Your local Colchester Solicitors, John Fowlers, shares advice on how to deal with bullying in the workplace along with understanding employment law.
You should be able to feel comfortable in the workplace and harassment of any nature can have a detrimental effect on your enjoyment of your job. Many different cases of workplace bullying go unreported or misunderstood, and as a victim, it can be hard to know how to deal with it. Here we are going to share with you some tips on how best to deal with bullying in the workplace.
What is bullying in the workplace?
Bullying comes in various shapes and forms and on numerous levels. It can come from any colleague, whether that's one of superiority, a co-worker or anyone else in or around the organisation.
Here are some examples and warning signs of bullying at work:
- Denying employee access to resources, assignments, projects or opportunities
- Little or no feedback on performance
- Threatening job loss
- Excessive monitoring or micro-management
- Interference or sabotage
- Treated differently than peers and co-workers
- Inequitable and harsh treatment
- Invalid or baseless criticism, faultfinding, and unwarranted blame
- Being insulted, or purposeful rudeness and embarrassment
- Sexual harassment and advances
This kind of behaviour needs to be repetitive to rise to the level of a hostile work environment. Bullying in the workplace isn't just face-to-face communications it can includeemail, telephone or text message. Our team can help support you and provide you with further understanding of employment law in Colchester.
How to deal with bullying the correct way?
It's wise to keep a diary of every incident that occurs. The more incidents you record, the stronger your evidence will be to portray the bullying you're experiencing.
Speak to the person who is guilty of bullying in the workplace. They may not realise how their actions are making you feel and will change their behaviour as a result of this.
If speaking to them isn't an option, plan a meeting with your boss or the Human Resources (HR) team about how you're feeling, highlighting the persistence of the bullies actions towards you.
Employers have a duty of care towards their employees and are responsible for preventing bullying in the workplace. If no action is taken once you've spoken about your bullying experience, you may want to turn to formal help. Our employment law solicitors in Colchester will be able to advise and assist you.