Intimidated employees less likely to contribute extra
By Wendy Mclellan
The Province
March 16, 2008
Most of us understand that making inappropriate sexual advances to employees or displaying calendars with pornographic photos are no longer tolerated in the workplace, and may be grounds for sexual harassment charges.
But what is it when you're snubbed at department lunches? Or your job duties change without warning or explanation? Or your manager constantly criticizes your performance?
Sexual harassment has become unacceptable in the workplace but disrespectful behaviour and bullying are still overlooked and even considered part of working life.
It may be time for a change.
Workplace incivility and bullying are more damaging than sexual harassment on the job, according to a study by Canadian researchers released last week.
Workers who are harassed have lower job satisfaction, are more likely to quit their jobs and have less commitment to employers than those who are sexually harassed, according to the study.
"We just wanted to compare workplace bullying and sexual harassment because there is so much legal attention on sexual harassment," says Sandy Hershcovis, the study's lead author and an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba's Asper School of Business.
"We thought that because sexual harassment gets more attention the effects would be worse." Hershcovis and co-author Julian Barling, a professor at Queen's University's School of Business, were surprised to find the reverse. Bullied employees reported more job stress and higher levels of anger and anxiety than those who experienced sexual harassment.
Another recent U.S. study found that bullied workers are less likely to volunteer to help other employees or assist with company activities or committees or support changes in the workplace. They are also less likely to speak positively about their employer, which could affect recruitment efforts.
"Victims' attitudes, their psychological well-being and emotions have a higher negative reaction to bullying and aggression than to sexual harassment," Hershcovis says.
"Even the more minor forms of bullying, incivility, showed worse effects than the minor types of sexual harassment. I think employers might be surprised by this."
Incivility includes such things as rude or disrespectful comments, hostile looks and belittling remarks. The bullying scale rises to yelling and threatening but stops short of physical contact, she says. "Sexual harassment has received widespread legislative attention, but non-violent workplace aggression and incivility are not recognized," she says. "If we can define sexual harassment, we can define bullying and then do something about it, which would be great."
Two provinces have legislation dealing with workplace harassment. Quebec updated its Labour Standards Act in 2004 to define psychological harassment and make employers responsible for providing a harassment-free workplace.
Last year, Saskatchewan expanded the definition of harassment under its health and safety legislation to include personal harassment in the workplace.
In the U.S., 13 states have introduced legislation against workplace bullying but none has passed it into law, says Gary Namie, founder of the Bellingham-based Workplace Bullying Institute. Although bullying is recognized as detrimental to occupational health, there is little political or corporate interest in stopping it.
"The appeal for business has never been the moral argument," Namie says. "But they should look at the fiscal impact -- turnover, absenteeism, litigation, tarnished reputations. Bullying interferes with a company's mission."
Namie says employers should:
- Declare bullying unacceptable.
- Admit it happens.
- Develop an anti-bullying policy, or expand the existing harassment policy.
- Enforce the policy at all levels.
- Train all staff to recognize bullying and to understand the company's stance.
"It's absolutely parallel to the sexual harassment movement," Namie says. "It's going to take political courage to stop workplace bullying, but we should be intolerant of abuse.
"This is the last taboo, and it's growing increasingly unacceptable." More than a dozen years ago, the management at SkyTrain noticed increased media attention on workplace bullying and decided to act.
"We were anticipating legislation -- we thought it was coming and thought we'd get ahead of the curve," says Mike Richard, vice-president of operations and vehicle maintenance for the Lower Mainland's rapid transit system.
"I guess I'm surprised there's no legislation yet but it has allowed us to mature at our own pace." The company and its union worked together to develop the Respectful Workplace Program, which defines disrespectful behaviour, harassment and bullying and sets out steps to resolve problems. The company also set up a 24-hour confidential phone line so its more than 550 workers can report issues, ask questions and discuss their options. Every new employee receives training on the policies. The program costs about $50 per employee per year and SkyTrain has fielded calls from companies looking at its anti-bullying policies as a model.
"We didn't do it because we had problems, we did it because we though we'd have to develop a policy and training program to comply with legislation," Richard says.
"Do we have issues? Sure. But so far, they've all be handled at the employee-to-employee level and none has gone to formal legal proceedings. And nobody leaves the company -- it's an incredible workforce."
wmclellan@png.canwest.com Bullies at work
Workplace bullying includes obvious acts of aggression but may encompass subtler actions such as:
- Spreading malicious rumours or gossip that is not true.
- Excluding or isolating someone socially.
- Undermining or deliberately impeding a person's work.
- Removing areas of responsibility without cause.
- WitRating 2 olding necessary information or purposefully giving the wrong information.
- Intruding on a person's privacy by pestering, stalking or spying.
- Belittling a person's opinions.
-- from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
For more information on workplace bullying:
www.nobullyforme.ca
www.bullyinginstitute.org
© The Vancouver Province 2008
