Tips for Dealing with Harassment and Bullying at the Workplace
Bullying and harassment are common occurrences at workplace making life miserable for the employees after being tortured to extreme levels. It is absolutely necessary to assort strict measures to curb these practices in the office to protect the people at work. Here are some tips to tackle the situations if someone crosses the limit.
Understanding the Bullying Actions
Simple disagreement or a performance related discussions may not always be bullying. The bullying is more of an intentional trait directed to bother victim due to a sense of insecurity or any other reason. The bullying behaviors may include passing disrespectful comments, continuous criticism, shouting, purposely bothering an employee with unjustified workload, keeping crucial information under covers, eliminating the person from important meetings and other gestures.
Assorting Steps against Bullying and Harassment
Raising Voices: The initial step to stop the bully is to raise a voice by speaking short warnings like ‘stop talking’; ‘let me finish my work’ etc. Do not hurl counter insults or say bad words as it can worsen your position. Maintaining proper behavior and state of mind is extremely important.
Record of Bullying Events: Even after the warning and protests the bullying continues, it is worth maintaining a record of all the incidents in detail. The record must contain the name of the tormentor, type of bullying, location, time, date, and the names of other people present during the incident.
Gather Witnesses: Talk to people who are generally present during the incidents of repeated bullying. If they agree to support you, take the words from them in writing for further references. The employees sitting near your desk or having the same working hours as yours can have the better knowledge and can help in this issue.
Take Up the Issue with the Higher Authorities: You can present the written facts, evidences and others to the HR representative and explain the situation. You may need to complete some paper work with the HR management. If the person is from the HR department, then talk to someone who is even superior to the person in designation and so on.
Seeking Alternatives: In case, the higher authorities do not assort strict measures and the situations persist you may consider filing a legal suit. There are other alternatives to assort as well. If you do not want to go through such measures, consider other options like working from home, taking a transfer, switching job etc.
Relaxation: During the aftermath of the incidents and once the things are over; do not let these things bother your mind all the time. Try to relax your mind and the body, have fun, listen to music, practice meditation and have some sound sleep to overcome the trauma.
It is very important to assort to strict measures to curb the problems of workplace harassment and bullying. Under no circumstances should the victim keep silent on these matters as it only serves as an encouragement for the people trying to cause these problems. It is necessary for the victim to understand that he or she is not responsible for the unpleasant incidents.