Online Bullying / At Work

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What about when people do this in the workpace, there should be a law to stop that as well.

This has happend to me and a lot of the time there only one couse of action to resign.

That mean the bully has won but at least you do not feel like you don't want to got to work in the morning.
 
Location
Edinburgh
If your place of work is anything like mine you will have a procedure to escalate it. Either through your line manager, or if s(he) is the bully, then through the next manager up. If in doubt, talk to your HR department, they should be able to work out a way forward to resolve it.
 

Noodley

Guest
Hi Iron Fist good to see you back :sad:

Sorry to hear of the circumstances prompting your return :thumbsup: There should be policies in your workplace to deal with bullying. I am currently in the process of trying to deal with a workplace bully who has been targetting people who I line manage over a period of time - it has taken me over two years to get some action taken, one of the issues being that those being bullied do not want to make a fuss as they feel it will make matters worse (an understandable position and one which has taken me all that time to work through with them), another being that bullies are good at playing the victim and trying to gather allies.

Hope you get it sorted out.
 

Wigsie

Nincompoop
Location
Kent
Touche said:
If your place of work is anything like mine you will have a procedure to escalate it. Either through your line manager, or if s(he) is the bully, then through the next manager up. If in doubt, talk to your HR department, they should be able to work out a way forward to resolve it.

Out of 7 companies I have worked for only 1 has had this type of thing in place, thats because they employed 4,000 people in the UK. Every other company has been small 20-50 employee businesses and there whas never even an HR department. Sometimes if you don't take records and have 100% proof you are screwed, even then it is likely to have a negative impact and ruin your career.

Sorry to be pessamistic, just talking from my experience of smaller businesses.
 
Location
Edinburgh
Fair enough Wigsie, I have only worked for the big boys and they all have worked like this. I hadn't considered how smaller companies may differ, but I can see that things may need a different approach though I wouldn't know where to start.
 

Bandini

Guest
My God. I am astounded that this goes on amongst adults at a place of work. Completely unacceptable. It seems like perhaps being one step removed from the victim makes it somehow OK.
 

Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
I'm always surprised to hear about this sort of thing at the workplace too. It never happened to me in 18 years as a computer programmer. All my bosses were fine and any sort of bullying would not have been acceptable.
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
A pal of mine is currently suffering from stress and is on medication as a direct result of workplace bullying in a computer department in a large university. His line manager is the bully and my pal has been undermined for the past few years and under restructuring was singled out for a substantial downwards regrading and pay cut of around 20%.

Grievance procedures have been initiated but the stress of seeing them through is adding to his woes.

Workplace bullying is more common than one might think - the victims rarely kick up a fuss as they mistakenly believe that this will make matters worse.
 

Bandini

Guest
vernon said:
Workplace bullying is more common than one might think - the victims rarely kick up a fuss as they mistakenly believe that this will make matters worse.

What a horrible thought. The stress of work AND being harassed. I think that if this is common place there really should be a determined effort to get rid of it. And this isn't political-correctness-blah-blah. Banter is fun - equals ribbing each other. But to pick on someone to brighten up your day...actually, when you think about it - it is probably partly due to the relentless monotony of some jobs.

To think that some people suffer a few years of hell at school is awful - to think that this could last a life time is horrendous.
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
Iron Fist said:
What about when people do this in the workpace, there should be a law to stop that as well.

This has happend to me and a lot of the time there only one couse of action to resign.

That mean the bully has won but at least you do not feel like you don't want to got to work in the morning.

There is as this nasty person found out,

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6805567.ece

Also the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 which has civil remedies as well as criminal sanctions. So you can sue some one for damages or more likely to obtain a restraining or exclusion order to stop harassing you causing you alarm or distress, but some one who does so must do so on two or more occasions or whose behaviour constitutes continual harassment. Originally it was brought in to deal with stalkers and silent phone callers - heavy breathers and all that sort of nasty stuff who would eventually hang up.

It can make one desperately miserable. But if you think about it a bully is pretty stupid to use a computer to send bullying messages as all computer records can be retrieved. There comes a point where you have to decide whether you put up with the situation or you make a stand. You could go long term sick but then the employer may just manage you out of their business on capability grounds. A difficult one. You need to collect as much evidence as you can. Print off incriminating emails and keep a diary. Try and sound out colleagues, but these can be notoriously unreliable when push comes to shove fearing consequences for them selves. Maybe your GP is understanding and can buy you some time with a Stress at work sick note. You could then commence a grievance procedure against the individual bullying you supplying evidence you have collected and recorded. Management would be pretty stupid or short sighted not to investigate your complaint properly. Whilst you are off the perpetrator may be moved, suspended or if serious fired or hand in their notice. Which means you may well get to keep your job. You might also find colleagues have noticed how you are treated or have experienced similar treatment to you but have been too frightened to speak up until now.

Damages for employees forced out of a job due to bullying can be substantial not to mention a claim for personal injury if an employee suffers a nervous breakdown which is not pretty and may lead to severe depression. So an employer who takes the issue lightly does so at their peril.
 

Noodley

Guest
"Proof" is the main issue. And it is very difficult to gather this without appearing to be 'evidence gathering' rather than wishing to seek remedy.

As I said earlier it has taken me over 2 years to gather evidence, and still the bully is in situ...there is a meeting this week, but the 'vibe' from senior management is the bully needs 'help'. No, they need to get sacked...:angry:
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
Noodley said:
"Proof" is the main issue. And it is very difficult to gather this without appearing to be 'evidence gathering' rather than wishing to seek remedy.

As I said earlier it has taken me over 2 years to gather evidence, and still the bully is in situ...there is a meeting this week, but the 'vibe' from senior management is the bully needs 'help'. No, they need to get sacked...:angry:

Well until one of his or her victims makes an allegation of bullying then management will take a softly softly liberal view such as "the bully needs help" rubbish. Once an allegation is made and it looks like getting ugly or messy then senior management will pull their fingers out as they will be looking for the least expensive least messy solution. Being sued for breaching their duty of care to an employee or sued for constructive dismissal can be expensive. If they can see that the evidence is half credible and that getting rid of a bully is the best and cheapest option they will. They might even look to see if they can find any further evidence to help them get rid of the bully, least the bully then tries to sue them, as they generally do, as they are so misunderstood and everyone has got it wrong about them. They are like that because they were beaten and abused as a kid :angry:.
 
Bullies are, by their nature, stupid.

Bullying by email is particularly ****witted, as the evidence is there!! Keep copies, print them off, and present them to HR as evidence then they won't have a choice but to act.

Citizens advice also useful in situations like this.
 

Jim

Senior Member
Yellow Fang said:
I'm always surprised to hear about this sort of thing at the workplace too. It never happened to me in 18 years as a computer programmer. All my bosses were fine and any sort of bullying would not have been acceptable.

www.workrant.com
 
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