Companies Wake Up To the Problem of Bullies At Work (wsj.com)

Reader cdreimer writes: According to a report in The Wall Street Journal (possibly paywalled), two-thirds of Americans have reported being bullied in the workplace in the last year (up from half in 1989) and boorish behavior by bosses and coworkers are causing companies in lost productivity. The report reads: One of the first things visitors notice when they enter the Irvine, Calif., offices of Bryan Cave LLP is the granite plaque etched with the law firm's 10-point code of civility. The gray slab, displayed in the law firm's reception area, proclaims that employees always say please and thank you, welcome feedback and acknowledge the contributions of others. Such rules may seem more at home in a kindergarten than a law firm, but Stuart Price, a longtime partner, says they serve as a daily reminder to keep things civil at work. Incivility -- and its more extreme cousin, bullying -- is becoming a bigger problem in workplaces. Nearly two-thirds of Americans reported that they were bullied at work last year, up from roughly half of workers in 1998, according to research conducted by Christine Porath, a management professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. These people reported they were "treated rudely at least once a month" by bosses or co-workers in the past year -- which Prof. Porath defined as being bullied.Bullying costs companies in ways large and small, cutting into productivity and turning off customers, management experts say. Workplace behavior is under the microscope after recent allegations of sexual harassment in Hollywood, technology and media. Some companies have found, as a result of investigations into harassment claims, that bullying and boorish behavior are more common than suspected.

Comments

Bullying doesn't mean what it once used to mean.

[DatbeDank]

Back when I was in school, bullying was what an older kid did to the small nerdy ones like myself until I got some balls and went down on the ground. Bully never tried to mess with me again.

Nowadays, it sounds like bullying is someone getting mad at you for whatever reason. If you're underperforming at work, not showing up on time, delaying delivery of products, and/or costing the firm money you shouldn't be surprised if someone gets angry at you and tells your lazy ass to do work.

To be blunt, most of the "bullying" that my HR department deals with at work is really just catty female behavior. We've occasionally had to move them around the office to avoid this.

In reality, I just wanted to fire them both for arriving late and being slow to deliver on projects. Women are their own worst enemies.

Cheers

[argStyopa]

Or we could just "man up" (yes, sexist term, that) and get the fuck over it?

If you don't like your work environment complain. If you feel complaining will hurt your career there, you have two choices: risk it, or leave.

Your hurt feelings really aren't meaningful to anyone but you. And they aren't meaningful to you unless you let them be.