Mar 1, 2016

How to Deal with Bullying at Work

Toxic emotions at work can grow under your skin without you noticing. One insult here, another critic there, and you find yourself emotionally hurt. Problems and disagreements may be created, but there’s a difference between having a bad day at the office and being bullied at work. Countless instances of psychological harassment have taken place in working environments. So, let’s draw the curtains and look behind the scenes.

How toxic emotions grow on you

It starts with a small argument or conflict, and becomes more intense as time goes by.Emotional harassment escalates over a long period of time. It’s a form of psychological warfare since it doesn’t involve physical violence, but the more subtle forms of verbal assault or lack of communication. A few examples might be:

— Sabotaging or obstructing your work

— Threatening your position, status or salary

— Leaving you out of important conversations related to work

— Failing to brief you on time

— Having hostile behavior towards you

— Communicating in an unethical way

Who is bullying who

There may be multiple parties involved in these situations. There are the offenders, the victim and potentially a mediator who attempts to play peacemaker in the situation. This is a very delicate task and is often avoided; since co-workers who see what’s happening might be afraid that they’ll be victimized too if they get involved. So, it’s often one person’s word against the other’s.

Often times, it’s someone with more power in the office who has the ability to get away with treating someone below them on the company hierarchy unfairly. They know they have the upper hand, and take advantage of it to make life at work more difficult for others for their own personal gain. Toxic emotions have terrible repercussions to self-confidence and productivity, because it distracts people from concentrating or simply knowing that their efforts will be recognized.

Courses of action

The first step is to acknowledge that there is a problem. The second step is to take control. Is any of the following possible?

— Talk to someone you can trust in the company

— Move to another department inside the company

— Get professional help

— Find another job

At times, simply being more vocal and communicative can help alleviate the problem. If all else fails, attempt to do what is necessary to distance yourself from the situation. In the end, we cannot control the way others act, but we can always control which people we allow into our inner circles.

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