While there have been multiple articles written about bullies and bullying, few articles have really focused on one type of bully that everyone has had at least some experience with. That is the bully in your place of work.
Anyone who has been a member of the work force for awhile has run into at least one of these bullies. However, unlike the school yard bully work place bullies do not often use threats or violence to achieve their aims. What the do use is manipulation, gossip, and other underhanded methods to make a coworker’s life miserable, and perhaps to end the coworker’s hopes of employment with that company.
The key to dealing with these bullies, is in understanding why they act as they do.
As with most bullies, these work place bullies act out because they suffer from low self esteem. They have a real physiological need to feel superior to someone because inside they lack any feeling of self worth. Seeing a coworker who is competent at their job terrifies these people, because they feel they lack such competence. With today’s economy, their fears are intensified because they are afraid that they will be “discovered” and fired.
So, they defend themselves and their job the only way they know how. By trying to make others look incompetent and lazy, thereby making themselves look more competent.
They use a number of methods to achieve their ends. They report the least little infraction of others to the boss or manager. They make small mistakes by coworkers seem larger than they are, and they also resort to falsehoods when all else fails.
These bullies also use gossip to alienate coworkers from one another. Reporting and misreporting comments is done to cause ill will among the entire work force. They couch these activities in feigned concern for the company and for productivity.
Many times these bullies are believed, at least initially and often become pets of the boss or manager. Confrontations with them only lead to more problems for the worker who is being targeted by the bully.
So, how then do you deal with a work place bully? What can you do if you are a target of such tactics or know others that are being targeted?
The most important and hardest thing you should do, is not let the bully’s actions affect your work product. While it is often hard to maintain a positive outlook while under siege from bullying tactics that is exactly what you have to do. If you have a reputation for being a good worker, maintaining that reputation will make your employer or manager wise up to the bully much faster than if you fall apart and start letting their actions affect your work.
The second thing, is to maintain good relations with your other coworkers. Even if they are being told that you are doing or saying things that upset them, show them by your behavior that this is not the case. By continuing to treat your co workers with friendliness and respect they will begin to doubt the things this bully has said about you and soon they will realize that you are not the source of the problem.
No matter how big or large the business you work for, it does not take long for most employees to realize that every problem seems to lead back to one source. Once they realize that the bully will find themselves isolated from the rest of his or her coworkers. This isolation will eliminate one weapon from the bully’s arsenal and help to render them defenseless.
The best defense against a work place bully is to ignore all the negative behavior, do your job, and keep up a cheerful disposition. Once the bully sees that they can not upset you or through off your ability to work, they will have no option but to seek out another target.
Once they do, you may even be able to work with the bully to overcome some of the negative behaviors they are exhibiting by complimenting them on work well done and other things that will help them build their self esteem and encourage them to pay attention to their own job, instead of trying to negatively affect the jobs of others.
Helping to calm their fears is the best way of stopping the bullying behavior and making the workplace more enjoyable for all concerned.
