed others around for their own gain or pleasure. Some of us may have been the bullied—the one who is on the receiving end of the destructive behavior. Or, we have been the bystanders, watching as the bully degrades the bullied. Bullying is nothing new. Watch old movies or read early books and you can spot the bully in them. It is no stretch to call Bill Sikes a bully in Oliver Twist3 or the Emir of Daibul in the movie Sinbad the Sailor4 as a despotic bully. Yet, the study of bullies seems to be more recent with interest beginning in Europe in the 1980s and reporting beginning in the 1990s. While we hear more about school bullies, workplace bullying has become an active research front and a difficult reality for a significant number of people. The statistics noted in some of the articles is staggering and the career, health, and personal problems that follow are serious. Unlike the dénouement of our book and movie examples, many of the workplace bullying situations do not have happy endings unless action is taken. There are a number of resources that can help understand and correct the problem.