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Bullying is this week’s hot work-related news topic. Who did it, who didn’t do it, and what was said by who to whom. But bullying at work is not just some political football to be thrown onto the field during phantom election campaigns; it is the one of most serious workplace issues we confront as a society, up there with stress as the main reasons why people absent themselves from work.

Bullying can take many forms, from verbal abuse to sexual intimidation to physical violence. And for most people the big question is what to do if they ar being bullied.

First and foremost, do not suffer in silence. Find someone to talk to about it. Your employer has a legal duty to prevent bullying- not much use of course if your employer is the bully, but otherwise a complaint to them is certainly in order. But find a friend as well, you need to feel cared for, not just that you are going through a formal complaints procedure.

The old school adage of standing up to a bully is not so effective in the workplace, where hierarchies may mean that confronting your victimiser might actually worsen your position. But this doesn’t mean that you should not speak to the bully about their behaviour; most bullies have been victims of abuse themselves and may not even know that they are behaving in an unacceptable way.

Support is also available from trade unions, counsellors, ACAS and the Citizens Advice Bureau. The internet is full of excellent resources on how to deal with bullying at work. Let’s just hope that the news story drops out of the headlines and bullying resumes its place a social evil that needs to be counteracted.

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Tags: Abuse, Bullying, Harrassment

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 7:08 am and is filed under Workplace Dilemmas . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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