Workplace Bullying
Bullying is a problem that we often hear discussed in schools and by children. Today we discuss the less popular topic of workplace bullying.
The latest research shows that bosses aren’t stepping in early enough to deal with office bullying. Bullies often feel justified in flying off the handle and treating co-workers with contempt because they believe they’re dealing with incompetent or lazy people.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, is well known for his foul mouthed aggressive antics in his workplace. Ramsay attributes his silver tongue to so-called “Muppets”.
“I don’t mean to swear, it’s just the muppets I have to work with sometimes,” he told Channel 9 last week when responding to complaints about his swearing.
“We have a good day where things run to total perfection but throw a donkey in the mix and, yeah, you’re in the sh*t.”
Macquarie University psychologist Dr Julie Fitness says yelling, screaming and using anger to get across your message won’t help anyone’s performance, regardless of whether you think your colleague is doing a less than average job. Communication breakdown
Workplace anger varied depending on whether someone was a boss or a subordinate.
“Employers reported they most often got angry at what they perceived to be incompetence, or the stupidity, or the laziness of people beneath them,” Dr Fitness said.
But employees often have a very different view of the situation.
“What people reported made them feel really angry was when they believed they were being unfairly attacked and humiliated and treated really badly by their employers.
““They often felt very aggrieved and felt like they weren’t listened to - and that the employer often didn’t really care about their point of view.”
Bosses need to act
In most situations, if someone’s giving you grief, your first port of call in trying to sort it out is a chat with your boss. But you can’t always rely on the boss to sort it out for you.
“When you talk to people about their experiences in the workplace, there’s such a lot of intimidation and bullying that goes on that is not nipped in the bud,” Dr Fitness said.
“There are workplaces where people feel that it’s acceptable that certain people can lose their temper - and abuse other people, and it’s put down to ‘that’s just the way they work’.”Dr Fitness said the key to dealing with workplace anger was taking a step back and exercising some empathy, rather than flying off the handle.
“If you’re angry, or you perceive that somebody’s incompetent or stupid, it’s quick and easy to yell at somebody and swear at them or give them a piece of your mind, but that’s not how you resolve situations or help people improve their performance,” she said.
“You actually need to be a little bit more patient than that and you need to listen to their side of the story.”
“It’s just so easy if you have the power in the workplace, to feel that you can go around and express your anger and expect people to do what you want,” she said.
“But you may be generating a lot of simmering resentment in people who don’t feel they’ve been listened to.”
Ramsays Response
Ramsay tends to disagree with suggestions a workplace should be a calm, assertive environment.
“The minute you start running the kitchen like it’s some form of limp d*** society, trust me, get out,” he said.
“I want to run a proper kitchen with a pair of bollocks, not stand there and wish everybody a Merry Christmas and pat them on the back every time they do a good job.
“It’s high pressure, high energy and, more importantly, real - that’s how we keep it every day,” he told Channel 9.
Information taken from News.com.au
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:32 am
Great post. Workplace bullying is not dealt with as well here in the U.S. as in some other countries. I have a blog dedicated to this complicated issue. I would like to see more open dialogue on it. You might find some of my links interesting. Regards.