What is workplace bullying?
Bullying may involve arguments and rudeness but it can also be more subtle including ignoring people and their contribution, unacceptable criticisms and overloading people with work.
What effect does it have?
Bullying can make working life very unhappy and lead to depression. You may get ill and find it hard to motivate yourself to work.
Sometimes a person’s strengths in the workplace can make the bully feel threatened, and that triggers the bullying behaviour.
What can I do?
Talk to someone, don’t be ashamed to tell people what’s going on. Letting people know what’s happening means they can help you. Through sharing your experiences you may discover that it is happening to other people too.
Get advice
Speak to someone about how you might deal with the problem informally.
This person could be:
- an employee representative, such as a trade union official
- someone at your work in the human resource section
- your manager or supervisor