Taking the bully by the horns
Bullying is nothing new. There’s no legal definition so forms of words vary, but it means a tendency of individuals or groups to use inappropriate, aggressive or unreasonable language or behaviour against a colleague or subordinate.
With increasingly sophisticated technology, bullies now have additional options. Roughly one-in-seven (or 14%) of young people say that they have been threatened or harassed by mobile phone, either by someone they know or anonymously. The type of bullying can be anything from name calling or text messages threatening violence, through to images or video clips intended to frighten or intimidate. It’s scary and unpleasant stuff. Since we all have greater technology at our finger tips (unless we have the iPhone 4, whose “death grip” problems are being urgently discussed by Apple today), we need to make sure that our policies for dealing with bullying or other inappropriate behaviour are up-to-date, communicated and actively managed. It’s also helpful to arrange some employment law training, clearly setting out the law and individual responsibilities.
It’s sometimes difficult to know if an action is bullying or simply ill-judged. Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou recently took legal action against Ryanair after Ryanair ran “Pinocchio” adverts in the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian in January and February. The adverts referred to Sir Stelios as “easyJet’s - Mr Late Again” and called on him to “stop hiding the truth” about easyJet’s on-time performance.
The libel suit has now been settled out of court, with Sir Stelios accepting £50,100 in damages, which he will donate to his philanthropic foundation. Ryanair chief, Michael O’Leary, has apologised “unreservedly” to Sir Stelios. Ryanair has said it will not publish the adverts again and ran full page apologies in both newspapers. Sir Stelios dedicated the victory to all those “who have suffered verbal abuse at the hands of O’Leary”.
Michael O’Leary is a challenging individual, as often in the news as out of it and, on this occasion, he has been forced to accept that his behaviour was, at the very least, inappropriate. In the workplace, there may be a number of signals to indicate that something’s not right:
· Low morale and a lack of motivation can indicate that employees are unhappy.
· Poor performance is often connected to bullying. Victims may demonstrate either a steady decline or a sudden drop in the quality of their work.
· Teams with a bullying leader often have high levels of absence or a high turnover of staff. This is because bullying is traumatic and victims can experience high levels of stress.
· Employees led by an unchallenged bully learn that such behaviour is acceptable in the organisation.
The trick of course, is to protect people before the situation gets this far. If you want to introduce a policy to address the issue of bullying and harassment in the workplace, give us a call. Russell HR Consulting provides expert knowledge in the practical application of employment law as well as providing employment law training and HR support services. For more information, visit our website at http://www.russellhrconsulting.co.uk/ or call a member of the team on 0845 644 8955.
Russell HR Consulting offers HR services to businesses nationwide, including Buckinghamshire (covering Aylesbury, High Wycombe, Milton Keynes, Bedford, Banbury, Northampton, Towcester and surrounding areas), Nottinghamshire (covering Chesterfield, Mansfield, Nottingham, Sheffield, Worksop and surrounding areas) and Hampshire (covering Aldershot, Basingstoke, Reading, Farnborough, Fareham, Portsmouth, Southampton and surrounding areas).