How to Heal the Workplace After Bullying Occurs

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When you are a manager or supervisor and your notice that your employees are taking a lot of sick time off or they are invoking the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) if applicable, you may want to evaluate what is going on in the workplace. It’s one thing for an employee to take time off because they have a cold or they injured themselves, but it can become a serious matter if the employee is being bullied or discriminated at their job and they are avoiding your company.

Pay attention to the signs. While bullying in the workplace is not illegal, harassment discrimination is unlawful according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

If you notice that your stellar employee is now cowering or missing a lot of work—they may be experiencing bullying by a co-worker or supervisor. The bully is often insecure unless they are a narcissist or a psychopath. They view the victim as an easy target because they may be well respected, intelligent, and a team player.

The bully will often attack the victim in devious ways. The harasser may sabotage the victim’s work and make them look incompetent. They may get others to gang up on the victim. Bullied employees may not have the best coping skills, or they may be traumatized by their past events. You do not want to lose your best employees!

Take action.

Evaluate what is happening in your workplace. It is essential to document the situation because you may need to prove that you did your best to mitigate a hostile work environment and reduce the possibility of a litigation case. Take to heart what the victim tells you. Depending on what statistics you look up on the internet—workplace bullying is a serious matter.

It may behoove you to offer the victim the opportunity to receive professional care. Be willing to pay for this care and consider bringing in a professional coach or a mentor to bring about positive change in the work culture.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) secured $398 million for victims in the private sector and state and local government workplaces through voluntary resolutions and litigation during the fiscal year of 2017. Do you want this kind of negative stigma?

The cost of helping your employees will nearly always be cheaper than the price of a lawsuit. Scrutinize the value in rehabilitating the employee who is bullying other people. Are they worth the investment of bringing in a coach or sending them to get professional care?

If the bully is not worth the cost of rehabilitation—take appropriate action to dismiss the bully from the job if the matter is a serious one. Be sure you have documented the bully’s actions and behavior, adding in the harm to your employees and the work environment in this documentation.

Did the bully violate the companies’ mission or vision statements? Always seek guidance from HR and possibly, legal counsel. Productive, safe, and healthy work environments are ones in which the leader does not tolerate harassment or discrimination in the company. While you will never be able to stop all bullying, you can lessen the harm it creates in your work culture.

If you want loyalty from your employees—you have to engage with them. The Achievers 2015 Workforce Survey asked respondents to identify their level of connection with core engagement factors, such as their company’s mission, their perceptions of and experience with recognition at work, and their workplace culture. The results for the North American workforce survey show that employee outlook on engagement is split right down the middle — while less than half of the workforce are passionate about their company’s mission, the other, bigger, portion (58%) don’t find the mission inspiring at all.

Ensure your company’s mission includes taking care of your employees. Managers—take quick and responsive action to correct behavior that is of a harassing nature. Employees will often become more loyal to managers and leaders they respect.

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